Yes We Can! Birmingham
Yes We Can! Birmingham is an organization created to foster community input toward a vision for Birmingham City Schools and to promote the implementation of that vision. It was launched in 2007 by members of the Birmingham Business Leadership Group's Education Task Force and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. It was modeled after the successful process that led to the creation of a Mobile Area Education Foundation.
In 2008 Yes We Can! began holding a series of over 100 public meetings to collect ideas and information from the public. Additional conversations were conducted one-on-one during public events, through radio call-in shows, and on the group's website. Nearly 1,800 citizens participated in the process, with their comments and suggestions compiled into a "community agreeement" which outlines not only a consensus vision of a successful public school system for Birmingham, but also documents problems with the current situation in both the schools and the larger community. The final section of the agreement outlines plans for how to fulfill those citizen-driven aspirations to raise public expectations, to challenge planners for the Birmingham Board of Education, and to elicit support from the community.
The Birmingham Education Foundation was founded in 2008 to solicit and coordinate support for school improvement.
References
- Rolen, Karen (February 10, 2008) "Yes We Can! Birmingham polishing up new vision for city schools." Birmingham News
- Natta, André (October 1, 2008) "A community agreement is ready for Birmingham". The Terminal
External links
- Yes We Can! Birmingham website
- "We the People, in order to form a more perfect school system..." community agreeement. Yes We Can! Birmingham