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Community Educators Network details use of Wallace Foundation grant to expand after‑school and summer programming
Summary
The Community Educators Network told the Quality of Life Committee it will use a Wallace Foundation grant and other partnerships to expand after‑school, summer and teen programs across Santa Fe, coordinate nonprofit offerings, and seek nonprofit status to accept national funding.
The Community Educators Network on Jan. 8 told the City of Santa Fe Quality of Life Committee it will use a $225,000 Wallace Foundation grant and local partnerships to increase coordinated out‑of‑school learning opportunities for K‑12 youth.
The network’s leadership described a volunteer, member-driven model that has worked with the City of Santa Fe for more than a decade to provide summer programming, library offerings and after‑school activities. "We are a network of different educators from nonprofits in and around Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico," said Molly Parsons, a member of the network’s leadership team.
The network and city staff said the network helps expand the city’s capacity for summer programming. "We serve 600 kids each summer, and we serve them with high quality, educational, fun, engaging, interactive experiences," said Maria Sanchez Tucker, Community Services Director. Sanchez Tucker credited the network with bringing museum and library programs into the city’s summer and after‑school offerings.
Nut graf: The Wallace Foundation grant — one of about 30 awarded nationally from roughly 1,700 applications — funded a strategic planning process, after‑school and summer pilots at the teen center, training for educators and a landscape analysis of regional offerings. Network leaders said the grant is being used to test intermediary strategies for linking many small organizations, the school district and city programs into more consistent, higher‑quality youth opportunities.
Network leaders described several concrete strands of work. They piloted after‑school and teen‑center sessions, sponsored a teen symposium and ran co‑training sessions for educators. Leadership members visited other intermediary programs, including Big Thought in Dallas, and said they are adapting a "creator archetype" framework to bring social‑emotional learning, digital fluency, arts and design thinking into local programming.
The network said it currently operates through a rotating volunteer leadership council, about 150 individual members and roughly 50 nonprofit partners; it is pursuing nonprofit status to accept funding at a national level and to expand fundraising. Parsons said the network is pursuing a centralized, public-facing repository of out‑of‑school opportunities so families and schools can find programs easily.
Committee members encouraged partnership with national intermediaries and resource networks. Councilor Garcia recommended outreach to the Out‑of‑School Time Network and the After School Alliance as potential sponsors and funders. Parsons provided a contact email and web address for the network: sfcommunityeducators.org.
Ending: The committee did not take action; the presentation was accepted as an informational update. Network leaders said they will return with future updates as programs and partnerships develop.
