Certified: Grinnell Education Partnership
Overview
The Grinnell Education Partnership consists of three pillars supporting youth educational programs in Grinnell, Iowa. Grinnell College provides the primary infrastructure, while the Greater Poweshiek Community Foundation supplies and secures funding through its various networks. Rounding off the support team includes the ever-important community organizations which provide host sites, funding, guidance, technical assistance, taskforce members and more resources.
The Grinnell Education Partnership (GEP) utilizes the national Campaign for Grade Level Reading theory of change. This research-based framework is aimed at early childhood support in areas such as summer learning, attendance, school readiness, healthy readers, and digital access. With support in these areas, 3rd grade reading levels improve, leading to increased high-school graduation, ultimately helping to interrupt the cycle of inter-generational poverty. Two organizations, Grinnell College and the Greater Poweshiek Community Foundation, provide “backbone” support for a network of 20+ community organizations who bring their respective knowledge, resources, skill, credibility, influence, and access to the table. Supported by the additional human and financial capacity provided by the backbone infrastructure, partner organizations convene around GEP focus areas in formal or ad-hoc taskforce groups to pilot or improve programming to meet strategic goals (summer learning, etc.).
GEP signed on to NNSI's High-Impact Networks Campaign to maintain their current practices and gain access to a variety of new curated resources to utilize in their existing operations. By focusing on their theory of change, network design, sustainability plan, and use of data, GEP has achieved High-Impact Certification.
