Opportunities for School Engagement There are a number of ways that you and/or your organization can become engaged in supporting the Graduation Pathway goal of increasing graduation rates to 90% by 2019... Support for Parental Involvement    Create a family work environment that supports flex and release time for parents to attend school events or activities during the work day    Sponsor a parent event or activity by providing refreshments, incentives or door prizes to promote parent involvement    Provide financial support to provide recognition items for families that demonstrate active involvement in their child’s education; examples include gift certificates, basket recognizing parent of the month; perfect attendance celebrations  Connections to Careers Externship, internship and/or job shadowing opportunities for local middle and high school students     Guest speakers for career and financial awareness     Guest speakers from  health, legal, medical and financial professions Out of School Time Support for our elementary or middle school cluster feeder schools    Financial assistance to families to enroll in after school programs; cost varies based on program selected; choose from  before or after school, or summer programs… link on to http://host.mysdhc.org for tuition costs    Sponsorships for field trips in the summer for a “Hillsborough Out of School Time” (H.O.S.T.) program Sponsorship of  a specialty event  such as  “going green” project; “Mad Science” enrichment program;  service learning projects    Volunteers to tutor or provide homework assistance  at all grade levels Mentoring    Become a mentor to provide encouragement, enhance character development or increase exposure to  the “world at large” to a selected student Service Learning    Offer your business as a partner in providing students real life experiences  such as environmental awareness or recycling projects    Provide financial support to schools who offer service learning projects For more information or to connect with a school near you contact Elsa Tuggle, Director,  Federal Programs at   Elsa.Tuggle@sdhc.k12.fl.us _______________________________________________________________________ Thank you to our many partners who have helped to plan Graduation Pathway and are committed to its success: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay Boys and Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay Hillsborough Education Foundation Junior Achievement SERVE Tampa Bay Community & Family Development Corporation Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA _______________________________________________________________________ Toolkit Information (downloadable pdfs) Big brothers and Sisters of Tampa Bay Mentoring recruitment and training Other resource United Way's HandsOn Tampa Bay Action Center   For information on attending the Summit contact Betty Tribble at btribble@uwtb.org