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This is your opportunity to connect with the National Campaign for Grade-Level Reading to learn best practices and work strategically, yet efficiently, to ensure your GLR campaign is maintaining a successful presence in Iowa communities. Led by Hedy Chang, Director of Attendance Works, the April 10th workshop is designed to:• Establish a healthy and safe

environment for peer learning;• Make sure all participants understand

what chronic absence is and why it matters/cover the latest research and what it says about the impact of chronic absence;

• Assess where each district/community

is in attendance practices (self-assessments are scheduled to be completed beforehand);

• Identify effective practices from communities across the country, including from Iowa;

• End with homework that sets each community up for the start of the 2015-16 school year and provides clear actionable data to schools.

Members of the ICoF Funder Coalition will have two break-out sessions of our own that day, featuring Campaign staff members Lauren Maddox and Susanne Sparks. Lauren will help us strategize best practices/next steps for our unique funder coalition. Susanne will lead us through

various communication tools available to our network. You’ll also have time to share success stories and updates on what’s happening in your local communities. If you have questions, please contact the ICoF office at 515.989.1188. JOIN US!

M A R C H 2 0 1 5

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

APRIL 3 NATIONAL SUMMER LEARNING DAY WEBINAR, 12:00 - 1:00 PM CDT Click here for more info & to register

APRIL 10 TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE WORKSHOP featuring Hedy Chang from ATTENDANCE WORKS, Stoney Creek Inn, Johnston, IA, 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM Click here to register

APRIL 12-18 NATIONAL VOLUNTEER WEEK. Honor your community’s GLR volunteers through the Huddle by April 6th here

APRIL 23-24 NATIONAL GLR CAMPAIGN’S FUNDER-TO-FUNDER HUDDLE, San Francisco, CA Click here to register!

A parent (and her daughter) participate in Grinnell’s Action Planning Meeting Feb. 19.

Don’t Miss ATTENDANCE WORKS IN IOWA APRIL 10th

CONGRATULATIONS to Ames, Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Dubuque, Marshalltown and the Quad Cities for being named 2014 GLR Campaign Pacesetters! Read more about each of the 30 Pacesetter communities on the Campaign’s website here.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Tech Assistance WORKSHOPFRIDAY, APRIL 109:00 AM - 3:30 PMStoney Creek Inn

Today, in a country where more than one in 10 students miss nearly a month of school every year, improving student attendance is an essential, cost-effective but often overlooked strategy for ensuring our students are on track to learn and succeed.

- Attendance Works

Grinnell Dedicated parents were among the room of passionate stakeholders who share a concern for third-grade reading proficiency in Grinnell for an Action Planning Meeting on Feb. 19. The school district’s superintendent, administrators, and teachers attended the event, as well as interested area business representatives. The event was held as a first step to identify where the district stands in the critical areas of summer learning loss, chronic absence, school readiness, healthy readers, and parent engagement - and how they can address it moving forward. Through breakout discussions and collaborative brainstorming, priorities were discovered and next steps identified for development of the Community Action Solutions Plan (CSAP). Representing the ICoF GLR Funder Coalition were Grinnell College Office of Community Enhancement & Engagement, the Greater Poweshiek Community Foundation, and The Claude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation, the ICoF GLR Funder Coalition’s newest member.

Cedar Rapids The March 12 launch of “Reading into Success” hosted by the Cedar Rapids Community Foundation had over 100 people in attendance and was facilitated by Stacy Van Gorp of R.J. McElroy Trust. The event featured insights from Eric Dregne, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, as well as Becky Miles-Polka, Iowa’s GLR Campaign Lead. A number of leaders from nonprofit, philanthropy and civic sectors attended the event. Participants broke into groups around the topics of summer learning, every day reading, school attendance, hope and well-being, and school readiness. Discussions focused on what helps children to thrive in each of these areas and what is keeping them from thriving. The results of the discussions will be used to develop the CSAP. The ICoF and Pearson were sponsors for the event.

