Manchester Proud, helped by City Year, launched community-driven movement focused on schools

Manchester Proud – a citizen’s coalition committed to uniting Manchester behind an aspirational vision for the city’s schools – launched a month-long canvassing effort on September 15 by knocking on over 500 doors and talking with over 150 Manchester residents.

Volunteers engaged residents about the city, the schools, and peoples’ visions for what they hope Manchester’s schools will become in the future.

City Year co-sponsored Saturday’s canvass. City Year corps members, working alongside students, educators, and other members of the Manchester community:

• Knocked on over 500 doors;
• Held over 150 conversations about Manchester’s schools; and,
• Distributed over 350 flyers telling residents how to fill out Manchester Proud’s community survey and other ways to become more involved in efforts to transform learning in the city.

Manchester Proud intends, “to bring the community together to create a strategic plan for the school district that is truly by and for the people of Manchester,” said Barry Brensinger.

“We were particularly pleased by how engaged residents were with our canvassers–we were hoping to have a 20% conversation rate for the number of doors we visited and we ended up over 30%,” noted Brensinger. “People are clearly excited by the idea of a community-driven movement focused on our schools and we saw tremendous buy-in on the importance of valuing all perspectives and going door-to-door to talk with residents in a truly inclusive fashion.”

Manchester Proud will hold additional canvassing days in September and October and invites and welcomes members of the community to join. To see the schedule and sign up to canvass, go to the web page  or check out Manchester Proud on Facebook. Manchester Proud also invites nonprofits, businesses, places of worship, and other Manchester organizations to co-sponsor a canvass – email to find out more.

Manchester Proud is a New Hampshire Voluntary Association committed to championing success for Manchester’s Students. Manchester Proud is committed to fully-fund a community-driven, year-long effort to create a new strategic plan for the Manchester School District.