The Education Foundation provides education opportunities and access to medical attention for our children by offering scholarships and grants to students and teachers in Miami Beach and its feeder pattern schools.
Donate to the Education Foundation
Donate to Teacher Grants (Links Program)
Donate to Project Upstart
- Provides school bag and other items including uniforms that may be a school requirement – $500
- Provides meals for one student for the entire s book year. These funds are provided to the parent that has agreed to house a student – $1,000
Mission
To identify and support the needs of public education in Miami Beach and its feeder pattern schools.
Vision
To maximize the quality of education and expand opportunities for our children.
HELP EXPAND OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR CHILDREN
For more information on the Education Foundation, please contact Enid Rodriguez at enid@liashapiro.com
Programs
IB Program
Proceeds from the golf tournament have funded over $200,000 worth of programming costs for the International Baccalaureate (IB) program throughout the years. This program, available at all the public schools in the City of Miami Beach feeder pattern, helps develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills of students ages 3 to 19 and gives them the necessary tools to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world. In addition, the Chamber’s Education Foundation will use additional funds raised to complete its mission to support the needs of public education by donating scholarship funds to graduating seniors from Miami Beach Senior High School at the end of the school year.
The Gala raises funds for the Chamber’s 501(c)3 Education Foundation.
Healthcare
The Foundation has built an incredible coalition of support for a healthcare program within each of the eight schools in our Miami Beach feeder pattern. We have provided a school nurse and a full-time assistant in three of the schools along with various other health screenings for the past three school years. Additionally, last year we were able to include a social worker in those same schools and the success of the program was so great that we were asked to expand the social work benefit to the other five schools in the feeder pattern for this year. We have been able to garner the support financially for these services by taking the initiative and being awarded an initial grant of $30,000 in 2013 when we won first place in the National Aetna Voices of Health competition. With that win, we successfully garnered additional financial support from the Health Foundation of South Florida which provided $62,500 as a challenge grant if could match those dollars from the five neighboring municipalities within which the children live that attend our schools. Once again, we were successful in lobbying and earning the support from all five cities: Miami Beach, North Bay Village, Surfside, Bay Harbor Island, and Bal Harbour.
Links – Teachers Grants Initiative
We provide as many as three teachers’ grants of up to $1,000 a piece in each of the eight public schools that are part of the Miami Beach public school feeder pattern. We call this the “Links Project” as it demonstrates the “linkage” between the business community, from whom we raise the funds, and public education. Every teacher in all eight schools are eligible to make an application that is pre-approved by their department chair and principal prior to submission to the Chamber Education Foundation. The proposals must discuss their desire to create a new and innovative program within the teacher’s classroom that could not exist without this Chamber grant. The application must specify the number of children that will benefit from the establishment of their program.
Scholarships
We provide college scholarships to deserving seniors each year after the application process which includes a written application and an interview. Last year we awarded 12 $1,000 scholarships to Miami Beach High graduates.
The Miami Beach Chamber Education Foundation raises funds to reinvest in public education, where we feel the greatest return can be found. The programs cited above provide the 10,000 school age children in our community the benefits of a wellness program so they can stay in school and concentrate on learning. We are also especially proud of our Links Project and the opportunities that our grants provide that enable students to learn from innovative and challenging new programs that their teachers create in the classroom as a result of the Links Project.
Awards
The Education Foundation won 2016 “Best Community Impact” award impact by Action Coach organization.
Virtual Tours
Tour our Miami Beach Schools by clicking the button below.
