The potential of school-community partnerships is well documented. So too, regrettably, is the low sustainability rate of the same. In this interactive session the presenters will share their work with O Grows, a partnership that has been engaging K-12 student and adult residents around local food needs in east central Alabama since 2012, to frame a discussion of how new partnerships can be sustained in any community. Of course, each community has its own needs; but every community has local capital and capacity that can be leveraged to access the potential of school and broader community needs in service of each other (Emery & Flora, 2006). Session participants will have the opportunity to discuss evidence-based principles and practices, contribute their own learning from working with school-community partnerships, and cooperatively brainstorm possibilities for leveraging assets in their own communities to increase student learning and address community needs through school-community partnerships.
Resources and takeaways that participants will get by attending the session: Participants in this session will leave with (1) an inclusive and evidence-based rationale for engaging K-12 student and adult residents in school-community partnerships, (2) experience-based advice from presenters and other participants on guiding principles and practices for school-community partnerships, (3) tools for mapping community assets, and (4) a file of materials detailing the structure and operation of O Grows.
Presenters:
Sean Forbes, O Grows-Founder & Executive Director
Sean Forbes is a Professor of Educational Psychology at Auburn University, where directs courses in educational psychology and mixed-method research design and has served as program coordinator. His scholarship integrates a research focus on activating biopsychosocial potential in the design, implementation, and assessment of community-based partnerships efforts that began with the evaluation of Auburn University’s first campus-wide service-learning initiative (Partners in Community Service) between 2000-2002, founding of O Grows in 2012, and culminating in the expansive community-university partnership that operates currently. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Florida.
Jessi Riel, O Grows-Program Director
Jessi Riel is an educational psychology doctoral candidate at Auburn University, where she serves as the Service-Learning Coordinator for undergraduate pre-service teacher courses. Prior, Jessi spent six years in Lake Village, AK (a rural community in the Arkansas Delta) working with community-school partnerships in various roles as a stakeholder, including elementary school teacher, high school soccer coach, founder of a youth soccer league found, and President of the Delta Consortium of Arts and innovation. Since, she has worked with O Grows in multiple capacities and currently directs daily operations. She received her B.A. in Elementary Education from Auburn University.
Tara Barr, O Grows-Community Advisory Board Member
Tara Barr is the Lee County Extension Coordinator with Alabama Cooperative Extension System. As the primary representative of ACES in the county she supervises the operation of the local office and serves on the advisory boards of several community organizations to build and sustain partnerships that address local needs. As an ACES educator she has also implemented innovative programming in the areas of sport & fitness, workforce development, environmental sustainability, and agri-tourism, among others. She received her B.S. in Nutrition/Dietetics and M.Ed. in Kinesiology from Auburn University.
For more information about O-Grows, please visit their social media pages on Instagram and FaceBook.