Our Partners

back to partners >

Eagle County School District

The Youth Foundation and Eagle County School District know what it means to build a strategic partnership. For the past ten years we have been working together to offer enriching experiences for children and enhance professional opportunities for teachers. “As the demographics of our community change it becomes more and more important that we partner with the school district to identify the growing needs of children,” says Susie Davis, Executive Director of the Youth Foundation.

Our partnership with Eagle County Schools has been an asset all the way around. School principals value their after-school options within their schools for students describing The Youth Foundation after school enrichment as extremely important to maintain their extended learning time in order to impact student achievement.   The Youth Foundation hires certified educators from the school district to work with the students they know, offering specialized learning opportunities, exciting enrichment, plus important time for exercise and fitness, a win-win for teachers, children, and ultimately the community at large.  By hiring local educators The Youth Foundation provides a win-win of offering much needed supplemental income and utilizing their professional skills to deliver high quality services. Our efforts to pay our certified educators a livable wage for their after school involvement in Youth Foundation programs is a wise investment, as teacher retention is a critical component of effective education, creating multiple impacts for every dollar spent, and providing additional resources when dollars alone are not the solution.

“The Youth Foundation and Eagle County Schools have formed a solid relationship through programs such as After School Enrichment and First Tee Golf,” states Brooke Skjonsby, Director of Communications for Eagle County Schools.

“We are finding that many of the schools are encouraging teacher involvement in the Youth Foundation afterschool programs as a way to more successfully reach our at-risk population, and as a retention tool for educators who all too frequently have to move away to make ends meet.”

The Youth Foundation is engaged in improved student achievement through guided reading intervention at the elementary schools where we have programs, serving more than five hundred children (Avon Elementary, Edwards Elementary, June Creek Elementary, Meadow Mountain Elementary and Gypsum Elementary).  We are able to provide interventions with struggling readers and see the impact through monthly benchmark testing that is administered through the schools, uniting all of our afterschool programs behind the focus of literacy.  Your gift of time, offering two hours a week to read with a child is a gift that will reap benefits for a child and your own heart.

> Learn how to Get Involved!