CHELSEA LANGsTON BOMBINO
Editor's Note: This article first appeared in Religion Unplugged in a column from Sacred Sector Director Chelsea Langston Bombino that explores religious freedom in the United States.
Like many other school districts around the country, Columbus City Schools (CCS) announced midsummer that they will not reopen for in-person instruction this fall due to COVID-19. While the district has an online learning system, almost a quarter of all CCS students never received instruction through it when schools closed earlier this year. Now church networks and faith-based nonprofits around the city have realized they have resources that could provide a solution to this pressing need.
In a collaborative effort with Catalyst, the Columbus Dream Center and other faith-based nonprofits, the faith community is coordinating an effort dubbed ‘For Columbus Kids’ to offer CCS students Learning Extension Centers (LECs). An LEC is a safe, adult-supervised environment provided by a faith-based or neighborhood partner organization in which students can work on their online learning. LECs follow public health recommendations, including mask wearing, social distancing and thorough sanitizing. They also offer students and families instructional assistance, access to meals, peer engagement and connections to other supports, such as spiritual community, if desired.
Collaboration Response to Community Need
The local school district noted that the need for LECs was identified through interactions with families of students, who made clear that they did not, often, have an adult-supervised, safe place for their children to do their online learning. In July, local faith leaders met with the Columbus City Schools to discuss the multi-dimensional needs of students and the ways in which churches and faith groups could coordinate to help meet these needs. As an outgrowth of the conversation with CCS, faith groups across Columbus recognized that they had resources - in the form of physical space, reliable volunteers, and connections to other community supports - that families could benefit from. Catalyst for Columbus, a faith-based nonprofit focused on Gospel-centered flourishing in Columbus, launched a comprehensive resource-sharing platform, ForColumbusKids.com, to prepare churches, faith-based organizations (FBOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) interested in becoming LECs. These congregations and ministries moved forward on the opportunity to “partner with CCS by opening our church buildings all over the city, providing internet, computers, meals and the love of Jesus.”
The result has been coordination and the facilitation of community partnerships across multiple FBO and CBO networks to implement over 75 Learning Extension Centers (LECs). The local school district is “not endorsing or sponsoring the learning extension centers, but is helping to connect them with families in need.” Alesia Gillison, chief engagement officer at CCS, told the Columbus Dispatch: “[This] is a model of engaging the entire community to address the educational and social-emotional needs of our students and families.”
This coordinated effort by faith-based nonprofits across Columbus is an example of churches and FBOs living out their faith-based commitments to both honor God and to love their neighbors. In short, this is an example of religious freedom lived out. In the article Sacred Public Partnerships, Collin Slowey writes: “When the religious freedom of organizations is protected, they are able to serve communities in diverse and distinctive ways.”
The ‘For Columbus Kids’ effort advances the Gospel mission of participating churches and FBOs, giving them a tangible means of living out Matthew 14:19. This coordinated network of congregations and ministries has been able to advance a shared vision that every student in need of a safe place to go for online instructional time would have one. Below, I discuss briefly how this collaboration works, exploring: (1) these LECs’ awareness of public policies, both public health guidance and the governmental rules on religious organizations and government partnerships; (2) how these LECs are engaging in best practices to safeguard the social-emotional and physical health of students; and (3) how these LECs are offering a positive public witness of a cross-sector collaboration that can serve as a model for other localities. It is worth noting, this collaboration between congregations, faith-based networks and the local school district could be carried out quickly and comprehensively in Columbus both because of the strong, pre-existing faith-based networks and because of successful past collaboration between religious organizations and other groups.
Public Policy Awareness
The ‘For Columbus Kids’ network has recognized the importance of educating participating churches and FBOs about the public policies and legal information that they may need to be aware of in order to protect their freedom to serve, to protect those they are serving, and to form official and unofficial partnerships with government (if they so choose), including the local school district. The Sample Handbook provided by the Dream Center advises: “Regulatory Awareness-Be aware of local or state regulatory agency policies related to group gatherings to determine if events can be held.” The Dream Center has also made available a COVID-19 Safety Guidelines resource, citing CDC public health guidance and making recommendations for churches to align their practices to these guidelines (see more below).
