Greetings!
Education is a main focus area at United Way and one of the many collaborations United Way partners with is BOOST Alliance Project. As a special for this month's e-newsletter, Christi Arrington, Executive Director of Girl's Place and a member of the BOOST Leadership Team wrote a special piece on behalf of BOOST Alliance Project:
"BOOST (
B
etter
O
ut
O
f
S
chool
T
ime) Alliance Project was born on the steps of City Hall during the spring of 2018. The City of Gainesville initially brought the community together for a Youth Summit to help identify the youth programs in the city, the challenges they face, and the areas of the city that lacked resources for children. From that Summit, a handful of youth service providers committed to be better together for all of our youth through BOOST.
"BOOST builds the capacity of youth and youth-serving organizations, individual out-of-school-time staff and the field as a whole through advocacy, providing a central hub of resources, and providing training and education. In the nearly two years since that initial conversation, BOOST has created a leadership team that has guided our members into a partnership with United Way of North Central Florida as a fiscal agent, secured financial support from the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Board of County Commissioners, and participated in research with the Youth Development Research Practice Partnership (YDRPP).
"With the findings of the YDRPP, BOOST is currently advocating for out-of-school funding with the Children's Trust of Alachua County, building relationships with the City of Gainesville and Alachua County Schools, creating resources for our community through a spring conference and working together to make the biggest impact on our local youth.
If you are interested in learning more and getting involved with BOOST, please attend our meetings, which are held every third Thursday of the month at 9 a.m. at CareerSource.
