Community Partners

We are fortunate to have partnered with a number of community groups. We believe that Palms is a neighborhood school that fosters the ideals of community. Below is a list of our partners. Click on the icons to find out more about our wonderful partners!

Fox Gives strives to enhance the quality of life in the communities they serve both locally and globally through employee engagement and employee outreach. They are committed to developing high-impact philanthropic programs that serve the underprivileged, the environment, and the youth.

The Getty Foundation fulfills the philanthropic mission of the J. Paul Getty Trust by supporting individuals and institutions committed to advancing the understanding and preservation of the visual arts locally and throughout the world. Through strategic grants and programs, the Foundation strengthens art history as a global discipline, promotes the interdisciplinary practice of conservation, increases access to museum and archival collections, and develops current and future leaders in the visual arts. The Foundation carries out its work in collaboration with the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, and the Getty Conservation Institute to ensure that the Getty programs achieve maximum impact.

Palms Elementary is fortunate to be one of the only schools to partner with the Getty. Once a week, Getty representatives come to Palms to teach Art Appreciation to our fourth grade students. These students also have the opportunity to visit the Getty several times, including Community Day, where the Getty invites the students and their families for a day at the Getty.

The Palms Neighborhood Council was certified as part of the city government on December 14, 2004 with the following mission:

• Improve the quality of life in Palms
• Give our neighborhood a voice on issues affecting the community
• Improve the delivery of City services to our area
• Make City officials and Departments more accountable to community needs and concerns
• Represent the diverse people of Palms; including renters, homeowners, employees, merchants, and others affiliated with local cultural, educational, and religious organizations

All of the stakeholders in Palms are members of the Neighborhood Council. Stakeholders include not only those who live, work or own property in the district, but also a broader category of people who can claim affiliation through some other kind of activity on behalf of Palms organizations.

The Palms Neighborhood Council has regular meetings that are open to the public, all residents of Palms are welcome to attend.

At Iridescent, our mission is to foster curiosity, confidence, and a love for science and engineering in underserved children. We want them to reach for the stars, to become scientists, engineers, and mathematicians, to lift their own communities and to tackle the world’s biggest problems. In order to do this, highly trained USC undergraduate, graduate, and professional engineers and scientists develop cutting-edge math and science lessons to inspire underprivileged youth. They turn the complex concepts of all sectors of Engineering into simple and interesting ideas and activities that translate into break-dancing, animal locomotion, renewable energy, medical imaging, physics of sailing or even structural color. They then teach these lessons to students and their families in the evenings at “Family Science Night.”

Iridescent also involves parents and families in the learning process. This enables and empowers parents to continue and support outside learning once the course has finished. In the past 2.5 years, Iridescent has successfully trained 185 volunteering professional engineers, undergraduate and graduate students, conducted 120 multi-session courses (15,260 student-hours and 1400 parent-hours of instruction), and these courses have reached more than 4100 under-served children and their parents. We are excited to be working with Palms Elementary for the second time this spring!

THE Program
The Young Storytellers Program is a FREE creative writing and self-esteem program for fourth and fifth grade students. Over the next seven weeks, volunteer writers will be teaching your child how to write a screenplay. A select group of students will meet with their mentors once a week for one hour. They will be learning all about storytelling. Best of all, they will be working one-on-one with an adult mentor who will encourage their creativity. There are NO WRONG ANSWERS in the Young Storytellers Program. We want to hear your child’s ideas, and show them a way in which to express themselves.

THE BIg SHoW
At the end of the seven weeks of mentoring, your child will have written a screenplay on their own. Then, their script will be performed in a BIG SHOW at the school auditorium. YSF will bring in professional actors to act out the screenplay. On the day of the Big Show, your child will stay after school to make a poster for their show, meet the actors, take part in a pizza party, and get ready for the audience. We’ll send an invitation to the Big Show home with your child. You, your family, teachers, students, and friends are all invited. The BIG SHOW will be a public celebration of your child’s achievement.

USC Rossier Graduate School of Education

The USC Rossier School of Education is one of the world's premier centers for graduate study in urban education. We prepare and develop educational leaders who are change agents, we lead the search for innovative, efficacious and just solutions through collaborative action research, and we create mutually beneficial partnerships to rethink curriculum, develop sound policy and improve educational environments. Because of our leadership work in urban education here and around the world we are preparing the finest educators to succeed in any and ALL educational circumstances.

City Year Los Angeles is a non-profit organization that focuses on community service. They have partnered with Palms Elementary to bring corps members who will focus on academic success, career and college preparedness, civics and student service opportunities with our students.