Leading the Path to Citizenship from the Front Clay Jones Clay Jones - veteran fighter pilot, retired CEO and Fortune 500 Corporate board member has taught citizenship preparation classes at Grace Place for the past six years. His story inspires us and his students. In 1967, facing uncertainty as a high school senior, Clay heeded [...]
Golden Gate Middle School Principal Advocates for After-School Programs Amid Challenges Dr. Jennifer Knutkowski In addition to overcoming post-pandemic achievement gaps and disruptions following Hurricane Ian, Dr. Jennifer Knutkowski, principal of Golden Gate Middle School, faces another significant challenge. A significant number of Golden Gate Middle School students are English Language Learner (ELL) students and arrive [...]
The Grace Place Approach Fostering Reading Proficiency and Educational Success in Golden Gate Communities Reading proficiently by the end of third grade has been adopted nationally as an important educational milestone. It is at this point that students begin to shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”. Without the ability to read instinctively, [...]
Harmony in Action: Food Pantry Volunteers and Donors When it opened in 2008, the Food Pantry was a small but important addition to the programs offered for Grace Place families. Good nutrition helps students show up at school prepared to learn, so helping with groceries seemed like a good idea. Fast forward through several hurricanes [...]
Meet Dilia – A Lifelong Student DILIA’S STORY Adult Education at Grace Place is designed to promote family literacy and serve the general education needs of adults in Golden Gate. Dilia is one of those students. Nineteen years ago, Dilia left Chapas, Mexico, with her infant son after her husband passed away. An uncle living [...]
Wreaths of Grace: A Festive Fusion of Design and Charity A Grinch-themed wreath made by two mothers in the Bright Beginnings Program. Twenty talented interior designers from the Interior Design Society (IDS) Naples showcased their skills by crafting unique holiday wreaths, Wreaths of Grace, to benefit Grace Place. The wreaths each reflected diverse [...]
High School LEAD Program prepares students for life CAROLINA’S STORY For more than eight years, Carolina has participated in programs at Grace Place. “When I was little, I always wanted to be at Grace Place, to be with my friends and to learn from my teachers,” said Carolina. “I feel like I grew up there. [...]
A New and Brighter Beginning Eba credits the Bright Beginnings Family Literacy Program® with changing her mindset about what it means for her and husband, Trinidad, to be good parents to their 4-year-old twin daughters, Alexa and Alesandra. She was hesitant to join a class last fall. Their daughters had been enrolled in [...]
The Choice Academies: With Aspiration Comes Success The Grace Place Middle School Choice Academies are 10-week programs that allow students like 7th graders Tony and Gabby, to study subjects they are intrinsically interested in and have a desire to pursue as part of their future life goals. Students rotate to a new academy after completing [...]
From Grace Place to Charles de Gaulle Airport: The Journey of Wood Bien Ami Wood Bien Ami graduated from the Grace Place LEAD Program in the spring of 2022. Living in Golden Gate was just one stop in this incredible young man’s journey to adulthood. Wood was born in Haiti and immigrated to the [...]