☀️ Summer 2022 Update!

Summer 2022 Update

Greetings,

During Q2, the team has made tremendous progress toward several elements of our Cradle to Career Readiness outcome. We sponsored a job fair in partnership with the Pontiac Promise Zone and Washington Events and coordinated a youth enrichment fair with over 20 community partners. After those initiatives, we piloted a literacy house with Prospect Missionary Baptist Church, Center for Success, and Great Starts Collaborative and launched several education-focused programs for middle and high school students. Please read the program update on our blog for more detail.

As we move into Q3, we’re excited about several initiatives on deck. First, we will work with our leadership team and other community stakeholders to engage in a three-day workshop called Undoing Racism. The goal of this workshop is to explore, examine, discuss, and understand some of the underlying issues we have as a community rooted in systemic racism.

We will start the month of October engaging the community with Kirk in the Hills and the Pontiac Community Foundation at the fabulous Flagstar Strand Theater in downtown Pontiac with the 2nd Annual Mission Collaborators Conference. We are also gearing up for our Pontiac Alumni Spirit Week in partnership with the Pontiac Alumni Foundation, Greater Pontiac Community Coalition, and the Pontiac School District this October! In addition to some of the events we hosted and sponsored last year- alumni networking and community scavenger hunt-we’re expanding. So stay tuned for more updates.

I look forward to seeing you at one of our many upcoming events!

Dr. Samino Scott

Executive Director

PROGRAM UPDATE:

Cradle to

Career Readiness

This summer, we worked collaboratively with Oakland Community College and the Pontiac School District to bring a new program to Pontiac High School. Nineteen students enrolled in and completed OCC’s College Success Skills course and earned two college credits. This pilot program taught by OCC instructors was the first college class offered within the Pontiac School District, and we’re working on expanding this initiative in the future. This effort undergirds our goal to improve the Post-secondary readiness and enrollment of Pontiac students. Please see the video by clicking here for an overview of the program.

Lomas Brown Fondation: LEAP Camp

It’s not often that Pontiac youth have a chance to engage with NFL Superbowl champions. However, our partnership with the former Detroit Lion and Superbowl champion, Lomas Brown, and the Pontiac School District allowed students to engage with Lomas during his Learn, Earn and Play camp for six weeks. Students participated in sessions that taught nutrition, career exploration, financial literacy, and autonomous system droves. Please click here to view the video highlighting the camp.

Strategic Action Team Update

Our Thriving Neighborhoods and Cradle-to-Career strategic action teams have worked hard over the last four months to develop strategies around our outcomes, identify our baseline data, and highlight collaborative partnerships necessary to accomplish our goals. Their efforts and ongoing feedback from community members and stakeholders were instrumental in helping us refine our strategic plan. Therefore, to distill all the information gleaned and provide our leadership team an opportunity to review and validate our strategic direction, we have paused convening our strategic action teams meetings until Tuesday, September 6th at 10:30 am.

We are currently working with the Activest team to take the information gathered from those discussions to develop a comprehensive three – five-year strategic plan of action. Stay tuned for an update from the Activest team during our next leadership meeting on Friday, August 19th, at 10:00 am. Please note that the Activest team would like to hear from our leadership members as part of their process. So, if you missed the opportunity during our first session, I invite you to join us for the final input discussion led by Dr. Lomax Campbell on August 23rd at 3:00 pm.