School Partnership
Regularly falling below the national average in spending-per-pupil, the state of California continues to fail to deliver adequate funding for its public school system, particularly in recent recessionary periods. In addition, federal mandates like No Child Left Behind have had a narrowing effect on the children’s overall educational experience, making the role of partnership of school and community-based organizations, including congregations, increasingly important.
GUM serves to build bridges between local congregations and public schools by establishing relationships, facilitating meetings, and developing opportunities for churches to partner with school principals and staff to serve the needs of their students. For example, congregation members work directly with teachers, through the GEMS tutoring program, to ascertain specific needs and challenges of particular students. Also, congregations provide school-wide dental screening and hygiene education.
From our latest newsletter…
“Connecting with God’s good creation, abundance, and loving provision through gardening brings wonder and joy…A team of us recently had the opportunity to participate in a health and nutrition fair at Sanchez School. The most frequent question was how we…start raised-bed gardens. This got us thinking more about gardening as a way for us to connect with, and serve, our community…”