Communities In Schools of Henry County Answers the Call

Back in March of this year I received an email from Susan, the Executive Director at Connecting Henry, Inc. She had just received a phone call from a grandmother who was trying very hard to get some assistance for a close relative in need of basic services.  Susan and I have an agreement. If she gets a request from a family with a child in a Middle School, she can reach out to us to see if we already have that child on our caseload.  There’s no sense in duplicating efforts when we can work together to accomplish a common goal.   

We called the grandmother and after speaking with her for a few minutes, learned that her daughter, son-in-law and their 13 year old son were having some major challenges. Grandma was deeply concerned about her grandson and his performance in school because of the challenges he and his family were facing.  His grades were starting to slip and his behavior at school was starting to become a matter for concern.  

I immediately emailed the Graduation Coach* at Luella Middle School and explained the situation, and then I contacted the Mom to ask if I could stop by the house to chat and to find out how we can help.  She agreed, and the next day I was sitting in her living room learning more about the family’s situation. She shared with me that when her husband was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, their whole world was turned upside down with multiple trips to a specialist in Atlanta, radiation treatments, and chemotherapy; all contributing to additional costs and escalated levels of stress and anxiety for everyone.  To make matters worse, their HVAC system which was repaired last year stopped working, and with very little financial resources available, they had no choice but to reach out to the community for assistance.  It was difficult for her to ask for help, she explained, because she and her husband have always been self-reliant and they weren't accustomed to asking for outside assistance.  She shared with me that she felt guilty about asking others for help because she knew that there were other people with bigger problems and greater needs out there. And that’s why she allowed her mother to make the phone calls to local churches and organizations.

Upon receiving our email, the Graduation Coach sent home a CIS Parent Permission Form to the family and placed the young man on her Backpack Buddies Program**.  She also started to check in on him on a regular basis to make sure he was in good spirits and to also assure him that someone in the school building cared about him.  

The second thing we did was to reach out to Steve Nail of Nail Heating and Air Conditioning and asked him if he could look into the HVAC situation. Anyone who knows Steve knows that he is always willing to jump in and assist no matter what the task. Steve sent out one of his tech guys who did an assessment and concluded that the HVAC unit had a faulty circuit board.  They replaced the part at no cost to the family.

 “The family’s appreciation for our help was touching. We received a card in the mail from them expressing their gratitude and appreciation for our help. It is such an awesome feeling at Nail Heating and Air to help a family in need and look forward to working with Shane and Communities In Schools on other projects”. ~ Steve Nail, Owner of Nail Heating & Air Conditioning.

Our Mission is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. CIS works within the public school system,determining student needs and finding them the necessary resources to succeed inside and outside the classroom. We create community partnerships with folks like Steve to provide support to our case managed students in a holistic way. Granted,we cannot do this for every single student, but we will make every effort to come up with a solution that works. On a side note, Steve Nail is one of our newest Board Member and we are delighted to have him on board to share in our mission. He "gets it".

Recently our staff had a chance to meet with Mom at our office to see how things were going.  She brought her son at our request so we could meet him and have a conversation. She couldn't thank us enough for the assistance she has gotten so far and prays that her husband comes out of his cancer treatments successfully and can eventually get back to work and the family can get back to a level of normalcy in their lives. 

I wish we could increase our coverage to help more students who face these risk factors on a daily basis. I wish we had more funds and resources to expand into the high schools and elementary schools that need our Integrated Student Supports (ISS) model the most. Should you or your business be interested  in learning more about CIS and the work we are doing please don't hesitate to send us an email or call to set up an appointment. We encourage you to volunteer, donate or become a Community Partner. Becoming a tutor, a mentor or even an intern/assistant to our office staff or Graduation Coaches will give us the ability to do more. We are located at 330 E. Tomlinson Street, Room 418 (EXCEL Academy), McDonough GA 30252. (678) 432-4499. info@cis-henry.org.

