Community Partnerships Highlighted at the Webster Back-To-School Block Party

 

 

 

The Webster School showed what it means to be a Community Partnership School at their Webster Back-To-School Block party, as the school teamed up with their community partners to welcome back Webster and Murray Middle School students. Organizations and businesses from the St. Augustine Community came out to support the Webster School, and they were met with appreciation from students and families.

Expanded Learning Coordinator Andrea Thompson, Community Partnership Director at Webster Alexius Ferguson, Family and Community Engagement Coordinator Alejandra Irizarry

Community Partnership School Director at Webster, Alexius Ferguson, as well as Family and Community Engagement Coordinator Alejandra Irizarry (Alex) and Expanded Learning Coordinator Andrea Thompson have worked hard for months putting together the Webster Back-To-School Block Party, and the weather was on their side with only a few sprinkles despite a previous  forecast of all-day thunderstorms. 

The Community Partnership School is a program that provides educational resources, on-site healthcare, counseling services, mentoring and more for students and families in the community. 

The Community Partnership School model is based on the belief that it takes a village to raise a child, and it involves the forming of a close and long-term relationship between a school and partners - a university or college, a community-based non profit and a health care provider. At The Webster School this means a partnership with the Children's Home Society of Florida, Flagler Health Plus, St. Johns County School District and St. Johns River State College.

Kelsey Miller, Community Health Associate from Flagler Health Bus

Flagler Health brought the big Flagler Health Plus Bus, which is a mobile health clinic, where the students could get free school physicals done right there in the school parking lot. The local Flagler Health Plus is one of the partners that the Community Partnership School program at Webster rely on through their work with the students. 

Skyler Kai, Emmett & Isabella Rodney from the West Augustine Nature Society and Kierra Smith, parent advisor.

The West Augustine Nature Society, a student-led organization made up mostly of former and current Webster students, was giving away plants and signing up families for the organization's community clean-up events. The students received great feedback from the families attending the event, and they were excited about getting Webster families on board with their mission to keep West Augustine green.

Local activist and parent advisor Kierra Smith helped out the West Augustine Nature Society with community outreach at the Webster School, a school she attended as a child, a school from where her children have graduated,  and where she now sits on the Community Leadership Council at the Community Partnership School. 

 

Michael Israel, the District Homeless Liaison from Student Services and the ASSIST Program and Jan Caban from the St. Johns County School District.

 

 

Michael Israel, the District Homeless Liaison from Student Services and the ASSIST Program, and Jan Caban from the St. Johns County School District were handing out backpacks to Webster and Murray students. Michael Israel is also on the Community Leadership Council for the Community Partnership School at Webster, the community where he grew up, and where members of his family still live. 

Local community member and retired teacher Dot Williams volunteered with her grandchildren, and college student Josh Thompson helped with handing out school supplies donated by the St. Augustine community.

Susan Connor  Title 1 Community Liaison in St. Johns County School District

Susan Connor, the Title 1 Community Liaison in St. Johns County School District came out to help the Webster School sign up parents for the Webster PTO. She also helped with distributing a survey from Webster Principal Bethany Groves about a twice monthly workshop program, where families will get assistance with topics from financial assistance to computer technology, legal advice and more. Groves is putting together an ambitious program, and she wants the community's feedback to make sure she gets families the help they need. 

 

Members of the St. Augustine High School football team and some of the St. Augustine High School cheerleaders came out to volunteer and help wherever they were needed. 

 

Charity Roberts, Volunteer Coordinator for Epic-Cure, was at the Webster Back-To-School Block Party to hand out food bags to anyone needing it. Epic-Cure is a non-profit organization dedicated to food rescue and distribution, and besides giving out food at events all over town, they also serve the community at a weekly food-distrubution event at their location on St. Augustine's west side at 2745 Industry Road.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of St. Johns County was at the back-to-school event enrolling children, talking about their program, and seeking volunteers to join them in their mentoring programs.They need volunteers for special events, on-site mentors (such as at local area schools), and community based mentoring

First Coast Technical College attended the event to reach out to community members and to talk about all of the programs and career paths that the college has to offer.

A total of 28 vendors and more than 50 volunteers came out to help The Webster School families as well as the Murray Middle School families get ready for the new school year, and the event could not have been a success without the community collaboration.

The Webster School is a community school, where many current students have had siblings, parents and grandparents graduate from, and through the Community Partnership School model, the school is able to truly generate the relationships with organizations in the West Augustine community and in the greater St. Augustine area. The annual back-to-school event exemplifies this continuously-growing relationship, and it showcases how local community organizations and volunteers show up, when they have stake in the school. 

You can learn more about the Community Partnership School at the Webster School here. You can follow The Webster School PTO on Facebook to keep up to date, and if you are a Webster parent make sure to sign up for the ClassDojo app and ask your child's teacher for their code, so that you can always be in the know about what takes place at The Webster School and in your child's classroom. 

If you are a Webster family needing any services provided through the Community Partnership School at Webster or their partners, please fill out this Care Connect Referral Form, and Care Connect will assist you with getting the help you need. 

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