Our Story
Raising the Bar for Student Success
Mission
Partners In Education is a non-profit organization which develops and fosters partnerships between area schools and northwest Ohio businesses, government agencies, organizations and churches.
Funded by contributions from businesses, individuals and the community, Partners In Education leverages our most important investment — the education of our children.
- Partners In Education (PIE) engages the whole community in increasing the supports available to students in-school and out-of-school.
- PIE is an innovator of and incubator for new program models that improve pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade student academic achievement and personal well-being.
- PIE is Northwest Ohio’s liaison between businesses, communities of faith, nonprofit organizations and pre-K-12 schools.
- PIE serves parents and caregivers by connecting them with outstanding adult learning opportunities and resources.
- PIE serves nonprofit organizations with consulting, professional development and networking opportunities to ensure Northwest Ohio children have the best in-school enrichment and out-of-school time opportunities.
- PIE encourages volunteerism in K-12 schools by providing background checks, volunteer training and other resources.
We currently facilitate a number of programs and initiatives including Mentors In Toledo Schools, College & Career ready, Set, Go!, Success Mentors, The Afterschool Alliance and Parent University. All of our partnership activities are focused programming that makes a measurable impact on students long-term success.
History
Partners In Education of Toledo was founded in 1994 by the Rotary Club of Toledo, with support from the Toledo Area Chamber of Commerce, area banks and corporations. The first several years of Partners in Education were focused on connecting area businesses with schools to “adopt” for support and volunteering. As district and school funding and volunteer needs have changed, so has our business model. Through the years, Partners in Education’s partnerships with Toledo Public Schools and The Catholic Diocese of Greater Toledo’s schools have flourished. Our organization has now become an incubator of new program models that serve immediate needs in our local schools. It began with our career-readiness programming that taught parents and family members to mentor their students toward success in the classroom and beyond as well as guest speakers, field trips to colleges and businesses and a curriculum focused on preparation for success in school and career. PIE also provided high-quality volunteer training programs for business people and faith partners seeking to volunteer in area schools.
Fast forward to 2012 and PIE began a professional development and technical assistance support network called the Afterschool Alliance (ASA). PIE leads the group and helps train some 325 afterschool programs in best practice standards set by Ohio Afterschool Network and Ohio Department of Education. In 2013, PIE developed Partners With Purpose, a successful training module for afterschool programs working specifically with Toledo Public Schools (TPS). After a two-year incubation period, Partners with Purpose was permanently adopted by TPS. Currently, PIE manages all of the background checks for volunteers (including parents, business and faith partners) in Toledo Public Schools. In 2016, we added a volunteer training program and data collection system to improve volunteerism in the school system.
Our signature event, the Dragon Boat Summer Learning Festival,was inspired by PIE supporters Mark Rasmus, Chuck Stocking and Bill Niehous. The festival brought thousands of people to International Park in Toledo for a unique and exciting day of team building for businesses and nonprofit partners as well as hands-on, inquiry-based learning for children and parents.
Partners in Education is always seeking ways to help area schools. Please contact us if you would like to bring one of our programs to your school or community center or let us know if we could develop and incubate a model program for you. If you are a business wanting to bring a program into schools, please contact us as well. We would love to be included in partnership grant opportunities. Just give us a call at 419-242-2122.
