We believe education begins at birth and lasts throughout life. Education can be a key to unleash the potential of opportunity for everyone, especially for those whose communities have been marginalized. Therefore, education should be equitable, excellent in its delivery and accessible to all regardless of place, gender or ethnicity.
Further, we believe that every child in WNC should:
Source, analyze and share a comprehensive set of publicly available data that provides a regularly updated, county-by-county picture of access, workforce and student outcomes in early childhood education and K-12 education specific to Western North Carolina
Invest in improved early childcare and education ecosystem with the resources and sustainability to provide developmentally appropriate, affordable and accessible education and care to support ages birth to five, so that all children in WNC enter kindergarten ready to learn
Support K-12 learning experiences with the resources and sustainability to provide an excellent academic and social-emotional education, so that all students graduate ready for college or career
Work in tandem with Economic Opportunity Strategic Priority to invest in career readiness at the community college and university levels
For more information,
please contact us or email
[email protected]
890 Hendersonville Rd
Suite 300
Asheville, NC 28803
Mailing:
P.O. Box 15729
Asheville, NC 28813
© 2022 Dogwood Health Trust. All rights reserved.
Even before the pandemic, area school systems were experiencing the need for additional mental health and social and emotional learning support. One of the largest areas of need centers around the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS), a framework that focuses on meeting students at their levels. MTSS focuses on social-emotional learning, and educator professional development in this area is key. WRESA (Western Region Education Service Alliance) and Dogwood realized this need and created an avenue for educators to receive the training they require to serve the students of WNC. As a result of the Dogwood and WRESA partnership, 12 WNC school districts trained 200 educators.
To increase reading scores, students need to have an interest in reading. LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Essential sets provide relevance and interest in literacy. With funding from Dogwood, STEM West created the infrastructure for collaborative learning and a curriculum to align reading texts and literacy skills through engineering and coding with LEGO® sets.
In Henderson County, 3,318 children are eligible for subsidized child care. Finding high-quality, affordable and accessible early childhood education and care for infants, toddlers and children under five can be challenging. For this reason, Dogwood is partnering with WNCSource, a leading provider of early childhood education programs in Henderson County, to renovate a 70-year-old facility in Henderson County. The retrofitted building will provide Early Head Start, Head Start and NC Pre-K early childhood education programs to 94 children and future generations of Henderson County families.
A Regional Cohort of Smart Start Local Partnerships is helping young children, their families, and early childhood educators increase resiliency and reduce trauma throughout Western North Carolina. The approach includes Resilience Academies to develop personal and organizational resilience cultures with Smart Start leaders, Reconnect for Resilience trainings for early educators and families, and the expansion of Sesame Street in Communities’ successful programs and Family Engagement Tool Kits to support young children’s social and emotional resilience and development. Each community within the Cohort starts at its own level of readiness, but all are working in a regional and collaborative way.
Opened in 2010, St. Gerard House (SGH) provides therapy, training, social skills classes and a wide array of additional services for individuals with autism and their families. Dogwood responded to SGH’s call for operational support to create scalable growth to serve more waiting families. Since receiving the Dogwood capacity grant, SGH has hired a full-time revenue cycle manager and a full-time “Feed The Need” program administrator. These changes have improved efficiency in their billing and utilization departments as well as placed SHG on a path to provide more autism therapy in the community.
For more than seven years, Youth Transformed for Life (YTL) Training Programs have supported participants struggling academically, socially and emotionally. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued, YTL strengthened its efforts to provide a safe place for participants to learn, grow and engage in academic and social activities with support in a safe environment. Dogwood supported YTL as it provided at-home learning support for Asheville City and Buncombe County students, summer programming with academic tutoring, outdoor activities, art programs and STEM enrichment.
Invest in improved early childcare and education system with the resources and sustainability to provide developmentally appropriate, affordable and accessible education and care to support ages birth to five, so that all children in WNC enter kindergarten ready to learn
Support K-12 learning experiences with the resources and sustainability to provide an excellent academic and social-emotional education, so that all students graduate ready for college or career
Work in tandem with Economic Opportunity Strategic Priority to invest in career readiness at the community college and university levels
