Nonprofit City Forward Collective is Awarding Grants to Milwaukee Schools to Help with the 2020-2021 School Year
Milwaukee schools are one of the many organizations to be affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Schools had to reorganize their entire system to switch to online classes for their students. This shift was not expected, which is why it wasn’t included in most schools’ budgets. To help Milwaukee schools be able to open back up, or continue their online teaching, education nonprofit City Forward Collective has created the COVID-19 School Support Fund.
Milwaukee schools had to get creative when it came to getting resources and knowledge to their students. (Picture provided by City Forward Collective)
Within just a few weeks, the fund has raised $750,000 that will be allocated to different schools around Milwaukee. The fund will have three rounds of grants and they’re currently in their first round, which is planning and will award $10,000-$30,000 to 10-15 schools.
The first round has the goal of accomplishing two things: to decrease student learning loss caused by COVID-19 and to make sure every school is ready to launch this Fall with a plan they can maintain no matter what happens in the future.
All schools are encouraged and welcomed to apply, whether they’re public, private, or anywhere in between.
According to a new release, later this summer, City Forward Collective will be accepting proposals from schools and school support organizations that are looking to expand their remote instruction that they’ve implemented in Spring 2020.
Along with providing funds, City Forward Collective’s focus is to bring together leaders and teachers to spread knowledge and share ideas on how to effectively and efficiently teach our students moving forward.
“There’s a lot of changes that go into planning and reopening for the Fall. People are working together to come up with plans and practices,” said City Forward Collective Executive Director Patricia Hoben.
Virtual learning may be the new normal for teaching. (Picture provided by City Forward Collective)
“You should be able to know [schools] have a plan in place,” Hoben said to the parents for when it comes to re-enrolling their kids back in school.
“When schools closed this spring, students and families endured chaos and disrupted learning. Even now, many schools still aren’t providing students access to new academic content – only review and remediation,” Hoben said in a news release.
City Forward Collective and their many partners are figuring out how to take the COVID-19 crisis and turn it into change. Things probably won’t ever go back to normal, which could be a good thing because, according to Hoben, students have never been served as well as people have wanted them to.
The deadline for schools to apply for this round of grants is June 10, 2020.