Cedar Valley Under the lead of partners Cedar Valley United Way and R.J. McElroy Trust, this GLR effort has 10 additional businesses and nonprofit organizations, as well as the Waterloo and Cedar Falls school districts, collaborating to address school readiness, school attendance & summer learning in an 18-month Grade-Level Reading pilot program. Read more here. Dubuque Stakeholders in Dyersville and Jackson County convened to learn more about the GLR Campaign and to discuss next steps to implement it in their respective communities. The groups both included community members representing the areas of education, nonprofits, business, childcare, government and more. Funder Coalition member, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, recently hired coordinators for both community efforts. Read more about the Campaign in all of Dubuque’s communities on their GLR website here.

FUNDER COALITION MEMBERS TO DATEClaude W. and Dolly Ahrens Foundation | Community Foundation of Marshall County | Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque | Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation | Greater Poweshiek Community Foundation | Grinnell College Office of Community Enhancement and Engagement | Iowa West Foundation | Martha-Ellen Tye Foundation | R.J. McElroy Trust

G L R C O M M U N I T Y U P D A T E S

Joe Crozier, Chief Administrator of the Grant Wood AEA, spoke at the launch of Cedar Rapids’ “Reading Into Success.”

A new University of Iowa study validates what mothers have been telling their kids for generations: “Eating breakfast helps kids learn.” click here for the full article

Funder Coalition Technical Assistance Grant Awarded for “READING INTO SUCCESS”Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation received a grant from the ICoF’s GLR Campaign Funder Coalition Technical Assistance Grant program. The funds were put to good use to support their community-wide action planning efforts to bring the GLR Campaign into the Cedar Rapids community with the launch of “Reading into Success.” The organization matched the grant to maximize the

success of the GLR Campaign in Cedar Rapids. ICoF members who have committed to actively participate in the Campaign are eligible to apply for a Technical Assistance grant for support in bringing the Campaign into your local community. The annual budget for the ICoF technical assistance pool is $10,000. Funds from this pool are awarded on a first come, first served basis. NOTE: The grant must be requested by and gifted to ICoF members only, and must be matched dollar for dollar. Questions? Contact Mary Mouw, Grant Coordinator.

KIDS NEED MORNING FUEL

We have a GLR Resource Library available for interested members in bringing the Campaign into their communities. While each community varies in many aspects, we want to maximize our resources available to help you with a successful campaign - no matter what size or type of community. As a Funder Coalition, it is our charge to help you run a collaborative, streamlined campaign with like-minded organizations and businesses in your community.

Please take some time to browse the varied materials that efficiently jump-started these communities to identify where their priorities lie in the push for reading proficiency among third-grade students. Their work is testimony to the power of collaboration!

Log on to ICoF’s Members Only section of the website for access to each GLR community’s materials/resources used in making the Campaign a success.

If you have materials you would like to share, please send them to Mary Mouw

*This is a work in progress. If we don’t have what you need, contact us!

If you have news, data or tips you’d like to share on your community’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading or strategic alignment efforts, please contact Mary Mouw.

co·a·li·tionCOALITION - definition: an alliance for combined action; a group of people, groups, or countries who have joined together for a common purpose.

In our work as a Funder Coalition, we make every effort to share our knowledge, combine our resources, and strategically collaborate for the success of a common goal: to increase reading proficiency among low-income third-graders across Iowa.

In our co-funding investigation work, it was determined that “working together will amplify the voice of philanthropy on education issues in Iowa as a result of this program [GLR Campaign].” It already has. The ICoF’s Funder Coalition and the efforts of our GLR communities are making a mark nationally. Please make every attempt to get your team to the Technical Assistance Day on April 10th to learn how we can further strengthen our coalition and the work we do as a statewide entity.

How else can you help? Become a member of the GLR Huddle. Join our Iowa group and help us to help each other, as well as other communities across the nation in their GLR Campaign work. On Technical Assistance Day, we’ll work together to strengthen our online presence through the Huddle and learn how we can efficiently become stronger as a group while maintaining our everyday work and lives outside of the Campaign.

Tweet Tweet...we’re on Twitter! -- @GlrIaAre you there yet? Follow us on Twitter for the latest and greatest in educational tools, resources and news that will help keep our statewide organization streamlined and in the know. And you’re the experts in your communities...give us your handle and we’ll make sure your good work is shared with the masses!

“Coming Together is a Beginning. Keeping Together is Progress. Working Together is Success.”

- Anonymous

GLR CAMPAIGN RESOURCE LIBRARY

AVAILABLE!

G L R CAMPAIGN I O W A