Connecting Communities | Consortium of Florida Education Foundations

Connecting
Communities

For more than 35 years, local foundations have been cooperative and apolitical in working together to advance student learning across many Florida school districts.

Building Connections to Strengthen Communities

Local education foundations are deeply rooted in their communities and directly connected to school district leaders. This gives the foundations genuine insight into the needs, resources and efforts currently underway in public schools.

 

Through strategic collaboration with local leaders, businesses, and donors, education foundations foster innovative programs and initiatives that directly benefit students and teachers. 

30%

Approximately 30% of local education foundations support teacher-focused programs.

Coast to Coast Impact Stories

Resiliency Through the Community

Nearly 20% of children today experience significant mental, emotional, or behavioral symptoms. 

 

The Florida Department of Education has adopted a proactive approach to fostering student resiliency skills in alignment with the state’s health education standards. They called on us and our network to help build “Resiliency Through the Community” and 50 local education foundations developed supportive initiatives in partnership with their school districts and community organizations.

Coast to Coast Impact Stories

Disaster Relief and Recovery

Managing disaster relief and recovery funding and support is not the core program work of education foundations. However, in recent years, many have stepped in to get teachers and students back to the business of teaching and learning, following the disruption of hurricanes. 

 

“When Hurricane Ian hit, it brought tremendous devastation to our community. While we never thought of ourselves as emergency responders, we are so grateful for the outpouring of generosity and support we were able to facilitate through the foundation to help our students, teachers, and families recover,” shared a Charlotte Local Education Foundation leader.

 

Through our culture of shared learning among peer education foundations, leaders facing hurricane disasters in their school districts and communities were able to learn from the Bay Education Foundation’s response to Hurricane Michael in 2018. This included everything from Uber rides for displaced teachers to replacing musical instruments in damaged schools.

Coast to Coast Impact Stories

Fostering Meaningful Connections to Make it All Happen

We believe in bringing together all stakeholders to find innovative solutions and form impactful partnerships to address pressing challenges facing our students, teachers, and schools.

 

We convene national, state, and local education stakeholders through “ConnectED” annually at our biggest conference of the year. Leading national voices on critical issues facing education such as teacher recruitment and retention, workforce development, and parent/caregiver engagement join with education foundations to learn and develop actionable strategies together.

My biggest takeaway from the 2023 ConnectED conference was the connection between the commerce, career and technical education programs, businesses and educators is highly valuable to enhance local communities.

- ConnectED participant

You Can Enrich Learning Experiences for Students

Let us help you make the connection for meaningful impact for every dollar through our network of local education foundations.