Advocacy From the Ground Up

The history of education in the United States abounds with double themes and purposes for education: schooling for democratic citizenship and schooling for second-class citizenship. Although African Americans encountered significant legal barriers and threats of death while trying to obtain an education, their yearning for knowledge and opportunities served as a catalyst for education advocacy in their communities. In spite of various obstacles, researchers posit that African Americans erupted from slavery with a philosophy of education and perseverance that served as a precursor to the establishment of advocacy in education that would serve their needs and provide hope for a better education system. As a result, African Americans erupted from slavery with a philosophy of education and perseverance that served as a precursor to the establishment of universal schooling that would serve their needs and provide hope for a better life.

Impact of Dynamic Community Partnerships on STEM Education of Students of Color

The Science Bound Model is an effective school-community partnership preparing precollege students of color to pursue college degrees and careers in STEM fields via a four-way partnership among school administrators and teachers, STEM corporations, students and families of color, and a land-grant university. For nearly 30 years, this partnership has been effective in bringing together the skill sets, resources, expertise, and opportunities necessary to support students' preparation for college and pursuit of technical degrees. The four-way partnership annually provides more than 400 students an average of 100 hours of out-of-school STEM learning experiences and mentorship by 50 teachers and 150 STEM professionals. Used in a rural community, a small city, and an urban community, the model establishes and maintains dynamic partnerships within and across partner groups. Five key factors that guide the four-way Science Bound partnership and a case example of how the model works are presented.

Fraternal Organizations and Mentoring

The involvement of African American males in the community and in school-based service-learning programs has been an ongoing conversation not only within the African American community but in academia. Often, when we hear of African American males, it is encumbered with negative images and negative associations versus positive ones. The primary push for this case study is to examine the critical nature of mentoring for African American male use within school-based mentoring and community-based mentoring through Black Greek-Letter fraternity. The following case study will examine the mentoring and support initiatives of three fraternities within the Divine Nine Greek-Letter organizations and their specific strategies for engaging youth and developing leadership.

Streamlined Partnership Development

Family engagement in the education of young children with disabilities is complex and can be overwhelming, especially for those from marginalized backgrounds. Subsequently, voices of families of color from low socioeconomic status are frequently silenced. Two issues that often affect this silencing are cultural differences and conflicting educational views. While we know the importance of establishing multi-disciplinary teams that support and encourage engagement of families from marginalized backgrounds, this seldom occurs. The present case study demonstrates how utilizing a partnership development process supported successful engagement in the multi-disciplinary team approach for the Blakemores, a family of color from a low socioeconomic background.

Social and Strategic Partnership in Marketing Contexts

Social and strategic marketing seeks to develop systematic marketing concepts with several approaches to influence behaviours that benefit individuals and society for the greater social good. Social marketing practice is guided by ethical issues. It seeks to integrate approach, best practice, theory, audience, and partnership insight to inform the delivery of competition-sensitive and segmented social change programmes that are effective, efficient, equitable, and sustainable. This case study concerns help2kids as a young and dynamic non-profit organization operating in Africa. The case study consists of reflection and discussion of the several practices, marketing strategies, social entrepreneurship topics, and multiple projects inherent to help2kids. Help2kids strives to allow children the pursuit of a better and more sustainable future. The authors intend to present different social marketing campaigns to promote behavioural change for the benefit of society and the strategies that have been followed to achieve the desired idea or behaviour.

Sports and Mentoring

The involvement of young African American males in community and school-based athletics has been an ongoing conversation not only within the African American community but in the sports community at large. Often when we hear of African American males within athletics; be it collegiate or professional, it is often couched or enveloped in a negative connotation of some sort. But the primary impetus for this case study is to look at the importance of mentoring for African American male youth within community and school-based sports and how this is seen as a lifeline for community service and life lessons. This case study examines one leader's strategic approach to closing the achievement gap and providing mentoring with African American males through the sports-leadership nonprofit organization he manages.

Strategic Partnership for Family Leadership

This chapter shares the organization background, theoretical frameworks, the case example of an Education CAFE model, challenges, and recommendations by the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) from its more than 45 years of ground-breaking work in strategic partnerships focused on family leadership in education. The IDRA Education CAFE (Community Action Forums for Excellence) is a parent group that is rooted in a community-based organization, rather than in a single school. Its sole purpose is to collaborate with schools to improve the success of students in the community. IDRA developed the model through strategic partnerships with schools, families, and communities. It is the central focus of this case study illustrating lessons learned and next steps for successful strategic partnerships for family leadership in education.

Complexities of Coordinating Service-Learning Experiences in Rural Communities

Explored from the viewpoint of the faculty member, nonprofit director, and service-learning staff, this chapter provides insight into the complexity of the service-learning relationship in rural communities. Specifically, it provides perspectives that highlight the cultivation and maintenance of a relationship with a local nonprofit, challenges of incorporating and implementing a e-service-learning project in a hybrid format, and the outcome of the e-service-learning project between a graduate level public health course and a free medical clinic that serves the medically uninsured. These highlights will be discussed through sections detailing the geographical location of the area, through an overview of the local nonprofit community partner, which is a free medical clinic, a review of the community partners various university partnerships, an overview of e-service-learning within the graduate level course, the faculty member perspective, the community partner perspective, and the service-learning staff member perspective.

Chronicles of the Metro Atlanta P-20 Collaborative

The purpose of this chapter is to capture and chronicle four years of intense work involving the Metro Atlanta P-20 Collaborative. One of nine groups carved out and designated in Georgia, the Metro Atlanta P-20 focused on effective educator preparation. It aimed to lead to quality instruction for P-12 students based on a mutually beneficial partnership between P-12 schools and the colleges and universities that prepare their teachers. This case study will be helpful for replication when examining innovative methodologies in bridging the gap between schools and institutions of higher learning, especially with respect to educator preparation. Additionally, the work occurred within a professional learning community framework. Therefore, it provides a case study modeling productivity within this protocol.

Replicating Success

The education of young Black males has long been an essential conversation in the Black community, but it is on the cusp of being a centralized, national conversation. With the advent of My Brother's Keeper and other initiatives through the White House and our federal government structure, the dialogue and debate have become absolutely essential yet complex. Nonprofit organizations who have labeled themselves as accountable to this dialogue in this population grapple with ways to create infrastructure that supports the success of Black males. This case study examines one leader's strategic approach to closing the achievement gap and providing mentoring with African American males through the pillars of the nonprofit organization he represents.