Education Foundation of Collier County

The Connect Now Steering Committee’s primary responsibility was to oversee a process that listened to and elicited a clear Statement from the community – a larger collective voice articulating shared goals for the community and its schools. The hope was that the process, if carried out successfully, would produce a statement which the hundreds of conversation participants from all over the county would take ownership. That has happened.

The natural result of the process is that those who participated now feel more involved and committed to seeing improvement and changes in the schools and the community. The Education Foundation of Collier County and all who have been involved are determined to do all that they can to ensure that this initiative leads to new activities, new strategies, more people involved, and, most importantly, schools and the community working together in new ways.

Other indicators of success include:

· The School Board, and other leaders in the county, will seize the opportunity that the initiative provides for leadership and decision-making within the context of the collective community voice to support education;

· The school system, community organizations, local government and individuals will use the Connect Now Statement as a springboard for work all around the county increasing community input to, involvement in and support for the schools;

· The Statement will become a platform to promote collaborative leadership countywide;

· Many local charities and service organizations will learn from and use the Connect Now process and Statement.

· All Collier residents will be inspired to look for new ways to be involved with their neighbors to work to support young people, families and schools to ensure success.

The overriding goal is that the Connect Now initiative helps the School Board, administration and the community at large to share a vision that will ultimately result in better schools and better outcomes for all students and the community.

The School Board and District leadership has been very responsive to Connect Now and made a decision to align their strategic planning with the Community Statement. They formalized that commitment in a unanimous resolution on April 16, 2009. The District is, to-date, working on integrating the Connect Now process into their strategic planning process with the goal of a strategic plan approved by Spring 2010.