26 Feb Volunteer On Our Community Outreach Team

Help bring Tiny Trees to your neighborhood by joining our Community Outreach Taskforce. We are looking for individuals with a passion for Tiny Trees and affordable, high quality preschool for all to help mobilize their community. Specifically you will be part of a team seeking to:

1. Make sure enrolled families reflect the diversity of the neighborhoods our schools will be located in. Each neighborhood of Seattle has different demographics and it is our goal to make sure that the students and staff at our schools reflect the diversity of the community they are a part of. Preschools are like coffee shops, you go to the one close by. This is the reason Tiny Trees is opening 6 different schools in Seattle and is the same reason why each of those schools will be unique – local communities matter. Your task is to make sure your school reflects everyone in your neighborhood.

2. Help Tiny Trees understand the cultural fabric of a neighborhood and the needs of families. This is similar to #1 but the information has a different impact on how Tiny Trees will operate our preschools. Each neighborhood has different needs and concerns. You task will be to interview potential families and community members to identify what are the pressing needs in each neighborhood and to understand the different groups, businesses and people that call it home. Our goal is to weave each Tiny Trees Preschool into the fabric of the communities around each of our schools.

3. Identify allies and partners in each neighborhood. People care about their local parks and all of us want to see a bright future for our neighborhood kids. Your goal is to identify organizations and individuals who could be partners or allies for a Tiny Trees launch. Example are the Beacon Hill Food Forest in Jefferson Park who reached out in December to explore collaboration ideas or the friends of groups who intimately know and care for their neighborhood park and many others.

4. Identify local K-12 opportunities so Tiny Trees can provide a coordinated educational pathway for children. Children succeed when they have a community of support around them. Your goal is to help understand the K-12 schools in your neighborhood so Tiny Trees Preschools can best prepare children for when they enter kindergarten in their community. For example, on Beacon Hill the local elementary school offers a bi-lingual program track in Spanish or mandarin. That means if a Tiny Trees preschool opened in that neighborhood we could explore adding a bi-lingual program.

5. Spread the word and get families to enroll. The more families we have enrolled for the fall of 2016 the stronger case we can make for the need for affordable, high quality preschool in your local park.

Actions to meet these goals may include: seeking local media, speaking at events, having a table in front of child friendly spaces like libraries, toy and clothing stores, interviewing community leaders, meeting with local organizations and government services and telling the Tiny Trees story to everyone you meet.

Your team will be led by board member Michael Charles and will meet monthly to report out on your progress and strategize next steps at a transit friendly location in central Seattle.

We are looking for volunteers from all neighborhoods in Seattle. We are looking for you: Join us!

Interested? Email andrew@tinytrees.org to sign up and be of service.

By Andrew A. Jay