Some of the solutions to Greater Des Moines’ workforce talent shortage are busy preparing for their future careers in the classrooms at Findley Elementary School, through an amazing nonprofit partnership that’s now in its fourth academic year. And it’s a partnership that’s going to continue to expand its reach to some of the lowest-income families in Des Moines — provided it can get sufficient contributions from folks who recognize the potential payback to the community. 

I first visited the school in April 2017 for a Business Record story about the Dreamer Academy — a signature program of the I Have a Dream Foundation. Last week the nonprofit announced that it has ended its affiliation with the national organization to become a fully local nonprofit — the By Degrees Foundation. 

The Dreamer Academy — an all-school program launched in 2014 at Findley by the foundation — focuses on identifying and addressing obstacles that children of low-income families have in preparing for college, in part by opening and seeding a College Savings Iowa account for every student at the school. The nonprofit has also helped the school to establish partnerships with five Iowa colleges — Drake University, DMACC, Central College, Grand View University and the University of Iowa. Between kindergarten and fifth grade, a Findley student will visit all five. And that’s just part of the in-school and out-of-school programming provided.  

Emily Westergaard, executive director of By Degrees, said the foundation has some big fundraising goals over the next five years. The sooner it reaches those goals, the sooner it can expand the program more fully to Harding Middle School and North High School. The nonprofit will need to raise more than $770,000 over the next five years for an aggressive operating budget that calls for doubling its annual outlays by the 2022-23 school year. 
 

The growing budget will help expand programming at Harding — where By Degrees last year began providing college visits for students at each grade level and also hosted a building-wide career day. Coming up next year, the nonprofit hopes to expand college savings accounts — which now just the students coming up from Findley bring with them — to all Harding students. 

By Degrees is currently in its observation and learning phase at North High School. Its goal is to be serving all of North’s students, regardless of whether they attended Harding or Findley, within about the next two years. Heather Isaacson, By Degrees’ program director at North, is already working with the school’s leadership to develop career opportunities, to include expanding internship programs, Westergaard said. 

With those older students at North, “we can really start to identify more clearly what careers students are interested in,” Westergaard said. “And then create more customized career exploration — and job opportunities — for those students.” 

For more information, visit By Degrees’ website: 
www.bydegreesfoundation.org