Grassroots Leadership
Building Up a Community
Through the Individuals in It
Our Grassroots Leadership team exists to meet families where they live, work, and go to school. The team organizes opportunities for South Salt Lake and Kearns residents to have a seat at the table and take the lead. They do this by facilitating conversations, breaking down barriers between institutions and community members, and teaching families so that they feel confident exercising power in the decisions that are made for them and their children.
The City of South Salt Lake has an extensive grassroots network of staff that work directly with the community, such as family liaisons and after-school coordinators. Partnerships with Granite School District as well as United Way of Salt Lake’s community school directors create opportunities to interact with community members and involve them in leadership development opportunities.
Grassroots Leadership in the Community
The Grassroots Leadership team partners with a variety of organizations to promote discussion, community leadership, and community involvement. Learn more about their events and programs.
Early Learning
Early Learning
The Grassroots Leadership team organizes opportunities for parents of children, ages 5 and younger, to learn tips on raising their children so they can grow up healthy and ready for kindergarten. They host workshops where parents can learn how to better play with their kids as well as help administer the Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), a method designed to help parents gauge that their kids are on track developmentally.
Parent Café
Parent Cafés
The Grassroots Leadership team works with schools in Kearns and South Salt Lake to improve their family engagement strategies. One way they do this is at Parent Cafés. At a Parent Café, parents are invited to sit down for dinner to discuss what is happening at their kid's schools. It gives them a chance to connect with other parents as well as school staff and voice their opinions on topics such as school communication, safety, and education.
Language Groups
Language Groups
70% of Utah's school-aged refugees live in Granite School District. Our Grassroots Leadership team organizes language-based groups with parents living in the district. Along with partners from Granite School District, our grassroots team spearheads conversations covering the American school system, ways to support their child in a new culture, how to talk to teens about sex, how to deal with stress, and more. The team also teaches parents activities to support brain development in their young children.
Community Research
Community Research
The Grassroots Leadership team brings on aspiring community organizers who live, breathe, and intimately know the neighborhoods and communities of South Salt Lake and Kearns. Our Grassroots Leadership Organizers conduct Participatory Action Research, a method where our organizers work with participants to better understand their communities’ greatest concerns and aspirations, to jointly identify matters, and to build leadership that can lead to action and transformation.
We're always looking for community members who are interested in joining the conversation. Check out our paid studies:
Grassroots Stories
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Guest Blog: How United Way of Salt Lake’s Grassroots Work Helped Me Build Up My Community
Editor’s Note: A portion of this blog was presented at United Way of Salt Lake’s 2019 United for Change event, where Abdi’s work with our grassroots leadership team was […]
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How parents can gauge their child’s development
By Kelly Schmidt, content manager for United Way of Salt Lake Children start learning long before their first day of kindergarten. From the time they are born, children are learning […]
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Guest Blog: Takeaways from my Time as a Grassroots Leadership Fellow
The Grassroots Fellowship is a part-time program that inspires and trains young adults from the communities of Kearns and South Salt Lake to take a leadership role in building up […]
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How Grassroots Leadership Organizers Are Making an Impact
It was a packed classroom on a hot summer day at Kearns High School. Parents streamed in for a workshop on helping their children apply for college and student aid. I scrambled around the school trying to find more chairs […]
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Guest Blog: My Time as a Grassroots Leadership Fellow
The Grassroots Leadership Fellowship is a part-time program that inspires and supports local community members in taking a leadership role in building up their communities. They do this by facilitating […]
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Experiences of Students of Color in Higher Education
This Community Research Project was completed by two of our Grassroots Fellows. This short-term program helps community members use their interests and experiences to formulate and conduct projects that listen […]
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