CIS of Chicago’s Partnership Team supports a network of 239 Chicago Public Schools, connecting their students with community-based programs and services, helping their staff develop professionally, and providing spaces where their leaders and counselors can build relationships, across schools.
One way that the Partnership Team provides these spaces is by hosting school meetups. These events create opportunities for school staff to come together, discuss similar challenges they face, share ideas, and ultimately, learn from each other – in supportive environments.
For the past few school years, CIS has hosted meetups by geographic area, for schools in nearby community areas. This fall, though, the Partnership Team added a new meetup to its offerings – a High School Meetup, open to all high schools in CIS’ partnership network.
The idea for this new event originated after some high school partners expressed wanting to connect with other high schools and wanting to better take advantage of their partnership with CIS, considering their needs and challenges are vastly different from elementary school partners.
This November, CIS’ first-ever High School Meetup launched, with great success. Representatives from eight different high schools across the city traveled to CIS of Chicago’s headquarters to engage with each other.
To create a shared sense of community, Jill from CIS’ School Partnership Team started out asking for one thing each attendee could give to another school and one thing they would ask. This activity generated positive interactions, with one school asking how to get teachers engaged with CIS of Chicago programs, and another school responding with specific actions they had taken to garner support from teachers.
Next, two of CIS’ community partners, the Chicago Fire Department and Ladder Up, shared resources and programs they offer – specifically for high school students. The Chicago Fire Department presented information about their police and firefighter training academy, as well as ways they could support high school Career Day programs. Then, Ladder Up shared sessions they offer for high school students and their families on tax assistance, budgeting, and financial literacy.
CIS’ team also presented an application-based opportunity for an 11-session program called ‘From Schoolmate to Workmate,’ where students explore entrepreneurship, learn resume and cover letter writing, and practice soft skills, like communication, needed for today’s work environment.
The event concluded with an engaging activity, where attendees created gratitude jars to serve as physical reminders of what they are thankful for in their professional and personal lives.
When the team asked attendees what was most beneficial from participating in the High School Meetup, counselors and school leaders shared:
- “The intentional exchange and communication of resources.”
- “Hearing how other schools implement CIS.”
- “Learning from past successful programming.”
- “Networking!”
High School Meetup attendees walked away from the event with a sense of collaboration, new ideas for resources and programs that would benefit their school communities, and a greater understanding of how CIS can support their unique school needs. These important outcomes are ones the team will look at recreating and deepening in the future.