                                                                     

 Communities In Schools of Henry Co. - Affiliate Staff                                               

                                                                                                                    

* Communities In Schools (CIS) is the United States' largest dropout prevention organization. CIS positions a dedicated staff member – a school-based coordinator or a reassigned Graduation Coach – inside partner schools. In this pivotal role, the coordinator works with school staff to identify students at risk of not graduating. He or she assesses school and student needs and establishes relationships with local businesses, social service agencies, health care providers, and parent and volunteer organizations to harness needed resources. Whether it’s tutoring, eyeglasses or just a safe place to be after school, when these needs are met, students can concentrate on learning.

** During the school year, the Backpack Buddies Program provides vulnerable children with a bag of “child-friendly” food that is discreetly placed in their backpacks on Friday afternoons with enough food to last them through the weekend. This program works with the school counselors and social workers to identify children that are already on the free/reduced lunch program with the school and are also coming in to school hungry on Monday mornings. The program is volunteer-driven with different groups at churches and civic groups adopting a school and committing to delivering the packed bags each week.

MLK, Education Reform, and the CIS Model

 

The holistic approach to the function of education espoused by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is sorely lacking in today's legislative actions pertaining to educational reform.  While it is without a doubt that educational mandates such as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and Race To The Top (RTT)  have the intention of increasing schools' overall performance, improving teacher accountability, and fostering students' academic success, major flaws are apparent in both reform measures.
 

The No Child Left Behind Act, with its rigid standards, seems to  rely too  much on a single end-of-year score to determine whether a school is “passing” or “failing.” In addition, NCLB does not appear to take into consideration the diversity of schools and their student populations or factors outside of the school setting that might be equally contributory to the success, or lack thereof,  of its student population.  In addition, NCLB fails to recognize progress.  Let's be honest.  We all know that schools serving students from affluent populations were never at risk of being "left behind."  However, as a result of NCLB, low performing schools, located in under-served, impoverished areas that services disadvantage students, are being penalized  without consideration of the individual needs of the student population and without active measures to prevent these students from being "left behind."

Moreover, while Race to the Top (RTT) also has the intent of increasing students' achievement, its very name is indicative of competition.  Some would argue that having schools compete for federal dollars is just the spark needed to ignite the fires of education reform.  However, education should not be designed to be a competition.  Note that as the word competition denotes, If there is a winner, there has to be a loser.   Like NCLB, it appears that the "race" is stacked and schools winning the "race" are schools that already have the most resources and student success stories.  In the end, it is the student attending the school losing the race that suffers the consequences.

It is precisely because education is the road to equality and citizenship that it has been made more elusive….  - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 The Communities in Schools (CIS) model seeks to improve educational outcomes holistically, making high school graduation less elusive to at risk students. The CIS model is grounded in the concept that students can and will achieve when resources are tailored to not only address academic needs, but also to address factors outside of the school environment impacting students' lives. The CIS service model provides interventions by connecting students with community resources tp provide assistance at every level of need.  By addressing all of the students' needs, at risk students gain a more equal footing with their advantaged peers, thereby, increasing the likelihood of their success, socially, emotionally and academically.  Consequently, no child is left behind and every student reaches the top.

The mission of Communities In Schools is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. For more information about the Communities in Schools model, our impact on students, and how you can help please contact us at:

Communities in Schools - Henry
70 Macon Street
McDonough, GA 30253
Phone: 678 432 4499

E-mail:  crystal.cohen@cis-henry.org

http://www.cis-henry.org/ 
CIS-GA:  http://www.cisga.org/cisgawpress/
CIS National:  http://www.communitiesinschools.org

Crystal Cohen is the Part-Time Site Coordinator at the Henry County Communities in School affiliate (CIS-Henry).  Her role at CIS-Henry includes coordinating services for students and their families, implementation/evaluation of school based programs, and  research/dissemination of evidence based practices that promote student achievement and parental engagement.  She is also a full-time graduate student at Clayton State University, completing a Master's of Psychology degree,  Applied Developmental Science Track.  Her expected graduation date is in 2014. 

  

There is little doubt that Martin Luther King Jr. would support a far different agenda: one that was supportive of teachers, integration, and equitable resources and conditions in inner city schools, - See more at: http://thediariesofalawstudent.blogspot.com/2012/01/martin-luther-king-jr-and-education.html?m=0#sthash.fzpC0nvj.dpuf

Impacting Achievement Through Mentoring

January has been designated as National Mentoring Month.  Established in 2002, National Mentoring Month focuses national attention on the need for mentors, as well as how each of us, individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities, and nonprofit organizations, can work together to increase the number of mentors to assure positive outcomes for our young people.

