New director discusses CISR’s role in community | COMMENTARY – Renton Reporter

All students can learn and achieve at high levels if they are given the opportunity and the support they need. This belief is the foundation to the mission of Communities in Schools of Renton (CISR), which I am so honored to be a part of. As the new Executive Director, I know I am part of something really special in the Renton community where I have lived for the past 18 years a very generous community dedicated to supporting our youth.

I have a passion for equity and am committed to working toward fairness and opportunities for all. I look forward to utilizing my 12 years of non-profit leadership experience serving youth and families along with my Masters in Education with an emphasis in Transformational Leadership to help build the next generation of CISR.

Id like to share a little about what we do at CISR. We are part of the nations leading dropout prevention organization. We work in 8 Renton School District elementary schools, the 3 middle schools and Renton High School coordinating a comprehensive range of services to address the academic and non-academic needs of at-risk, economically disadvantaged students so they come to school ready to learn. Many of the students we serve are facing significant challenges both inside and outside of the classroom as 90% of them live in poverty.

This past month with my new team, Ive been thinking a lot about what can be and how we can deliver even more powerful results for our youth. At our Annual Benefit Dinner a couple weeks ago, I shared that through a collaborative development, we will build a bridge from the present to the future.

There are 3 interrelated areas which will guide our efforts.

The first being community engagement. We will increase the level of community awareness, involvement and advocacy to strengthen the collective impact within our community.

The second is resource development, which will be an intentional plan focused on increasing our awareness of opportunities and taking steps to engage and cultivate individuals and businesses who share our passion for this work.

Finally, we will ensure operational and strategic alignment in order to best support the changing student population and the community needs by being nimble and flexible to our service delivery model. Focusing on these 3 areas, will result in impact expansion. By formulating strategies to put this vision into action and by acting together in new and powerful ways we can have more of a collective impact for our students.

If youd like to learn more or just to chat, Id love to hear from you: jgreene@rentonwa.gov or 425.430.6656.

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New director discusses CISR's role in community | COMMENTARY - Renton Reporter