Opportunities to Support Urban Students for School Year 2020-2021

We are still in the middle of a pandemic, and the challenges for students, teachers, and families from the end of the last school year will continue to persist into the new school year. We have heard so much about the complicated and stressful situation with school reopening plans that has created much anxiety for school leaders, teachers and parents. The Boston Education Collaborative(BEC) is seeking church partners and Christians across the Greater Boston area to partner with and love on school communities in the new school year through several initiatives and opportunities. Contact Ruth Wong at rwong[at]egc.org if you have any questions.

Churches can mobilize teams to participate in these initiatives or individuals can sign up for themselves.

Please fill out an interest form to indicate your interest in any of these opportunities and to get more information.

Remote Teacher Assistants

Teacher assistants help teachers at least 1-2 hours a week during their synchronous Zoom sessions. Depending on interest and skill sets, we would match volunteers to the the grade level, subject areas, and responsibilities that help teachers remotely with running their classes. We are placing volunteers in Boston, Cambridge, and Chelsea. We can match people for the school days as well as after school/evenings and weekends. Volunteers will need to complete a CORI check, an application and interview process, and a few training sessions. See tiny.cc/BECremotetutors for all the details.

Churches that have existing partnerships with schools can target their support for their partners. However, the BEC can also help churches interested in forming a school partnership to mobilize most of their teacher assistants to support one school instead of multiple schools.

Space Sharing/Rental

The Boston Public Schools (BPS) is looking for churches and businesses to open up their spaces for before or after school programs to provide families and students with much needed in-person learning help. (BPS will not be able to allow any program to run in the school buildings right now.) Rent and some compensation for costs incurred can be negotiated. If you have space in Boston and would be open to sharing your space, please fill out an interest form.

Learning Hubs (aka Learning Pods)

For students with the highest needs and parents who have to work, it would be extremely helpful if there are community spaces in Boston that could offer a place for students to do their online learning work during the fully remote school days as well as the off-days in a hybrid model. Some compensation might be available as BPS is seeking funding to help cover some of the costs associated with opening spaces to run learning pods. Contact Ruth Wong, rwong[at]egc.org, for more info.

Cloth Face Mask Initiative

BPS has requested for the faith community to donate cloth masks when schools start to reopen. We are seeking volunteers to sew masks or people to donate them. See a FAQ about the mask initiative.

Family Support

Immigrant parents and homeless families need help navigating Zoom and the online learning platforms. Volunteers can help provide support through phone or Zoom calls. We can train you to learn how to access the various online platforms like Google Classroom.

Families are also in need of basic items such as food, diapers, cleaning supplies, personal hygiene products, etc. Go to www.egc.org/covidresponse to donate to our COVID response fund to help families.

Other opportunities to support parents during these challenging times could also be explored. Contact Ruth if you’re interested in working with families.