Michael Robbins, senior advisor for nonprofit partnerships at the U.S. Department of Education, will visit Memphis, Tenn., on Thursday, April 12, at 10:30 a.m., to participate in a “Together for Tomorrow” town hall discussion on the value of community partnerships in helping to propel school improvement. A question-and-answer session will follow. Together for Tomorrow is an initiative that spotlights and fosters partnerships among schools, families, national service programs, and community-based organizations in order to help turnaround low-performing schools. The event will take place at Westside Middle School. Congressman Steve Cohen is expected to attend the town hall.
In the afternoon, Robbins will lead a discussion at Rhodes College on the President’s Interfaith and Community Campus Challenge. As the event host, Rhodes College will bring together participating schools to learn what they have accomplished and to discuss involvement in the future. The meeting will take place from 4 to 5 p.m. in Clough Hall. The President’s Interfaith and Community Service Challenge is an initiative inviting institutions of higher education to commit to a year of interfaith cooperation and community service programming on campus. The programming can take various forms such as diverse campus groups working together to implement a specific year-long service project and establishing partnerships between local religious groups to tackle a specific community challenge together.