‘For Columbus Kids’ has also engaged in efforts to educate congregations and ministries interested in hosting LECs on the legal framework for entering into an official partnership with Columbus City Schools. In an FAQ, ‘For Columbus Kids’ advises FBOs that decide to enter into an official partnership with Columbus City Schools they do not forfeit their freedom to offer LEC students ‘Bible programming/prayer/etc.,’ provided such explicitly religious programs are offered on a voluntary basis in a separate time and space. The guidance also notes that churches and FBOs have the option of entering into an unofficial partnership with Columbus City Schools, and that: “Unofficial partners have a lot more flexibility to host bible programming, prayer, etc.”
Organizational Practices
The Learning Extension Centers are committed, out of a Christ-centered commitment to providing children with the safest environments possible, to living out best practices with respect to public health guidance. As such, the ‘For Columbus Kids’ platform has offered a specific model COVID-19 Protocols for LECs. This guidance provides sample policies for LECs to adopt, including temperature checks, the provision of masks, assigned seating, social distancing, a parent/visitor policy that limits entrance in LECs to students only, and regular handwashing.
The LECs are also being coordinated through micro-networks within the ‘For Columbus Kids’ network. For example, the Columbus Dream Center is sponsoring at least 20 LECs, offering Handbooks, coverage for volunteer background checks, training resources for volunteers, PPE, meals for students, and internet access. To try to support the spectrum of needs each child has, each LEC is recommended to fill the following volunteer roles: check-in leader, site leader, instructional leader, technology leader, and licensed mental health professional. ‘For Columbus Kids’ also encourages prospective LECs to require background checks for all volunteers, require a volunteer training on abuse awareness, and take other steps to reduce their legal risks
Positive Public Witness
‘For Columbus Kids’ recognizes that these LECs offer an opportunity to provide a positive public witness in their communities. These efforts have already been covered by media outlets, both faith-based and secular. And, these efforts have been offered as a model to the Association of Related Churches and Dream Center Network. The Sample Learning Extension Center Handbook, clearly articulates the public witness value of entering into unlikely partnerships between the church and local school districts:
“These kids & families will remember it was the Church who came to their rescue when the schools were shut down, when the libraries were shut down, when the rec centers were shut down. It was the Church that walked alongside them, loved them, encouraged them, met their needs when they were in crisis. It was the Church who made the Gospel tangible to them. What a testimony to the love of Christ!”
How Local Communities and Ministries Across the Country Can Consider Collaboration
If there is a city or locality interested in adopting the ‘For Columbus Kids’ model to provide learning extension centers, they can start by visiting this Resource Center. The Columbus Dream Center also provides a Resources Guide designed to be used as a starting point for faith-based organizations or churches across the country interested in opening an LEC. It recommends that congregations “Ask, Align, and Act.” This general frame encourages FBOs to reach out to local schools and ask what the needs are and where the needs are greatest. It recommends that FBOs “align your response to the needs.” It calls for, at minimum, a safe space, internet access, meal provision, and instructional assistance for students. It also encourages: “The support given at an LEC could extend into partnering with a counseling agency, providing groceries to enrolled families, weekend meals, school supplies, etc.” The resources offered here, and discussed briefly above, are only a starting point for each community to assess its own place-based needs and assets and to develop a plan for serving students based on the particulars of that locality.
In a recent article, The Paradox of the Black Church and Religious Freedom, Jacqueline Rivers writes: “Enacted religious freedom [is] acting in a manner consistent with faith commitments even when appeals to religious freedom are not expressly articulated by the actors.” The ‘For Columbus Kids’ coordinated efforts to launch these Learning Extension Centers throughout Columbus can serve as a model to other churches, faith-based nonprofits and community-based organizations around the country which are assessing how they can serve children and families in their communities who lack the support they need during this uncertain time. ‘For Columbus Kids’ efforts are not explicitly framed as advocacy for, or embodiment of, religious freedom. Yet, it is worth noting that the ‘For Columbus Kids’ effort is bringing churches and FBOs together across racial, cultural and denominational lines and encouraging these groups to fully live into their right to remain free to serve.
Chelsea Langston Bombino is the director of Sacred Sector, an initiative of the Center for Public Justice. Sacred Sector is a learning community for faith-based organizations and emerging leaders within the faith-based nonprofit sector to integrate and fully embody their sacred missions in every area of organizational life.
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