What We Do

As a society, we have come to a deeper understanding of the deleterious effects of anxiety and stress and the underlying causes of both.  SDOC and CEF stand strongly behind the belief that concrete steps can be taken to alleviate both in our student community.  Space and programs have been established that support mindfulness, quietude, relaxation, and comfortable places to decompress among friends.  Grants have been awarded to alleviate anxiety through programming and spaces that are curated with a thoughtful assembly of music, books, games, and furniture.

Our recent Grants include:

• SBS DON'T Walk the Halls: A Path to Success

• SBS Books to Bloom Social Emotional Learning

• MAS Mindful Mondays at MAS, Nicholas Andreazza

• CHS Rest and Relaxation Room, Lisa Lattarulo & Andrea Murphy

• MAS, WAS, SBS and LAF GoZen Anxiety Busting Program, Kelly Medvin, Cindy Weiner, Carole Soder & Abby Silverman

Grants of Innovative Classroom Furniture or “Learniture,” benefit every school in the district.  Our grants create collaborative workspaces to help Special Ed classrooms teach writing and Design & Tech students brainstorm, design and build.  We create cozy reading nooks and keep students’ minds in motion.  We help our school foster relaxation and anti-stress spaces.

Our most recent grants include: 

• MAS Learning Takes Flexibility, Trauger, Wertheim, Zimmer, Vega and Kerr

• WAS Flexible Furniture, Kristine Dudlo

• MAS Library Furniture, Nicholas Andreazza and Jill Mills

• LAF Minds in Motion Part II, Cheryl Russo

• CMS Stools for Safety, Rachel Goldbery and Kristen Crawford

• CMS Flexible Seating, Marisa Sgroi

• CHS Learniture, Darren Groh

• CHS The Space is the Place, Kristi Froisland and Bridget Zima

• K-3 Flexible Seating for Flexible Minds, Amanda Turton, Samantha Stojanov & Allison Tierney

CEF works with the district to offer professional development and build an inspired, motivated and skilled faculty.  Recent Grant Awards include:

Building Voices: A Summer Experience for Chatham Educators
CHS TEDxYouth@Chatham

The Arts

• CHS Digital Pen Tablets for Design & Visual Art

Literacy

• WAS We Both Read Student/Parent Project
• CHS Let's Read Books Together!
• CMS Diversifying the Classroom Library
• WAS Enhancing our Classroom Libraries with Nonfiction
• WAS Nonfiction How To Books

STEM

• MAS Boogie Boards in School
• WAS Differentiated Math Activities
• CHS the Thinking Math Classroom

Language

• See the World with Virtual Reality

CEF looks forward to helping our students and teachers return to school safely for the 2020-21 School Year.  We are positioned to help fund grants that provide innovative, safe outdoor learning, as well as necessary supplies to keep our classrooms clean and our students and teachers safe.