Category: Families


It’s Just What We Do

Filed Under: Families, Site Coordinators by Briana Kerensky — Leave a comment
May 10, 2012

Today’s blog post is written by a group of site coordinators from Communities In Schools of Wichita/Sedgwick County, Kan. Last month, Kansas was hit hard by a series of tornadoes. Staff and volunteers from Communities In Schools of Wichita/Sedgwick County have been working to help families recover from this natural disaster.

On Tuesday, Communities In Schools of Wichita site coordinators organized a “store” of donated items, such as food and gift cards. Their hard work served approximately 100 families currently recovering from the tornadoes.

On Saturday April 14th, 2012, approximately 100 tornadoes were reported in the state of Kansas. One community that was severely affected was the Oaklawn area, located outside of Wichita. Communities In Schools of Wichita/Sedgwick County is present in five of the schools there. The entire community was without gas and electricity for a week. Communities In Schools  reached out through home visits and phone calls to see what students and their families needed to make it through the difficult days following the severe weather. Communities In Schools also partnered with multiple community agencies, churches, and school districts to assist in fulfilling the needs of the families.

These families have been displaced, suffered loss of belongings or have had structural damage to their homes. Communities In Schools of Wichita/Sedgwick County has set up a fund for tornado disaster relief that consists of money and donated goods such as non-perishable items, hygiene items, water and gift cards. The fund will assist with long-term and immediate needs for affected families. We have assisted in feeding families and volunteers in the disaster area, helped to provide district-wide communication and established long-term collaborations with partners. We will remain active in the efforts to provide support…it is just what we do!

Site Coordinators:

Elainne Fulenwider, Cooper Elementary
Bev Zuba, Oaklawn Elementary
Katie Savute, Derby Sixth Grade Center
Elise Matz, Derby Middle School
Gary Meitler, Derby High School

You can help Communities In Schools of Wichita/Sedgwick County support families affected by the tornadoes by making a donation.

Tags: , , , ,
Comment

Helping Students by Helping Parents

Filed Under: Families by Tracey Savell Reavis — Leave a comment
May 3, 2012

A parent participates in a reading activity for students with Communities In Schools of Lakewood, Wash.

At Communities In Schools, we talk a lot about removing the barriers that prevent students from reaching success in school. It is a key driver in all the work we do.

But guess what? Parents are often blocked by seemingly insurmountable barriers, too. Our model of integrated student services provides for parent engagement initiatives that support parents, so they can continue being an intricate partner in their child’s education.

Back in 2002, a study on parental involvement in education revealed what many people invested in education reform already knew: greater parent involvement equals greater student success. Stronger parental engagement leads to students themselves being more engaged, which leads to them having better attendance, grades and higher graduation rates. But while the goal of parent engagement initiatives is to get parents to take an active role in their children’s education and to see how important that is to their child’s academic success, it’s become evident that, all too often, parents are faced with barriers and can’t take the necessary steps to becoming engaged.

How is the parent who speaks another language going to be able to help his or her child with homework that’s in English? When can a working parent find time to volunteer at school? And what if the schools themselves never let parents know that there are resources available to help them?

Communities In Schools treats parent engagement as an integral part of its strategy around supporting students with a community of resources. During the 2010-2011 school year, 165 affiliates reported that they provided, facilitated, or coordinated family engagement/strengthening services. And of those, 59 have parent centers operating through one or more of their school sites. Across the country 253,257 parents/guardians were involved with or engaged by Communities In Schools.

Partner schools have welcoming information packets and often organize school tours to help parents become more familiar with their child’s school. Site coordinators arrange meet-and-greet sessions, on and off campus, to encourage parents to get involved in activities to support their children. In some cases, workshops have been specifically created for parents, to cover topics such as employment, financial literacy and parenting skills. Removing barriers frees parents to play the role of first and most important teacher in their child’s life.

It’s an ongoing process and commitment. But Communities In Schools has, for years, been actively trying to engage parents in meaningful ways, so that they not only volunteer, but become partners, and help in the decision-making process of their child’s education. Parent engagement, after all, is critical to the eventual success of our youth and our country.

Tags: ,
Comment

Site Coordinator Snapshots: Creating a Positive Culture

Filed Under: Families, Site Coordinator Snapshots, Site Coordinators by Briana Kerensky — Leave a comment
April 19, 2012
Frank Hernandez

Site Coordinator Frank Hernandez knows that a key to feeling comfortable in a new place is having a friend.

Communities In Schools of Greater Phoenix, Ariz., Site Coordinator Frank Hernandez is passionate about giving students the opportunity to develop their potential. For the past two years, he has been helping students at Desert View Elementary School succeed inside and outside the classroom by organizing after-school sports camps, food backpack programs and even holiday assistance programs, to make sure families have Thanksgiving dinners and Christmas presents.

