In 2009, as part of our Youth & Safety Campaign, GBIO's team of leaders at Roxbury Presbyterian Church (RPC) launched a conversational campaign to better understand key problems in the Roxbury neighborhood. We met with parishioners, service providers, teachers and principals of local schools, and knocked on nearly 600 doors in Roxbury. Through the campaign, we learned that the lack of parental engagement and professionalism in schools were key factors in the lack of long-term success among youth from the neighborhood.

Acting upon this important grassroots research, RPC's GBIO team approached the principals of Dearborn Middle School and the Higginson-Lewis K-8 School in Roxbury with the idea of having a GBIO organizer work with the students, parents, teachers, administrators and community members of the school to tackle the problems of parental engagement and professionalism. Both principals enthusiastically embraced the idea, and GBIO organizers began working at the schools as part of our School Organizing Campaign in late March 2009.  

The goal of this organizing campaign is to build strong student, parent, teacher, and community member teams that work in partnership with the school district and the city to improve these two schools (and others as supportive principals are identified).  These teams will identify actionable issues ranging from improving safety in the schools, to improving teacher-parent communication, to enabling parents and teachers to be better prepared to help their children and students succeed in school.

Read about and witness the incredible success we have had at the Dearborn on its Academic Turnaround and Building Renovation Campaign and the Higginson-Lewis on its Safety Campaign below.