Community Connection

ESD 113 serves as a connector that brings together schools, community organizations, and families to strengthen our region's educational ecosystem.

Our community partnerships extend across multiple sectors, including collaboration with emergency responders and law enforcement agencies for comprehensive school safety planning, partnerships with libraries and early childhood organizations to support family engagement, and connections with healthcare providers, tribal communities, industry leaders, and nonprofit organizations that serve youth and families.

We organize partnerships between education, industry, and community groups to enhance career readiness and create pathways to family-wage employment for all students, especially those from underserved populations.

We recognize and celebrate community leaders who demonstrate exceptional commitment to public education through awards programs that honor individuals and groups working to benefit students.

By facilitating these partnerships, ESD 113 helps leverage community resources, expertise, and support to create wraparound services that address the whole child and strengthen educational outcomes. We believe that excellent education emerges when communities work together, and our role is to convene, connect, and coordinate these collaborative efforts across our five-county region to ensure every student has access to the resources and opportunities they need to succeed.

Community Coalitions for Prevention

ESD 113 is a community partner to several community coalitions across Grays Harbor, Thurston, and Lewis counties:

Elma Elevate East County Community Coalition
Centralia Prevention Coalition
Tumwater (TumHOPES) Community Coalition
Bucoda/Tenino (BTHAT) Community Coalition
Morton UP! Community Coalition

These community coalitions impact our youth’s well-being by supporting and implementing effective prevention programs.

Lewis County Autism Coalition

ESD 113 is a community partner of the Lewis County Autism Coalition, assisting the coalition in its mission to promote lifelong inclusion and independence for autistic, neurodiverse, and developmentally disabled individuals, along with their families, through empowerment, community collaboration, self-advocacy, and equitable access to education, recreation, and employment.

Along with having a representative on the coalition's Board of Directors, ESD 113 supports the School-Medical Autism Review Team (SMART) with evaluations. The coalition also provides scholarships for Special Education Co-op staff to attend the annual Southwest Washington Autism Conference.

Pacific Mountain WorkForce Development

Pacific Mountain WorkForce Development (PacMtn) is a nonprofit organization that convenes regional workforce development efforts. PacMtn oversees the regional network of American Job Centers, called WorkSource, which house the demand-driven and integrated system of partners dedicated to developing community prosperity, one job seeker and one employer at a time.

ESD 113's Capital STEM Alliance and Career Connected Learning programs partner with PacMtn to develop and activate a regional asset map of community-based organizations that provide wraparound services and support to job seekers across the five-county region. We co-develop the Construction Try-A-Trade events, which bring together trade organizations and more than 1,000 students from across the region to give students hands-on experiences with construction trades. Representatives from each of the trades are on hand to educate students about the benefits of enrolling in a trade apprenticeship and guide them through activities including crane operation, concrete pours, sheet metal work, masonry, and much more.

PNW FIRE: Supporting Native Students

Using grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education between 2019 and 2024, ESD 113 was one of 29 educational service districts across Alaska, Oregon, and Washington that worked as a consortium to:

Challenge our current structures and engage with state, regional, Tribal, school, and community partners to create an environment where all learners can thrive
Acknowledge that distinct voices and unique experiences contribute to more robust educational approaches and resources, and clear barriers and support access to cultural wisdom
Distribute leadership of this work and mindfully listen and learn

Funding from this grant helped create the Pacific Northwest Finder for Indigenous Resources in Education (PNW FIRE) website. PNW FIRE connects Native students, families, and educators with academic, cultural, and well-being resources from Washington’s Tribes, schools, and community organizations.

Developed with guidance from the Region 16 Washington Tribal Advisory and OSPI’s Office of Native Education, this search tool serves Washington’s 29 federally recognized and 4 non–federally recognized Tribes and Nations.

The website continues as a community resource powered by user submissions that support Native students across the region.

Timberland Regional Library

MyTRL is a partnership between Timberland Regional Library and schools in our five-county service region. It facilitates free access for K-12 students to TRL’s vast electronic resources, public computers, and printing. Special MyTRL accounts allow students to log in to TRL from school or home on any computer or device, all without needing a physical card. Students and educators can take advantage of a wide range and depth of TRL’s supplemental educational tools to facilitate all stages of life-long learning.

Students can use their accounts at Timberland libraries to access online resources, create documents, use computers, and print even if they already have a “regular” library card with TRL (they will need a regular card to check out physical items).

Timberland Regional Library and ESD 113 look forward to supporting student success this academic year with an ongoing opportunity to participate in MyTRL, a partnership between ESD 113, Timberland Regional Library, and schools in Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, and Thurston counties.

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