Arizona Churches Partner with Community to Change Kids’ Futures through Schools

Are you tired of the brokenness and division in your city? Like many forward-thinking leaders, you have a deep passion to see positive change. You’ve probably spent countless hours thinking of ways to engage with your community in new ways in order to see this change become a reality. It’s not easy.

I thought, what would it look like if churches, businesses, and other local organizations rallied to the school to care for our kids and our community?

This is one of the reasons why The Global Leadership Summit (GLS) exists—because we believe in the power of your influence. We believe that armed with leadership resources, inspiration, and encouragement, you can bring change to your community.

While there is not one right or easy way to accomplish citywide change, this story about GLS attendee, Tracey Beal, pastor of Community Development at Pure Heart Church, and executive director of School Connect, will show you how the GLS inspired her story of citywide change through a unique model where schools are the driver in engagement and partnership.

Can the Church engage the community?

As a church planter and pastor, Tracey often wondered why churches so often separate themselves from the very communities they want to reach for Christ. Then she had a realization. During a service trip to Peru with students of Young Life at Arizona State University, she started to think of the needs of her own city back home. “There is tremendous need in my own city too,” said Tracey. “And the school is the portal to all of the needs of the community!”

She quickly realized the church was a perfect partner for schools because they share the same children and have access to multi-generations and multiple sectors within their congregations. “I knew this model would be an incredible way to help churches reach their neighborhoods for Christ!” Tracey exclaimed.

What if the Church served the needs of our schools?

“My heart breaks when I think of the incredible challenges teachers face as they prepare the next generation: broken families, poverty and drug addiction impact kids physically, intellectually and emotionally,” says Tracey. “Our educators face monumental odds to meet these needs so kids can be successful. Sadly, while educators wear numerous hats and have huge expectations placed upon them, they are not highly valued by their community. I thought, what would it look like if churches, businesses, and other local organizations rallied to the school to care for our kids and our community?”

School Connect is Born

“The creation of School Connect as an organization was very much inspired by the Summit,” says Tracey. “The Summit is a living, breathing example of what can happen when the Church leads in its community. I was inspired by the courage and tenacity that leaders showed as they leaned into their calling, and in many ways felt like I had found my tribe.”

Following the Summit, Tracey began to develop a model of community engagement with local schools. The model engages schools in strategic partnerships with churches, businesses, non-profits, colleges, and neighborhood organizations.

My heart breaks when I think of the incredible challenges teachers face as they prepare the next generation…

“The GLS inspired me to be bold about working with all leaders of our city whether they have a Christian faith or are somewhere along that journey,” says Tracey. “School Connect’s job is to cast vision and train educators, faith and community partners to work together for the sake of our kids. Since we believe schools are the portal to all of the needs of a neighborhood, we see working with schools as a powerful tool for any church that wants to engage meaningfully with its community.”

Amazing Outcomes from the School Connect Model

School Connect has helped build partnerships in 700 schools across Arizona and is excited to have an even larger focus on rural schools and tribal lands. They have also expanded into other cities around the country, and have begun building School Connect models in Lafayette, LA, San Antonio, TX, Oklahoma City, OK, Madison & Appleton, WI, Chicago, IL, and Orange County & Modesto, CA.

“The schools that have the most clarity about their strategic plans and the partners who are helping them accomplish these plans are seeing academic achievement go up, teacher retention increase, negative behavior go down and parents engage in much higher numbers,” Tracey explains. “As churches are meaningfully involved in this process, they are seeing people come to know Christ and get connected to a church community.”

Here are just a few recent examples of what has happened through these partnerships!

Pandemic Support

With the support of partners including businesses, restaurants, faith communities, resource centers, and community partners across Arizona, School Connect provided $300,000 worth of supplies for Schools from including food, masks, sanitation supplies, school supplies, books, and office furniture for teachers.

Wi-Fi Hotspots for Families in Need

School Connect partnered with the State Library & Commonsense Media to build a Free Wi-Fi Hotspot Map of Arizona. This helped students know where they could access free internet and gave them free tech support with the State Librarians. It even provided the option for faith communities to be a location for hot spot for families in need! This map has been accessed 19,5000 times to date!

Technology Support

In partnership with Scottsdale Bible and the City of Phoenix, School Connect helped purchase and deliver 12,484 computers to school districts in need in Maricopa County.

Additionally, School Connect provided 365 computers to rural schools throughout Arizona.

In partnership with the Arizona Superintendent of Instruction’s Tech Task Force, School Connect built a Parent Resource website which is housed with the Arizona Department of Education.

High-Poverty School Improves Retention & Reading Scores

At Mountain View School, School Connect worked with the principal and her team to build partnerships with 30 organizations around this high poverty school. Through these partnerships this school saw increased teacher retention from 35% to 93%, reading increased scores by 39%. The formation of a parent organization and a neighborhood association also helped transform the school and neighborhood culture.

Care Packages for Teachers

School Connect partnered with churches and businesses to provide 10,000 Care Package Boxes to teachers in across Arizona.

Social Emotional Support

Professional counselors and faith leaders provided online social-emotional support for students, parents, and teachers, and School Connect now has a library of these resources available.

In partnership with Highland Yoga every educator associated with School Connect gets free access to online yoga classes.

“Imagine what it would be like if all of the schools of Phoenix had significant partnerships with Christ followers?” Tracey asks. “As we empower the Body of Christ to be the servant leaders we are meant to be, we are excited about the potential to bring transformation to Phoenix and beyond.”

Tune into this School Connect Podcast episode, and learn more how a unique partnership brought a local community together. Tune In >>

Why We Attend The Global Leadership Summit

“I believe The Global Leadership Summit is the most accessible and applicable leadership opportunity I have ever attended,” says Tracey. “As we innovate with School Connect, the Summit has been instrumental in helping me access leadership resources when there was no simple pathway forward. It has also been a powerful tool in our work with the leaders of our city. We are finding that Summit resources are opening doors of opportunity with these leaders.

I believe the GLS is the most accessible and applicable leadership opportunity I have ever attended.

“While I read leadership books for years before attending the Summit, attending the conference with others on our team has transformed my thinking, given us a common language, and its catalytic nature has helped us build momentum in a variety of different initiatives. The Summit has something for everyone, guaranteed! If you need encouragement in your calling, clarity about how to move forward in an area that has challenged you, or access to resources of people and materials that can help you succeed, you can find it at the Summit!”

Join Tracey Beal and others at The Global Leadership Summit on August 4-5, 2022. Learn more and get tickets at GlobalLeadership.org/Summit.