SmartDC - Community Partners

SmartDC - Partner Sites

826DC

826DC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. GW students participate in the program's After-School Writing Lab where they help students build confidence, strengthen their writing skills, and make friends with fellow authors, as well as provide support for their school-based programming at Noyse Elementary.

Team Leader: Annika Hedlund, Samantha Bessetti, and Madelene Vicente (at Noyes Elementary)

For Love of Children

For Love of Children (FLOC) provides educational services beyond the classroom to help students succeed from first grade through college and career. FLOC brings together students, volunteers, families, and community partners in proven programs that teach, empower, and transform.

Team Leader: Edgar Zuniga and Joanna Portillo

Higher Achievement

Higher Achievement closes the opportunity gap during the pivotal middle school years. By leveraging the power of communities, Higher Achievement’s proven model provides a rigorous year-round learning environment, caring role models, and a culture of high expectations, resulting in college-bound scholars with the character, confidence, and skills to succeed.

Team Leader: Savanna Jones (@Brookland Middle School and Elissa Colon Pan(@Eliot-Hine Middle School)

Horton's Kids

Horton’s Kids empowers children growing up in DC’s most under-resourced communities so that they graduate from high school ready for success in college, career, and life. They serve 600 children and their families living in Wellington Park & Stanton Oaks – neighborhoods that have been profoundly impacted by decades of disinvestment and barriers to opportunity. Horton’s Kids provides holistic services for families and kids through four main pillars: academics, youth development, health and wellness, and family engagement.

Team Leader: Ferdoos Baghbanian and Abigail Sandoval-Soto

Latin American Youth Center @ Bancroft Elementary

LAYC's After-School Enrichment Programming is housed in various elementary and middle schools throughout DC and Maryland, though SMARTC partners specifically with Bancroft Elementary located in Columbia Heights. GW tutors provide literacy and math support for 3rd-5th grade students at the school, while also helping build community and their confidence.

Team Leader: Rommel Mendez-Lopez and Kaylin Guandique-Sanchez

Raising a Village

Raising a Village works to build safe, healthy and whole communities by increasing access to education, health and wellness, and the arts in underserved areas throughout Washington D.C.One of their initiatives involves a youth-development program that provides K-12 students support in math and literacy, social-emotional learning, and college and career readiness.

Team Leader: Mikal Armstrong and Roman Ismail

Reading Partners

Their mission is to help children become lifelong readers by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable results. They provide school-based in-person tutoring across the District. Currently, GW students are working with students from Malcolm X Elementary School and Van Ness Elementary School.

Team Leaders: Samaa Afoke and Fartun Hassan