Community Partners

Need in Deed’s community partners bring the “real world” into the classroom.

Every year, we invite individuals from local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and higher education and health institutions to step into Need in Deed classrooms across the city. Bringing “real world” insights and expertise, Need in Deed community partners field students’ questions, listen to their ideas, and help them think about solutions to the issues they care about.

Because the students in each Need in Deed classroom identify the issue they want to explore and address through service projects, we make community partner matches accordingly, calling on a wide array of individuals and organizations in any given year, from staff of the city’s Water and department to police community liaisons, curators from the Zoo, neuroscientists, staff from Project HOME and the PSPCA, museum exhibit specialists, mental health advocates, art therapists, and representatives of an antiviolence campaign.

We also call on community partners as we explore with our teacher partners ways to improve teaching and learning or to understand issues that affect students and schools.

What does it take to be a community partner?

Community partners are willing to teach and to learn.

Need in Deed community partners listen to the students’ questions and honor their unique interest in an issue.

Need in Deed staff work with community partners to help them understand the issue that the students have chosen, the angle they are pursuing, the grade level of the class, and the teacher’s curricular goals.

Each year, the individuals who serve in this way gain appreciation for the enormous potential of the city’s young people. Stepping inside the schools, they see both the challenges that teachers and students face and their remarkable achievements.