Meet Joe Roselle | Community Engagement Coordinator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Joe Roselle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Joe, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I am currently the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Laveen Elementary School District. In my capacity, I seek strategic partners that will provide resources and opportunities for the students and community members in Laveen. I believe education should be a community effort. Preparing our students to compete for the high paying jobs of the future requires us to partner with all stakeholders. Currently I have a leadership role in the Laveen Lions, South Mountain and Laveen Chamber of Commerce and the City of Phoenix Youth and Education Commission. My collaboration with these community groups enables me to partner with faith based organizations, educational institutions, businesses and nonprofits. As a result, I am able to expose students an educators to innovations in each field and raise awareness on the jobs of the future. These opportunities translate to authentic application of how students will be able to use the information they are currently using in a future career. Examples of this include field trips to STEM Industry partners, a School Connect Partnership CAFE, and visits to Arizona State University.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have worked in the Laveen Elementary School District for 17 years. In that time, I was a principal for 10 years at Laveen Elementary School. The last seven years I have been a community engagement coordinator. In this role, under the leadership of my forward thinking superintendent Dr. Jeff Sprout, I have been able to develop partnerships with strategic partners in Arizona. My experience has helped me to impact my local community in Laveen. In serving on the City of Phoenix’s Youth and Education Commission, I have been able to impact additional communities as well. My greatest success has been working collaboratively in the Laveen community to identify needs and seek resources to help address those needs. For example, I have been able to solicit $90,000 in donations from our corporate sponsors. I have also been able to develop strategic partners in the community in order to address food insecurity, health insecurity and safety concerns.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
South Mountain and Laveen are unique communities. We have great restaurants that have a lot of history and that reflect our community. For food and drink I would recommend Corona Ranch, Los Dos Molinos, and Mimi Forno. I would also recommend that they going hiking on one of the incredible trails in South Mountain and visit our new community center at Cesar Chavez Park.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
School Connect has had a huge impact on my success. School Connect has taught me how to implement the CAFE Model. The CAFE Model is a way to invite stakeholder groups to the table in order to discuss how each stakeholder group can improve programs at a school. During the pandemic, we used the CAFE Model to invite 50 partners to help the Laveen Elementary School District address various challenges ranging from food insecurity to health insecurity. Our CAFE helped us create strategic partners like Urban Farming Education and local churches. With our partners, we were able to give away over 500,000 lbs. of food to our community.

Website: Laveeneld.org

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/joe-roselle-6906a692

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LaveenCommunityActionGroup

Youtube: https://youtu.be/Mu6LgJyswBY