Collaborating and Convening
A key strategy in Helios’ goal to achieve education reform in Florida is to convene community leaders, education advocates and others in Florida’s metropolitan areas of Miami, Orlando, and Tampa to build consensus around the strategies and resources needed to ensure first generation, minority and underrepresented students achieve a postsecondary education. Through collaborating and convening, Helios is engaging regional and statewide partners in problem-solving, knowledge sharing, community mobilization and dissemination of best practices that work to improve student performance and ultimately lead to an increase in postsecondary degree completion.
Convening in Florida’s Metropolitan Areas
Although the Foundation did not convene education leaders in Florida during our 2015 fiscal year, plans are in the works to convene leaders in Miami, Orlando, and Tampa around the role and impact of the Florida Consortium of Metropolitan Research Universities on ensuring more first generation, minority and underrepresented students pursue and complete a postsecondary education. In 2015, the Foundation invested $500,000 in the Consortium whose members include Florida International University, the University of Central Florida and the University of South Florida to develop and share action plans to strengthen student support services in four critical and inter-related areas: Predictive Analytics, High-Tech Pathways, Targeted Supports and Career Readiness. The Foundation, in partnership with the Consortium, will convene community leaders, education advocates and others around the ongoing support of for the Consortium given its ability to impact the success of over 162,000 currently enrolled postsecondary students or 47 percent of all students in the state’s university system.
