Durham Public Schools Foundation

Critical Response:Accelerating Digital Equity and Parent Digital Literacy - Through the Accelerating Digital Equity campaign, the DPS Foundation helps to accelerate our school districts shift to a new learning environment and catapult DPS to the next level of learning. DPS Foundation grants individual schools and partner organizations working with DPS students support for providing technical and digital literacy initiatives and other solutions addressing digital equity. The total awarded was $152,000 across the DPS community. COVID response - Effects of the pandemic lockdown on our public school community continue to linger. We established a crisis response fund and provided emergency funding for families and educators experiencing housing and food insecurity as well as other basic needs.WHOLE Schools Movement - In spring of 2022, we launched WHOLE Schools in partnership with Durham Public Schools and Duke Health to answer the big question: What does a model Durham Public School do to ensure all students and adults in the school community have the mental health resources they need to thrive? WHOLE Schools is specifically working with two demonstration schools to create these models. We hosted more than 80 people for a wellness fair and 50 students and educators for mental health retreats.Wellness rooms across DPS created a new model for the teacher breakroom. One school used an existing modularclassroom to be revamped into a space exclusively for school staff to recenter and rejuvenate themselves. This breakroom includes meeting space, comfy seating, massage chairs, fidget toys, sensory activities, and snacks. Three schools were outfitted with wellness rooms in FY23.The WHOLE Schools Fund is a grant specifically focused on mental health and wellness activities to impact our public schools. Each school year, these projects are centered around our foundation of Wellness, Healing, Opportunity, Learning, and Equity to build WHOLE Schools from concept to action. The total awarded was $113,000 across DPS. 35 DPS schools with 316 DPS community members were involved in the development and execution of grant projects, with a direct impact of 7,073 members of the DPS community.

Equity Through Innovation - Students, educators, families, and community leaders come together to create innovative, transformative learning environments that ensure all our students not only attend school together, but thrive together. We helped build power among parents-of-color and supported teachers and principals in centering equity in their schools.Community Schools Incubator - We deepened our commitment to the Bull City Community Schools Partnership an exciting research-based model that is transforming schools by engaging the entire community around supporting students' basic and educational needs. In FY23, DPSs three Community Schools conducted a comprehensive listening project with students, staff, and parents/caregivers. The schools are tailoring the FY24 school year around the priorities emphasized in this process, creating a more inclusive and supportive learning environment.Latinx Family Organizing - We aim to strengthen Latinx family engagement by creating opportunities for parents to convene and develop a network of support groups to advocate for their children's education. We accomplish this by providing DPS Latinx parents safe spaces to come together and organize as we support the whole family. Projects include Homework with Amigos, a program to support academic outcomes in collaboration with the Durham County Library and Duke Service Learning program; Alianza por la educacin (parent advocacy group), in which Latinx parent leaders work to support the transformation of our schools; and Sembrando Raices, a project in collaboration with the City of Durham and Durham County Cooperative Extension. Starting as a community garden for Latinx families located on the grounds of one of our Community Schools, Club Boulevard Elementary, Sembrando Raicess initial mission was to improve food security for working class Latinx families, a need that became increasingly important during the last few years. As the program has evolved, Sembrando Raices has become a safe, public space where 30+ Latinx working-class families convene every Friday after work to tend to the garden, harvest and share the food and most importantly, discuss and organize around the issues that are affecting their lives. Education advocacy is now at the forefront of the work. Our goal is to continue to support the project to increase its impact in the community.

Investing in Our People: Our students are empowered to drive meaningful changes that address challenges they identify in their schools. Great educators choose to work and stay in DPS because they feel valued as professionals and are provided meaningful support to grow and innovate. In 22/23 we launched our Workforce Development focus areas in support of career awareness and readiness. DPSF supports: a) 8th grader career awareness and exposure, b) proactively matching students and employers for opportunities to learn, collaborate, and prepare for the workforce, c) the DPS Career and Technical Education Business Advisory Council, d) developing the next generation of the Durham School of Technology and innovative high schools. College Scholarship Program - We completed our third scholarship cycle this year, awarding $65,500 in scholarships to 27 graduating DPS seniors. We continue to hone our online application process and outreach to schools where we have had fewer applicants. Scholarship applications received increased by 20% this year. We're currently in the process of hiring an intern to help give administrative support to the program. The intern will be a previous scholarship recipient. Teacher Leadership Academy - The DPSF TLA creates a pipeline of teacher leaders in DPS who develop an understanding of the role of the teacher in driving change in their school and community grounded in the history and current context of inequity in Durham and public schools that guides their work in advancing more equitable schools. The current cohort consists of 8 DPS teachers who teach in our elementary, middle, and high schools. Their experience in the classroom ranges from 7 years to 25 years, and they've worked over the past two years to use those experiences to better understand how social issues, public systems and goods, and students' backgrounds and customs all play a role in their education. These teacher leaders have completed over 50 hours of professional development on various topics, including engaging with Black parents as wisdom holders for their children, understanding policy changes and those directly impacting jobs, housing, and education, and implicit bias within their curriculum. These eight teachers are taking what they've learned and directly impacting over 300 DPS students. At the end of their time in the program, they worked on a project relevant to their school, curriculum, or interests, and you can find a brief description of them here. httpswwwcanvacomdesignDAFhxbxeEBE... Grants - The DPSF grants program aims to improve education quality, knowledge sharing, collaboration, sustainable impact, and equitable distribution of power and resources for DPS students, educators, staff, and families, especially for those most historically harmed by systemic oppression. The annual grants cycle comprises two different programs, Innovation Grants and the WHOLE Schools Fund. Available in the fall of each school year, Innovation Grants are open only to DPS students, teachers, staff, administrators, parents, and/or caregivers for projects that directly center and impact their school or school communities. Innovation Grants fund projects aimed at increasing equity, accessibility, resources, and opportunities within DPS schools. The total awarded was $75,000 across DPS. DPSF served as a fiscal sponsor for Lyons Farm Elementary, an organization facilitating donations and purchases for Lyons Farm Elementary School before the schools opening in Fall 2022. We provided a $50,000 sponsorship for World Relief to help DPS Students and Families from immigrant/refugee backgrounds during summer programming. These funds also helped recruit and train youth interns to serve as models for others and have employment over the summer. We also awarded $8,500 in summer camp scholarships.