Partnerships at CFSN
By: Heidi Miller, Senior Director of Learning
"Individually we are one drop, but together we are an ocean."
— Ryunosuke Satoro
At CFSN, we are proud to partner across the organization in a multitude of ways. Partnerships are an integral piece of CFSN programming and honor our values of community, connection, diversity, and growth through partnership. Each partner brings a unique opportunity for our organization. We value and celebrate our partners and know their expertise and programming provides depth and support to the CFSN Literacy Program.
CFSN Pontiac students practice crucial swimming skills at Goldfish during Summer Enrichment Programming.
Enrichment
We partner with community organizations across Detroit and Pontiac to provide wonderful enrichment for our students. The core of our programming is individualized literacy mentoring, but we strive to provide a multitude of experiences and opportunities for our students in addition to mentoring sessions, whether it is academic, technology, athletics, or life skills. One amazing partner over the last year has been Goldfish Swim School! During summer programming, our students are able to go to Goldfish each week. This provides a life experience and skillset, and our students are so excited for their weekly field trip and swim! Partners like Goldfish truly enrich the tailored and meaningful literacy programming students receive.
Volunteer Support
We partner with multiple organizations to provide volunteers for our organization. Volunteers may support in a variety of ways, including working with our elementary students in 1-1 literacy mentoring sessions. This year we have been proud to partner with Oakland University through their Master of Arts in Teaching in Elementary Education program. Through an early literacy course, teacher candidates are able to work 1-1 with CFSN elementary students to provide individualized literacy mentoring while integrating topics and concepts they learn in class. In return, our students have the opportunity to work with teaching candidates who are passionate about making a difference in the lives of children. This partnership ties together traditional education systems for higher education with CFSN’s Out of School Time programming to create a mutually beneficial relationship that enhances the community.
An OU MATEE student working with a CFSN Pontiac student at our Pontiac Hub.
Heidi Miller and Nickole Fox, the YDRC Coach for CFSN who supported us through the 23-24 Acting with Data Program through the Youth Development Resource Center.
Professional Peer Learning Community:
We value partnering in community spaces to learn, listen, share, and grow. CFSN’s engagement with professional peer learning communities makes a profound impact on team development, organizational growth, and the capacity to evolve our programs. We are proud to be connected with the Youth Development Resource Center for the last 7 years! We participate in their continuous learning cycles to internally and externally assess our program, then develop SMART goals to continuously improve the program. We are also proud to attend various professional development opportunities through YDRC, as well as serve on their steering committee. This supports CFSN in advancing evidence-based practices, adapting literacy programming to current learning climates, and diversifying educational equity perspectives.
We are grateful to partner with individuals, business, and community organizations to provide wrap around experiences and support for our families. We invite any individual or entity to become a part of the family at Center for Success Network! If you are interested in partnering, please reach out to info@center4success.org to learn more!