Robin Burrow Touts “Strength” at EmpowerED Community Summit
Robin Burrow Touts “Strength” at EmpowerED Community Summit
Joe Burrow Foundation Secretary and Treasurer Robin Burrow was the keynote speaker at The EmpowerED Community: Strengths-Based Education Summit on January 31st in Baton Rouge. Mrs. Burrow’s appearance is part of the Foundation’s ongoing effort to partner with educators and community leaders to encourage positive school climates and educational outcomes.
Introducing herself and the Foundation, Mrs. Burrow shared the story of the challenges her son, Joe Burrow, faced during his college football days, tying it back to a strong message that hard work and individual strengths can create an overwhelmingly successful team when those strengths are combined.
Strong Schools, Strong Communities
Mrs. Burrow highlighted the strength-based initiative of the EmpowerED Community, focusing on the importance of the strengths these educators and leaders bring into their homes, schools, and communities.
“The strengths that all of you can collaborate and bring together to help empower the children of this community to make with wonderful city stronger today, tomorrow, and for many years to come,” Mrs. Burrow said on Friday.
Similar to the Strong Schools, Strong Communities initiative, Burrow also reflected on the Whole Child initiative started in Ohio nearly ten years ago.
“We started to focus on how we could empower our students by bringing the strengths of our entire community together,” Mrs. Burrow said. “The strengths of our community in the areas of health, safety, engagement, support, and challenge became the focus.”
From opening a school-based clinic to reduce absenteeism caused by limited healthcare access to providing take-home backpack meals and implementing a no-cell-phone policy to enhance student engagement, Whole Child launched targeted programs to create meaningful change where possible.
The summit later transitioned into workshops where leaders helped participants identify their strengths and apply them to inspire others, empower their community, and foster a more productive environment.
Mrs. Burrow left the group with a challenge to “put in the work, be in control of what you can control, identify personal strength and your organization’s strength, and determine how you can help empower your schools to help strengthen your community.”
Made possible by Family Resource Group Inc., Baton Rouge Parents Magazine, LSU Leadership Development Institute (LDI), and several other sponsors, this event featured interactive workshops, keynote sessions, and collaborative discussions aimed at equipping educators, administrators, and community leaders with the tools to implement strength-based education in their institutions and communities.