Tracey Beal was leading college students on service trips all over the world when she realized there were needs at home in Phoenix where they could help. Her experience with schools in other countries helped her realize they were the lifeblood of any community and a perfect place to make a difference.

She began to bring businesses, churches, nonprofits, and university students together to serve Phoenix schools, and found there were other organizations who wanted to help, but didn’t know how to go about it.

That’s when School Connect was born. Today, it serves more than 700 public and charter schools in Arizona, and the model is being used in locations from Louisiana to Texas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and California.

Listen to Tracey’s interview to learn how she took a simple idea and nurtured it to help students and their families.

 Click here to learn more about School Connect: https://schoolconnectaz.org/

Original air date: December 30, 2021

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