Kidbridge

What do you get when you join a city school with a suburban school and/or suburban community? REF's Kidbridge program, 2008-2009, worked to ensure that the result was positive, educational and fun for all students involved.

During the 2008-2009 school year, educators in the program coordinated by REF:

• Created a Solar System Fair at R.I.T., a program partner, for third grade students at School 9 and Pittsford.

Friends from Victor and RCSD read together.

• Enabled fourth grade students at School 9 and Pittsford to attend Pittsford's Pioneer Day Celebration during which students see how early pioneers lived.
• Created a model Solar System curriculum unit for third graders featuring science and communication via blogs, podcasts and other media, which Pittsford and city educators hope to expand.
• Supported a journalism club for School 22 students in a partnership with WROC-TV Channel 8.
• Received support from business partner Wards Scientific to provide science materials for students in the program.
• Obtained videophones and videophone service for participating classrooms in the spring of 2009 as an in-kind gift from 5Linx, a local technology company. This allowed partners to see one another on a daily basis while working together -- and to "visit" interesting people through videophones, such as Red Wings baseball players and scientists at Wards Scientific.

The REF "Kidbridge" program was based on the idea that urban and suburban communities can help one another within a school partnership -- and that a partnership makes both communities stronger.

The program was modeled after the successful five-year partnership between the Town of Victor and School 22. Karen Guidarelli, the coordinator for Kidbridge, co-founded the Victor-School 22 partnership, with Buddies, Bridges and Brains, an independent Victor group. The School 22-Victor partnership has involved hundreds of people from Victor, including adults and students, faith communities and businesses.