Neighborhood Nonprofit Spotlight: PENCIL

Patch talks to PENCIL about the work it does to give Nashville Students the best educational experience possible.

Patch: Tell Patch a little bit about your organization!

PENCIL: Who we are Mission: Linking community resources with Nashville Public Schools to help young people achieve academic success and prepare for life. Students thrive in school when given the opportunities to be successful. We are one of the nation's largest networks of businesses, universities, faith-based organizations and volunteers engaged in public schools. With more than 800 PENCIL Partners directly supporting Nashville students and teachers every day, we believe that community involvement is key to students' academic success.

PENCIL is a registered 501(c)(3). What we do It's simple - we recruit businesses that support MNPS schools with resources and volunteers. These volunteers tutor elementary school students to get them reading on grade level. These volunteers share technical skills with high school students to prepare them for college and career. These volunteers donate school supplies to our LP PENCIL Box to increase the resources available to all students across the district. It the community working together to make sure our students are prepared for school and life.

Patch: How does your organization help to strengthen the local organization?

PENCIL: PENCIL is an acronym for Public Education Needs Community Involvement and Leadership. We believe we foster growth on both sides of the volunteer equation. Obviously students are finding more success because volunteers from community businesses, faith organizations and universities are actively involved in their education serving as tutors,mentors and role models. But these community organizations are equally enriched in having the opportunity to give back and to serve. Employers tells us that their employees find greater work satisfaction if they have the opportunity to share their time and knowledge helping others. It’s a wonderful win-win relationship for Nashville’s growing population!

Patch: What is the biggest struggle your organization faces?

PENCIL: PENCIL has amazing community partners who are passionate about public education and community involvement in schools. But recruiting and managing robust and meaningful relationships takes a lot of time and manpower. With only one elementary, one middle and one high school partnership director to serve more than 150 schools and 87,000 students,we wish we could do more. And the schools wish we could do more. We get more requests each day for school partnerships and we cannot get to them all. We are working hard – more than 850 current partners, but what if we had 1000 active partners in our schools? Imagine the impact!

Patch: What do you hope for the future of your nonprofit?

PENCIL: PENCIL can’t wait for the day when every school has more PENCIL Partnersthen they know what to do with and every student is excited and thriving in school! We are seeing it! More students are graduating; Fewer students are skipping school. With community involvement and real life experiences available, students are looking forward to coming to school and learning. They are seeing a future for themselves that they might not have seen before. The future looks bright. And we love that!

Image via PENCIL