The Georgia United Foundation in partnership with the Georgia United Credit Union is excited to announce that Westside Elementary School in Whitfield County is a 2023 Georgia United Foundation School Crashers grant recipient.
School Crashers is one of the foundation’s largest community service programs that offers schools across the state an opportunity to apply for a school facility makeover. The program strengthens communities by supporting local school systems with the end goal of improving the learning environment for the students, faculty and staff.
Westside Elementary School, home of the Rockets, is a Title I school in the northwest corner of Whitfield County in Rocky Face. The school’s prekindergarten through fifth grade students come from all walks of life, including the highest number of elementary-age special education students in the county, and some members of the overall student body struggle to manage the variety of emotions they encounter on a daily basis.
According to the school’s counselor, 20% of Westside Elementary students have struggled with behavior regulation during the current academic year. A sensory room, made possible by School Crashers and Mohawk Flooring grants, will help provide the environment and stimuli needed for students to regain emotion regulation and transition back to classroom learning faster. Access to a sensory classroom will give the faculty the opportunity to provide any student with emotional dysregulation a safe place to decompress in efforts to return to academic learning.
Through the previous nine years, Georgia United’s School Crashers program has positively impacted 43,666 children across 63 schools by creating inspiring learning spaces and facility improvements valued at more than $1.8 million. Funding for the program is provided by the Georgia United Foundation and generous donations made by community partners. The selected schools will receive project improvements during the summer before the start of the new school year.
The School Crashers nomination period opened in February to all accredited k-12 schools in Georgia. Interested schools were asked to include a photograph along with a 250-word essay describing why their school should receive a makeover. Nominations were received from 247 applicant schools and after a rigorous judging process seven schools have been slated to receive school improvements during the summer.
“We are looking forward to serving our communities and strengthening our school systems through the tenth annual School Crashers program,” said Georgia United President and CEO Debbie Smith. “The Georgia United Foundation, credit union team members, generous donors, community partners and volunteers make this a worthwhile community service event, where we provide inspiring learning spaces for the students, faculty and staff. By the end of the summer we anticipate that School Crashers projects will have impacted a total of 70 individual schools with improvements valued at more than $2 million.”
To learn more about the School Crashers program and view photos of past School Crashers recipients, visit gucufoundation.org/schoolcrashers.