Summit Planned for Northern VA Chambers of Commerce and Public School Business Partnership Programs

Falls Church, VA, August 20, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Dr. Ralph Perrino, Owner and Director of Northern Virginia Tutoring Service, and Board Member of the Fairfax Partnership for Youth (FPY), and Kieran Sharpe, Board Member of the Falls Church City School Board and FPY Board Member have organized a school-business “summit” to be held in November 2011.

The idea evolved from an initiative Dr. Perrino championed during his recently completed term as Chairman of the Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. Perrino worked to forge an alliance between local chambers of commerce and existing local public school business partnership programs. Perrino worked to bring representatives together from the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce, Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce, Mid-Atlantic Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Asian American Chamber of Commerce to encourage individual and corporate members of these organizations to volunteer in local public schools.

Soon after Perrino’s appointment to FPY in 2010, Kieran Sharpe, who expressed a strong interest in pursuing the idea through FPY, approached Dr. Perrino. The result is that a subcommittee of FPY has been formed with Sharpe and Perrino at the helm. This committee is now planning a regional school-business summit in November 2011 to discuss ways in which local chambers of commerce and school-business partnerships can work together to encourage individual and corporate involvement in tutoring and mentoring students in local public schools.

The anticipated result of this effort will be a significant increase in the number of adult tutors and mentors in the public schools of Arlington County, Fairfax County, and Falls Church City, Virginia.

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