Baltimore County, MD Hello Baltimore County, 4 Oct 2017

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From YouTube: Education Foundation of BCPS

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Executive Director Debbie Phelps shares how you can help them support County schools.

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Welcome to hello! baltimore county., I'm your host, ellen kobler., baltimore, county's education foundation supports baltimore county public schools' commitment to graduate.

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Globally, competitive students by offering scholarship opportunities.

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And providing school-based grants to enhance 21st century learning.

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Here to tell us all about the foundation's impact and goals.

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Is executive director debbie phelps.?

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Thank you so much for joining us. Today.

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My pleasure. always a pleasure to be here.

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Thank you. so tell us a little bit more about the education foundation., the education foundation,. This is our 25th year.

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Congratulations!, thank you very much!, founded in 1992.. I came on as the leader of the foundation in 2012.

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And I feel that we have definitely gone from --.

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I'm going to say a toddler to a preschooler,, even maybe a first-grader.

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In our growth as how we've worked to mobilize the community to support public education in baltimore, county.

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excellent! and you have a number of different grant, programs.

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Let's start with your 21st century --, you call them the ini, grants.

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Yes. you know,, we have what I call a trifecta of how we support our students.

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And our teachers and one being a grant process or a grant program,.

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Which has been around since about 2010, 2011, and they're three-pronged now., so we have a 21st century, instructional initiative, grant --.

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That's where our schools and offices can apply for grants up to $2,000.

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All centered around 21st century themed., all in line with blueprint, 2.0 and their school progress, plan.

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But over the past couple, years, we've grown through our partnership with hotspots,, where we also run 21st century enrichment, grants...

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That sounds good.. It's really exciting.

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they're $3,000 grants for our elementary schools.

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and the thing about these grants. That is the difference. Is that.

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There's a community engagement activity or program after the grant, implementation.

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Number three grant,, which we're so excited: about, partnering with our county executive, kevin kamenetz and the baltimore county government is our team. Bcps clean, green 15, grant.

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Now,, you don't apply for that grant..

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That means competition.

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Kobler: ah-ha!: that's the team--, the different schools and communities team, up,, huh?.

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Phelps: absolutely., so our team bcps grant is working to keep our community clean.

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We can start inside our school, go outside our school,, but to take our arms out into the community and to be able to bring partners in --.

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Faith-Based groups, boy, scouts, girl, scouts, advocacy groups with environmental literacy that want to help our schools to be able to keep everything clean and healthy.

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Yeah. just kind of go pick up some litter and...

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How does it work? you...? easy. easy., we like easy.

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You know, 15 minutes a day.. Everyone has 15 minutes to be able to go out to pick up trash,.

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To take care of litter, and then to document it.

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So you go on our website, or the government website, and there's a database. log in your school,. How many 15 cleanups did you do?.

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How many volunteers helped you? and this database keeps on accumulating throughout this entire year.

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So ellen, this is fall. we're starting now.. This is the best time.. The best time. get out there before the snow, falls. clean up that area. and then start tabulating that information.

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and then, when spring comes in may,, we celebrate, don't we?.

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Kobler: yeah, that's nice. and we get to award our grant money. very exciting.

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And just a little bit of-- picking up a little bit of litter,, it's just incredible because what happens is litter tends to be magnetic., phelps: absolutely.. If somehow people litter, are prone to littering,, if they see it,, they think oh, okay,. This is all right., but if they see people out there, picking it up, -- kids,, adults,, whomever.

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So important. very good. tell us a little more about these enrichment grants in the schools.

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The enrichment grants, again, 21 century-themed,.

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Again, aligns with the school progress plan,, but you want to make sure that we are working with business partners in the community.

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To be able to bring their expertise to the schoolhouse., maybe financial literacy., it might be health literacy.. It may be clean, green literacy with our environment.

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So, we want to bring, in that type of grant, bring our business partners into the school house.

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Kobler:, so the kids can actually see some of what they're learning in the classroom.

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And how it applies in the real world for jobs.

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Always an alignment.: we want things to be authentic for our children --, for them to see what can happen. If we don't pick up our litter or if we don't do certain things.

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so, teach them at a very young age and they become the citizens of tomorrow.

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And you have a deadline for some of your grants, right?.

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Grant application is online now. and we're taking and accepting through october 20th.

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in fact, it's been online all summer long, so get those grant writing skills in and get those grants applied.

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And we want to make sure that we have judges out there.

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every grant is scored three times by judges in the field.

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And then we award the money in november before thanksgiving.

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Kobler: all right, and speaking of the money, tell us a little bit about your sponsors.

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Oh. well,, you know,, I said the competition with the team, bcps team.

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We have sponsors who want to help us too., and we have two. This year, earth-friendly sponsors:.

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Wheelabrator,, which is really exciting., they are also offering field trips down to their plant.

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Their waste to energy facility. yeah.

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trash goes in,. Energy comes out. right!, so students can watch the trash, leave, their schoolhouse, go down, there, and watch how it disappears., interesting. and bg&e is always supportive with the environment..

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So those are two big sponsors. This year.

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looking for more., because the more money that we can award our schools,.

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The cleaner our environment is going to be.

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All right. and the more enrichment and initiative and grants.

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And opportunities you can provide.

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absolutely., so we're looking for partners.

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We're also looking for judges. so go to our website,. Give us a call at the headquarters..

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We would love for you to be an ambassador for our children in baltimore, county public schools., excellent.

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Because team bcps includes you too, right?, it does., that's the concept.

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It's everyone. yeah. excellent.

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Well, thank you so much for what you do and for spending time with us today. my pleasure. go team bcps!, (, laughter, ), all right., and thanks for watching hello!, baltimore county..

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We invite you to connect with baltimore county government on all of our social media platforms, and we will see you next time.

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( ♪♪♪ ).

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