Staff Reports
GNV4ALL has planned a Saturday event entitled “We’re Growing Greatness” spring celebration at the Gainesville Empowerment Zone Family Learning Center.
The event, which will begin at 11 a.m. and run through 4 p.m., will be held at the Family Learning Center located on the Metcalfe Elementary School campus (1250 NE 18th Ave., Bldg. 11).
GNV4ALL President and CEO James Lawrence said the event is a public celebration of the learning center’s opening last August and the nearly four years of planning and fundraising it took to make the center happen.
“We want to thank the community, our many partners, who include the Alachua County School Board, Alachua County and the city of Gainesville, as well as private donors who helped to make the family learning center a reality,” said Lawrence in a press release. “We’re well on our way to tackling some of the most debilitating problems plaguing the Gainesville area community.”
Among the problems Lawrence said is the widening academic achievement gap between black and white students in Alachua County. He said the center seeks to narrow the gap as it reaches out to low-income children as early as six weeks old while connecting their families to community services.
“By using this approach in a more systematic way, we believe we can show the way to preparing more kindergarten-ready children from low-income households,’’ Lawrence said.
Tours of the facility will be available at the event and families will be able to enroll children ages six weeks to 4 years old for the current school year and the term that begins in August.