Supportive Older Women’s Network
Project Title
For a project to support grandparents raising primarily Black students to become knowledgeable about tools and methods to support their grandchildren's literacy
Date
Jun. 08, 2023
Duration
14 months
Description
One in tenchildren are raised by a grandparent due to the opioid epidemic and gun violence in Philadelphia.Supportive Older Women’s Network, an organization that is a member of the Corporation’s RFP cohort, works withlow-income students of color raised by their grandparents and helps keep them away from the foster care system. In year twoof this project, Philly Families Read Together, SOWN will pilot a new intervention to improve collaboration between teachers andgrandparents. The expected impact of this work is as follows: (a) Increased literacy skills and attendance for elementary-school students being raised by grandparents, as measured by student progress in Star Assessments; (b) increased collaboration and communication between grandparents and school, measured through the increase in grandparent participation in parent-teacher conferences; and (c) increased teachers’ skills in working effectively with grandparents, particularly in co-creating ideas and strategies for improving the children’s literacy.
Project Title
For project support for Philly Families Read Together
Date
Jun. 09, 2022
Duration
14 months
Description
Across the country, grandparents are often raising their grandchildren due to various reasons that parents are unable to including unemployment, incarceration, mental health, and parental substance abuse issues.Many live on meager incomes in neighborhoods plagued by poverty, lack digital skills to interact with teachers and do not know how to approach schools. Supporting Older Women’s Network (SOWN), a nonprofit founded in 1984, develops innovative solutions to support the well-being of low-income children raised by grandparents. With Corporation support through the request for proposals on family engagement to support student learning, they will implement “Philly Families Read Together”, an initiative to strengthen the home-school connection of low-income, primarily Black students who live in under-resourced neighborhoods in Philadelphia and are raised by their grandparents. SOWN will assist grandparents in becoming knowledgeable about educational tools and methods to support their grandchildren’s literacy.