Community Engagement and Opportunity Council (CEOC)

Ceoc's first taste of improving childhood literacy came from a partnership with bridgebuilders, where the organization renovated the existing literacy lab to create a safe and inspiring space for kids to read after school. Upon seeing the marked improvement in literacy, Ceoc decided to build a scalable, faith-based learning program aimed at serving our nation's most vulnerable youth. In february 2023, we opened doors to our 1st learning lab at new life Community church (little elm) for kindergarten - 5th grade students. This program is designed to develop, enhance, and sustain the five foundational reading skills: phonemic awareness ~ phonics ~ fluency ~ vocabulary ~ reading comprehension.

Ceoc partnered with one of dfw's most influential churches to impact the underserved communities surrounding prestonwood baptist church's plano campus in september 2023, opening the doors to our 2nd learning lab. This allowed us to provide a supplemental reading program that not only improves literacy but boosts the confidence of the children yet again. This is critical for us because: - 70% of low-income 4th grade students cannot read at grade level (the national literacy institute) - 130 million adults in the us are illiterate (the national literacy institute) - school dropouts cost 240 billion each year in social service expenditures and lost tax revenue (the national literacy institute) with the opening of both labs, we were able to make a generation impact by providing more than 180 supplemental hours of reading to over 30 children in 2023. Future initiatives our goal is to open 2-3 labs over the next 12 to 18 months. This will allow us to serve 60 students per session throughout our program in various strategic areas in dfw.

-bonton "i got your back" block party: Ceoc, in partnership with bridgebuilders, equipped more than 400 south dallas students and their families with supplies and resources for the 2023-24 school year -south dallas driving academy (sdda): supported sdda's efforts to graduate 95% of its participants, including 31 students who received drivers' licenses -mercy street: Ceoc donated 30 microsoft laptop surfaces to mercy street's leadership institute, which provides high school and college students in west and south dallas internship opportunities focused on preparing them for life after graduation.