About the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Center for School, Family, and Community

Nurturing connections that promote youth success, equity, citizenship, career development, and lifelong learning

The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) has worked throughout its 40-plus-year history to improve education for children, youth, and adults.

NWREL's Center for School, Family, and Community helps families, educators, and communities work together to enhance student learning at all stages of life. We believe that learning isn't restricted to the school building or the school day. Everyone must work together to strengthen families, improve schools, and give children the academic and life skills they need to succeed. Our center conducts research and provides training, technical assistance, and evaluation through a broad range of programs:

Child and Family—

Our child and family development specialists give teachers, human service providers, and family members the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to help children grow and learn. By providing information, conducting research and program evaluation, and developing research-based products, we help lay the foundation for the child's success from the early years through school and beyond.

National Mentoring Center—

We operate a national program that provides coaching, training, and peer networking to improve youth mentoring practices. By collaborating with other local, state, and national partners, we help youth mentoring programs build strong agency capacity, sustainable resources, and effective community links.

Volunteer Leadership Center—

We help strengthen programs that engage volunteers to meet critical community needs. Through both national and regional partnerships, we provide training and technical assistance to AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve America programs. National work includes training and support for tutor and mentor programs, as well as antipoverty efforts. Regional events promote collaboration, provide leadership training, and celebrate the volunteer experience.

Education, Career, and Community—

We use the community as a resource in linking education and career development through contextual teaching and learning both within and outside schools. As an overarching program of the center, we facilitate seamless connections among all the other areas: providing assistance in capacity-building, generating research and evaluation ideas, facilitating collaborations, synthesizing and sharing research findings for broader dissemination, providing evaluation services, and assisting in data analysis.

About Us:

Our services are varied, and so are the talents and knowledge of our center's staff. Led by Dr. Eve McDermott, we have expertise in early childhood education, school/family/community partnerships, educational leadership, adult education, after-school programs, educational technology, and volunteer leadership. We also have ready access to the rich resources within NWREL, throughout the Regional Educational Laboratory network, and across the nation.

Center for School, Family, and Community
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
101 SW Main St., Suite 500
Portland, OR 97204

E-mail: mcdermoe@nwrel.org
Telephone: 503-275-9599 or 800-547-6339
Fax: 503-275-0133
www.nwrel.org