What the Research Says About Mentoring

Research indicates that mentoring has a positive impact on grades and other academic indicators.  . Furthermore, students involved in a mentoring program have been shown to be less likely to have  instances of unexcused absences (Tierney et al., 1995; Aseltine, 2000).  It is easy to see the connection between a decrease in school absences and increased academic performance.  In addition, studies have shown that student participants in mentoring programs received the added benefit of an increased level of academic self-confidence (Rhodes & Grossman, 2000). In other words, these students begin to believe that they can achieve. 

In addition to affecting attendance and grades, mentoring has been shown to boost students' positive relational interactions.  Specifically, it has been found that mentoring improves relationships between youth and their parents, as well as youth and their teachers (Rhodes & Grossman, 2000).  Mentoring has also been shown to increase students' feeling of connectedness with his or her school itself (LoSciuto, Rajala, Townsend, & Taylor, 1996; Portwood & Ayres, 2005). This connectedness builds school pride and school engagement.   Consequently, the long term impact of mentoring can be seen in increases in student engagement and academic success, as well as students' social and emotional well-being. 

Communities in Schools & Mentoring  
(Communities in Schools, Research Brief: Mentoring: an effective level two service, 2013)

Mentoring is not just confined to January at Communities in Schools.  It is an intricate part of our efforts to help students achieve, academically, socially, and emotionally.  Mentoring is often implemented throughout the CIS network as a:"Level Two" service to help students meet their attendance, behavior and academic goals.  CIS identifies Level Two services as targeted and sustained interventions provided for specific students over an extended period of time. Mentoring is among the most common Level 2 service provided throughout the CIS network.  In line with evidence based practices, CIS utilizes a best practices approach to mentoring programs based upon the following 6 elements:

1. Recruitment

2. Screening
3. Training
4. Matching
5. Monitoring & Support
6. Closure

For  more information about how  the CIS model interfaces with mentoring programs, click this link :http://issuu.com/cishenry/docs/mentoring_-_an_effective_level_two_/0

How You Can Become a CIS-Henry Mentor

Volunteers are the cornerstone of Community In Schools mentoring programs. In Georgia, we rely on thousands each year to help us serve students and their families. To be a mentor, you don't need any special skills.  All that is needed is an ability to listen and to offer friendship, guidance, and encouragement to a young person. Also, you will be amazed by how much you will get out of the experience. 

While there are several approaches to mentoring used by CIS affiliates, CIS-Henry, currently utilizes a school-based approach to mentoring. School-based mentoring involves mentors meeting regularly with their mentees at their home school site (MENTOR, 2006).  Trained CIS-Henry mentors must commit to mentoring for one school semester., with a focus on a variety of social, emotional and academic issues of mentees based upon shared interests and needs. 

CIS-Henry is currently accepting volunteers for our pilot mentoring program at Henry County Middle School. Contact Bill Simons, CIS-Henry, Americorps Vista Youth Strategy Coordinator, to see how you can make a difference in a Henry County students' life.

For more information on CIS-Henry contact us at:

Communities in Schools - Henry
70 Macon Street
McDonough, GA 30253
Phone: 678 432 4499

E-mail:  crystal.cohen@cis-henry.org

http://www.cis-henry.org/

The mission of Communities In Schools is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.

Watch our new video to find out how Communities In Schools is making a profound difference in the lives of 1.25 million children each year.

Crystal Cohen is the Part-Time Site Coordinator at the Henry County Communities in School affiliate (CIS-Henry).  Her role at CIS-Henry includes coordinating services for students and their families, implementating and evaluating programs and activities based upon the specific needs of each assigned schools, and  disseminating information regarding evidence based practices that promote student achievement and parental engagement.  She is also a full-time graduate student at Clayton State University completing a Master's of Psychology degree,  Applied Developmental Science Track.  Her expected graduation date is Summer 2014.