How BVSD Community Liaisons support families in need
In difficult times, sometimes it’s hard to know where to turn. For many families in the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD), their school’s community liaison is their first – and sometimes only – trusted resource.
What is a community liaison?
Most schools in BVSD have a community liaison who works to direct services to high needs students and families and acts as liaison for families with school and community agencies. Liaisons are key to providing opportunities for students to develop a desire and ability to complete their education. They also advocate for practices and policies that may help decrease student dropout rates, increase graduation rates, and increase student attendance and achievement.
We often refer to the team of community liaisons at BVSD as our front line workers. During remote learning periods they helped provide emergency resources for families, including delivering food and other essential supplies to students’ homes, assessing who needed home internet, and offering up emergency child care for students who didn’t have other options. They are also playing a crucial role in our Marshall Fire response and helping to recruit students for our Career Readiness Academy.
3 ways we partnered with community liaisons this month
Many BVSD students and families are in need of essential supplies to support their ability to learn and stay in school. Using $40,000 of the funds raised through our Critical Needs Fund, last week we distributed:
- 10,000 RTD youth bus passes
- 10 boxes of new mindfulness books
- Over $32,000 worth of gift cards to stores like Walmart and King Soopers
These resources were distributed to community liaisons at their February meeting. Thank you to our partners at Premier Members Credit Union who joined the meeting and provided breakfast AND a coffee gift card to each liaison as a thank you for their incredible dedication to students and families.
“Impact on Education is a reliable bridge to community resources. Our community liaisons know they can depend on Impact’s steadfast commitment to students and families and the generosity of their donors to meet the needs of those in our community facing the toughest challenges.”
Ari Gerzon-Kessler, Coordinator of Family Partnerships
In total, this month we placed over $50,000 of assistance into the hands of those who work most closely with BVSD students and families in financial need, continuing our long-standing partnership.
We know how hard BVSD’s team of community liaisons works to provide resources to those who need them most and are so grateful for their commitment to our students.
Helpful resources for families
The team at BVSD has a fantastic resource page for families, with information about key BVSD supports, ways to get involved and stay informed, who to contact if you need help, and a list of community resources and services:
https://www.bvsd.org/parents-students/family-supports
