Philanthropic think tank Altru Virus Project will host the Invest in Schools Summit in Washington, DC August 3rd and 4th to ensure $170 billion in federal funds are fully leveraged. The goal of the Summit is to help US schools completely reopen and recover post COVID and to resist any future pandemic. Learn More
Closed schools have had a devastating impact on communities around the world, with economically disadvantaged families bearing the greatest burden. This has further accelerated the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots.
To address this challenge, the US federal government has allocated $170 billion to school districts across the country with the mandate to make schools safer and shrink the achievement gap. School districts will have great latitude in spending these funds, which makes it imperative that the effort be both efficient and carefully planned.
The purpose of Altru Virus Project’s Invest in Schools Summit is to guide school districts in assessing their options and empowering them to make the best possible investment choices, so that they maximize the benefit to their schools.
The Summit core curriculum will focus on showing school decision makers how to efficiently access and utilize federal funding for the long term by breaking down a complex process. Participants will discuss best practices and analyze various approaches in order to identify those solutions that best match their specific needs.
It will present innovative thinking on how students can catch up and avoid the negative life-long damage of missing school. It will look at optimal strategies for maximum impact around the following core topics:
- Safe Schools. Making schools resilient through testing and proper ventilation.
- Healthy Schools. Recognizing the key role schools play in protecting children’s physical and emotional health.
- Accelerated Learning. Discovering innovative techniques and technologies to help kids maximize their potential for learning.
For each core topic, Ecosystem Charting will help identify those organizations with the most effective solutions and the greatest capacity for impact. By creating awareness, greater collaboration and progress the core approach taken by the Altru Virus Project is to foster long-term relationships across sectors and industries.
The Summit will also feature an Innovations Track to provide a platform for cutting edge technologies and approaches such as mentoring to get K-12 schools fully operational.
For example, LumiraDX will introduce and demonstrate its innovative mobile rapid PCR testing system. This mobility in lab-based testing systems can bring rapid PCR testing to the point of care.
The venue of this year’s Summit is the Wharf, a vibrant new development overlooking the Potomac river in the heart of Washington DC. This is the third in a series of Contagion Conferences organized by the Altru Institute’s Virus Project (thevirusproject.org / Altruinstitute.com) and follows its highly successful Back to School Conference held April 2021 in Las Vegas, which brought together thought leaders from around the US for a two-day discussion on strategies that enabled schools to stay open throughout the COVID pandemic