But Hernandez was recently presented with a new, unique challenge. Transitional housing was built next to the school last year and the site coordinator was suddenly faced with securing resources for seven children from Kenya, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“The kids had been in refugee camps in their countries,” Hernandez said. “Because of that, it’s like they are starting out brand-new at school, no matter what their age.”

The site coordinator has been working diligently to help the students adjust to their new classroom environment. For instance, a five-year-old from the new housing was recently enrolled at Desert View and was, as Hernandez described, “scared out of his mind.”

“The boy was thrown into school and didn’t know what school was,” he said.

But Hernandez knew that a key to feeling comfortable in a new place is having a friend. The site coordinator connected the young student with some older refugee children who were already familiar with the school’s structure and could relate to the new student’s anxiety. Hernandez let the five-year-old stay in a fourth-grade classroom with a student who could act as a buddy until he felt safe, comfortable and understood how everything at Desert View worked. Then, over a period of two weeks, the site coordinator slowly weaned the five-year-old from the older students’ classroom until he was able to thrive in the kindergarten classroom.

Hernandez has also taken his work with refugee students beyond school hours. The site coordinator has reached out to families and is helping them acclimate to life in Phoenix by connecting them with needed resources such as food, clothing and personal care items.

“I really enjoy being a site coordinator at this school,” Hernandez said. “We have a small school and one of the things I try to do is to create the most positive culture I can, to help people when they’re outside of their comfort zones.”

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Comment

Hunger Hits Home

Filed Under: Families, Pop Culture by Briana Kerensky — 2 Comments
April 17, 2012

Hunger Hits Home logoWhen we think about people who don’t have enough to eat, developing nations come to mind, or cities and towns distant from our own neighborhoods. But people are going hungry on Main Street every day, in every neighborhood in America.

According to national nonprofit Share Our Strength, more than 16 million children across our nation live in households that struggle to put food on the table. That’s one in five children. Congressman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) put it best: “We’re the United States of America, richest country on the planet, and there’s not a single community that’s hunger-free.”

On Saturday evening, the Food Network aired an eye-opening special about childhood hunger called Hunger Hits Home. The one-hour television program brought America’s hunger crisis right into people’s living rooms and showed that while we don’t necessarily see hungry people on the street every day, they are in our midst due to the economic downturn, health and financial setbacks, and other issues that anyone in America could face.

Hunger Hits Home profiled three families working hard just to stay afloat. In particular, the Walker family in Norfolk, Va., saw a direct correlation between a lack of food and academic success.

Icarus Walker struggled in class while dealing with hunger at home. Screengrab courtesy Food Network.

“I’ve always been an A student, but when I got to middle school it kind of fell off,” 16-year-old Icarus Walker said. After Icarus’ mother lost her job as a bus driver and his father was laid off and had to take a low-paying job, the young student and his three siblings were forced to survive on a diet that consisted entirely of ramen noodles.

“Having that fear, wondering what we’re going to eat tonight…I can see it in my report cards,” said Icarus.

Communities In Schools understands the connection between food and accomplishment. When a student doesn’t know what, or when, his or her next meal will be, that young person absolutely cannot focus on school, extracurricular activities or the future.

Across the country, Communities In Schools is working to make sure that students and their families at risk of going hungry have enough to eat. From food backpack programs, where we give students enough nutritious food to get them through weekends, to site coordinators hand-delivering meals to students’ homes during  summer break, our staff and volunteers are dedicated to making sure children’s bodies are nourished so they can focus on nourishing their minds.

Hunger Hits Home made it clear that America’s hunger crisis is occurring in every neighborhood in the United States. And they also make it clear that when everyone contributes to making a difference, we can stop hunger in its tracks and give every child a healthy, happy future.

Watch the full special:

Tags: , , , , ,
Comment

The keystone to success

Filed Under: Families, Research by Briana Kerensky — Leave a comment
August 23, 2011

When a youth is in need of help, Communities In Schools builds a team of compassionate professionals in order to surround him or her with a community of support. Site coordinators, mentors, tutors, healthcare providers, social workers, and other people are on-hand 24/7 to give them everything they need to succeed in school and achieve in life.

But there’s one group considered to be the keystone in a child’s community of support: family.

A student can receive countless resources from Communities In Schools, but the uphill climb towards graduation becomes a lot steeper without a parent or guardian to provide unconditional love and positive reinforcement. Which is why we were so excited to learn about the new data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Survey of Income and Program Participation, which shows that more low-income parents than ever are becoming invested in their children’s academic success. View full article »

Tags: , , , , ,
Read More & Comment