An Important Milestone...

This has been an exciting week for Reach as our idea has continued to move towards reality.  After our exciting meeting with Hyde Leadership PCS, we also met with the after-school programming manager at DCPS and two program officers at The Herb Block Foundation.  Both meetings were very successful, and it seems that we have started building the relationships necessary to begin work in DC Public and Public Charter Schools in the coming years.  It seems we will be forced to confront the pressure to move faster than planned as we want to perfect the model before trying to implement in multiple schools.

Through our continued networking efforts, we also continue to make important connections throughout the city.  In the coming months, we will be talking with The Urban Alliance, an organization that provides internships and employment for high school students in The District and Baltimore City.  Since Reach will focus on 9th and 10th grade students, it would be nice to develop a relationship with The Urban Alliance as their work focuses on 11th and 12th grade students.  Additionally, we have our first school visit scheduled next week at Hyde Elementary School (a DCPS school unrelated to our future pilot site).  We look forward to continuing to build networks that will allow Reach to grow and learn in the future.

Finally, Reach is very close to crossing our next major fundraising hurdle.  In the coming weeks, we will likely surpass $20,000 in funds raised.  While this is an important milestone in our progress towards our $50,000 goal for 2009, there is still a long way to go.  In this difficult economic climate, you can still help by recruiting new donors and providing Reach with information about possible funding streams.  We can not do this without your help.  As I've heard many times, ideas without resources are simply fantasies.  

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Mark

Founder and President - Reach, Inc.