When an email from GrantWriters arrived in her inbox, Dr. Sandra J. DuPree never imagined it would soon open doors and expand opportunities for students, parents and teachers at Hyde Leadership Charter School of Brooklyn, New York.
Although Dr. DuPree had never heard of or worked with a grant writing firm, she was intrigued by what GrantWriters had to offer. “It was a wild card,” she remembers. “I knew I was likely capable of writing a grant, but I didn’t know how grants worked and didn’t have the time to learn.”
When Dr. DuPree connected with GrantWriters in 2015, Hyde was a small kindergarten-1st grade charter school. Today, Hyde operates on 2 state-of-the-art campuses and serves hundreds of students as K-8th grade centers for academic and personal excellence.
Finding and Winning Grants to Support School Needs
Dr. DuPree and her team began collaborating with GrantWriters to seek competitive grant opportunities and implement grants when funded. By completing the Grant Research Opportunities (GRO) Needs Assessment, GrantWriters began to immediately locate and write successful grants for Hyde
The first grant Hyde received after collaborating with GrantWriters was the Elementary and Secondary Schools Counseling Grant, one the school and its students desperately needed. Grant funds allowed Hyde to offer more robust counseling services. Additional grants made possible the hiring of a second full-time school counselor to close the student-to-counselor gap and enabled the creation of a Positive Action Committee designed to address predictors of youth problem behaviors to positively impact student and school achievement.
Hyde also developed a boy’s mentoring program for after-school support and partnered with community organizations to offer counseling outside school. “Overall, the grant enabled 30 additional students to receive case management services and provided counseling-based workshops to students’ families,” says Dr. DuPree.
In October 2018, Hyde was awarded an Arts Integration Initiative Grant. “The grant includes the integration of visual arts, theater, and technology,” Dr. DuPree says. Particularly for the school’s high percentage of Title I students (92 percent) students have direct access to technology such as Chromebooks, cameras and smartboards to connect with the world outside of the classroom. The grant also supported hiring art specialists to help teachers implement artistic components into everyday (and unique) classroom activities.
Encouraging Educators to Explore Grant Opportunities
Hyde is in the high-needs, East New York area. “We have a significant percentage of low-income families and families in shelters,” Dr. DuPree says. “New York is an expensive city, so we see a lot of families relocating seeking to improve their quality of life and we have a growing number of families living in shelters.”
Dr. DuPree says families are drawn to the school because it provides a safe space and quality education compared to other options in the area. Today, Hyde Leadership Charter School, and more importantly, its students, reap the benefits of grant funds secured with help from GrantWriters. Dr. DuPree pays this good fortune forward:
“When I see great grant opportunities, I share them with colleagues. Oddly, when they do not follow up, I think they probably have the same mindset I had years ago before I opened that first email and called GrantWriters for help.”
“I encourage every charter school to reach out to GrantWriters.net for education funding assistance. Give them a call; it could very well lead to the same successes we’ve experienced. Their grant writers know school funding and what to do to make grant writing and awards easy.”