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Writer's pictureAndrea Knapp

Happy Holidays to Friends of the Math for Adults (MAPS) Foundation!

Math for Adults Foundation Year in Review 2022

Double your impact with matched math night donations! Math for Adults Foundation (MAPS) Math Nights Showcased on Capitol Hill Executive Director Dr. Andrea Knapp visited Washington D.C. May 16-18 to share information about the Math for Adults Foundation in congressional offices. Math night sponsor Thrivent Financial invited Knapp to participate in a member advocacy trip to share with members of congress about the work of fraternal benefit societies. A team of 25 advocates including four from Georgia, eight from Illinois, eight from Wisconsin and various others participated. Knapp outlined Thrivent Financial’s role in guiding her through the nonprofit formation process in 2015-2016 and Thrivent’s continuing contributions towards math night promotions and door prizes. Six legislators and their staffers were invited to a June 7 Virtual Math Night. The Math for Adults Foundation held a Math Night at Orrs Elementary School, Griffin, GA. An additional virtual math night was held on Pi Day (3.14). Thank you to Dairy Queen in Barnesville, GA for sponsoring door prizes! On Capitol Hill, Dr. Knapp was able to share the Math for Adults Foundation story: In 2016, Math for Adults: Partnering for Success, Inc. was founded as a 501c(3) nonprofit corporation. The mission of the Math for Adults Foundation is to strengthen families, schools, and communities through building:

  • mathematical understanding,

  • improving attitudes toward mathematics and

  • sharing resources related to increasing mathematical achievement.

The foundation has hosted 30 math nights, provided professional learning for teachers on holding math nights, developed online videos for the website and YouTube, hosted a Summit on Parent Involvement in Mathematics, established a Math Library at Southern Crescent Technical College for parents and teachers with curriculum and manipulatives partly supplied by Thrivent Financial, supplied online facilitator training in mathematics education for teachers internationally--US, Kuwait, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Dubai (Landers, 2021), and shared a blog on how families can bring mathematics into the home for parents and teachers. A Facebook group has also been established to extend the learning community for past participants. Virtual summer math enrichment and family tutoring is available as well. Outreach through LifeChangers Legacy, a prison re-entry program, has assisted inmates preparing for the GED, and materials have been provided to the Quinta Bechtel Orphanage for learning centers in Argentina. The seminal study coining Mathematical Knowledge for Parent Involvement was published by Knapp, Landers, Liang, and Jefferson (2017) who are a member of our board, advisory board members, and instructor, respectively. Scholarly presentations and additional news articles have been written as well. Volunteers have assisted with promoting and hosting face-to-face and virtual math nights. Organizations such as a local library, literacy council, churches, and local colleges/universities have provided in-kind donations of space, refreshments, family resources, and curriculum. High school, community college, and University students have assisted through internships and service learning projects in the areas of web design, marketing, childcare instruction, promotions, and coordination. Southern Crescent Technical College has provided Federal Work Study student workers as well. The University of Georgia has shared with promotions and mathematics materials. Over 1000 people have been involved with a top attendance of 250 at math programming. COVID impact: Dr. Knapp began the MAPS blog January 1, and in the four week period from March 12-April 9, website visits surged 684%. Overall there have been 2548 unique website visitors from over 700 cities in 40 countries. Over 130 cities and towns in Georgia have been represented. Success Story "Our children are doing wonderful in math. We attribute their success to the knowledge our entire family gained from the … program we participated in. Our family continues to use the skills we developed during this program daily. We would like to see more programs like this offered not only in our region but on a national scale." A Thrivent Member Spotlight additionally highlighted the work of the foundation: https://www.facebook.com/page/251645621950964 Finally, the MAPS Youtube Channel has new videos released of math problems explained in the areas of basic math, geometry, algebra, and statistics. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_wpnVtvPzrdbYVuD4bfTLA/videos The MAPS blog about math tasks at home continues to reach families through Facebook (See https://www.facebook.com/MathforAdultsFoundation), and our website www.mapsfoundation.com continues to provide free downloadable Math for Parents math night curriculum and handouts in English and Spanish. Lastly, due to generous donors, we now offer matching grant funding for our math nights and virtual math nights. Please share the word to your local school and/or community groups! To schedule or sponsor a math night, contact aknapp@mapsfoundation.com. For more information about Thrivent Financial, contact bryan.dawson@thrivent.com. Sponsorship: Contact Dr. Andrea Knapp at aknapp@mapsfoundation.com or 309-287-2373 for information and to discuss sponsorship opportunities. Amazon Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/81-4094475 To donate, visit www.mapsfoundation.com/donate. Bronze: $100/yr or $10/mo; Community Partner: In-kind donations Silver: $250/yr or $25/mo; Gold: $1000/yr or $100/mo; Platinum: $10,000/yr or $1000/mo Legacy: $25,000 We thank all of our supporters and look forward to again strengthening families, schools, and communities in 2023. Warmly,


Andrea Knapp, Ph.D.Executive Director Math for Adults Foundation

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xXpJvAcpQ-zCMWWgXtdaNFoMugpqy6AE/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102930135790512457853&rtpof=true&sd=true

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