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Two women sit at a table with a text overlay reading: Excel by Eight Communities, Jefferson County hosts Fall 2023 Learning Community.

Jefferson County hosts Fall 2023 Learning Community

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Adena White
15 November 2023 ● 3 min read

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Representatives from each of Excel by Eight’s six communities came together in Pine Bluff for two days of relationship building, learning, and idea sharing at the Fall 2023 Learning Community. We appreciate our state partners and community steering committee members for your participation, and we’d like to extend a special thank you to the Jefferson County steering committee and the team at the Arkansas River Education Service Cooperative for being such gracious hosts!

Related: “Reading skills begin in the womb” | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Four people gather around a table for a Jefferson County Learning Community event to work on a small tile-based word game.
Our E8 Communities kicked the Learning Community off with an anagram exercise. The solved anagram was a quote from Dr. Brené Brown: “Courage is contagious. A critical mass of brave leaders is the foundation of an intentionally courageous culture. Every time we are brave with our lives we make the people around us a little braver and our organizations bolder and stronger.”

Printed paper letters on a Jefferson County desk spell a Brené Brown quote about leadership, set alongside Excel by Eight folders from the Fall 2023 learning community.

A woman stands at a podium presenting ALICE Data Online and a Jefferson County comparison chart for Arkansas during the Fall 2023 Learning Community.
Abby Hughes Holsclaw, consultant with the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, shared an introduction to ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). Nearly half (47%) of the 1.2 million households in Arkansas have incomes below the ALICE Threshold of Financial Survival.

Two men sit at a table during a Jefferson County Learning Community meeting, with one man writing on a document while wearing a name tag that reads Demetrious Jordan.

A speaker stands at a podium in front of a projection screen titled Lunch and Story with Neba Evans for the Fall 2023 Jefferson County Learning Community.
Filmmaker Neba Evans presented her film, “A Song of the Bluff” at the Learning Community.

Three people sit at a Jefferson County Learning Community meeting, with two women in the foreground looking toward the speaker.

A panel of four people seated at a table on a stage during the Fall 2023 Jefferson County learning community event, with a speaker at a podium and a screen showing History - The collegiate project.
Moderated by Kathy French of AR Kids Read, the High-Impact Tutoring panel featured, seated from left, Phillip Carlock of Pine Bluff School District, Dr. Kimberly Davis of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Rebekah Wills of AR Kids Read, and Tavonte Calhoun of the Boys & Girls Club of Jefferson County.
Five people stand in a row in front of a Jefferson County Excel By Eight banner for the Fall 2023 learning community event.
Tavonte Calhoun of the Boys & Girls Club of Jefferson County, Kathy French of AR Kids Read, Dr. Kimberly Davis of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Rebekah Wills of AR Kids Read, and Phillip Carlock of Pine Bluff School District discussed an innovative new collaboration between AR Kids Read and higher education and youth-centered community organizations in Jefferson County.

Three women sitting at a Jefferson County conference table with notebooks, pens, and drinks during a Fall 2023 learning community session.

Four people stand in a row in front of an Excel by Eight branded backdrop during the Fall 2023 Jefferson County learning community.
Tracy Cook of Communities Unlimited, Kelli Murray and Charles Maxwell of Arkansas Children’s, and Karen Phillips of Restore Hope shared resources available to local communities that can help improve child development outcomes.
Arkansas River ESC director Cathi Swan shared how local education cooperatives are well-positioned to help E8 Communities strengthen resources for our state’s youngest residents.

 

Excel by Eight’s six communities will come together again in the spring of 2024. To learn more about E8’s work in building local models for change across the state, visit excelby8.flywheelsites.com/about/

To stay updated about our continued efforts to create a reliable resource grid – one in which all families and communities are plugged in to ensure that all children have what they need to thrive – sign up for our newsletter or follow us on Facebook and Twitter (X).

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Picture of Adena White

Adena White

Adena White is communications director at Excel by Eight.

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