WHO WE ARE

The Connect2Educate (C2E) Collaborative
The Connect2Educate (C2E) Collaborative evolved from community conversations regarding our collective responsibility to help improve public schools. Those conversations sparked a group of resolution-driven organizations coalescing around the community’s role in advancing and enriching public schools. The resulting partnership is an alliance of diverse organizations including Greater New Orleans Afterschool Partnership (GNO AP), Communities In Schools (CIS), Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH), Save Our Schools – New Orleans (SOSNOLA), Start the Adventure in Reading (STAIR), and over 100 community resource providers, that have come together to help overcome the inequitable public school utilization of community programs as well as the inefficiencies that exist in connecting community resource providers and public school decision-makers. The C2E Collaborative is a strong example of how atypical allies can work in true collaboration toward mutually common goals.

OUR INITIATIVES

1. The Connect2Educate (C2E) Event: “A Community Resources & Public School Mixer”
   In March, the C2E Collaborative hosted a remarkably distinct event for public schools city-wide at the UNO Lindy Boggs International Conference Center. The “C2E Event” was a one of a kind networking event created to build effective, substantive partnerships while eliminating barriers between local community resource providers and public school administrators, charter board members, faculty and staff. The “C2E Event” brought over 40 local community organizations together to ensure school leaders received one-to-one personal contact and essential information necessary to gain a better, deeper understanding of these resources to improve public school programming.
   
   
2. The Connect2Educate (C2E) Notebook: “A Public School’s Guide to Community Resources”
   The C2E Collaborative, along with over 100 Community Partners, has released the “C2E Notebook” so as to arm local public schools with the information needed to gain better community support and ensure all public school students in New Orleans are well served and offered an enhanced, well-rounded educational experience that improves quality of life for them, their families and our neighborhoods. The C2E Notebook offers a comprehensive snapshot of most locally available high quality community resource programs available for public schools. The snapshot is a One (1) Page Profile Summary containing information necessary for public school members to determine if the program will serve their needs. The programs are diverse and represent all the following categories: Academic, Arts, Community Service/Service Learning, Computer Skills/Technology, ESL/Foreign Language, Ethnic/Cultural, Family Activities, Health/Nutrition, Homework Assistance, Job Skills/ Career Counseling, Mentoring, Sports/Recreation, Religion, Tutoring, Youth Development/Life Skills.