Community Based Programs

 

Next Level Community Development Center (NLCDC) was started as an outreach ministry of Bibb Mount Zion Baptist Church in 2000 and quickly grew by leaps and bounds. Teddy Parker Jr., pastor of Bibb Mount Zion at the time, was the visionary behind the organization. The organization served 35 students at the outset, and is now serving 175 students in the summer and 75 through the after-school program.

 

The After-School Program, Summer Day Camp, and E.L.I.T.E. Leadership Academy are all academic-based and designed to prepare students to succeed academically, prepare for college and careers, encourage healthy lifestyles, promote self-management, reinforce positive attitudes, establish parental involvement, and inspire community activism.

 

Programs are FREE to qualified students (K-12th grade) in the community with transportation provided to select schools and communities serviced by the Macon Housing Authority. Hot meals and snacks are provided during each program. A variety of enrichments activities including but not limited to tap, step and hip-hop dance, competitive sports, swimming, culinary art, art classes, and more are offered throughout the year within the programs.

 

The organization has a 100% high school graduation rate.

 

Next Level Macon receives federal 21st Century funding and funding from the Ga. Dept. of Human Services. 

 

Address: 3268 Avondale Mill Road | Macon, GA 31216
Phone: 478.781.0401
Fax: 478.788.2371
Email: info@nextlevelmacon.org

 

M. Agnes Jones – public school leveraging multiple partnerships

M. Agnes Jones Elementary School is supported by two community churches two days a week with an afterschoolprogram. Friendship Baptist Church provides tutoring for students in need of extra assistance. Shiloh Baptist Church provides school supplies and an after-school program. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays the chuches provide tutoring, dinner, and door to door transportation from school to the home.  For a complete listing of M. Agnes Jones partners click here.

 

 

Boys and Girls Club of Atlanta – a focus on literacy and leveraging technology make a big difference!

 

Great miracles are happening at Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta! Club staff and school teachers team up to help kids reach new heights. Fittingly, 8-year-old Miracle is a shining example of a Club member, who now faces new possibilities, because of their commitment to supporting Great Futures for our kids.

 

Miracle's friends at Center for a New Generation at Connally Elementary Boys & Girls Club describe her as fun-loving, strong-willed and passionate. Her Club instructors agree, adding that Miracle's incredible drive is what led her to making significant strides with her reading, despite the uphill challenges she faced early in the schoolyear.

 

Miracle began the 2015-16 school year with difficulty identifying sounds and letters, and decoding basic sentences; but through the collaborative efforts of her school teachers, Ms. Hanshaw, Ms.Vernon, along with CNG site director Catherine Driskell, Miracle is now able to read small books with more confidence and ease.

 

There were times when Miracle wanted to give up on improving her reading skills, but Driskell and Hanshaw spent extra time with her after school applying fundamental concepts like phonemic awareness to improve Miracle's comprehension. Driskell would then follow up with reinforcement activities using computer-based programs to support Miracle's classroom learning.

 

"Ms. Driskell was very patient, creative and flexible. She would often ask for additional assignments to go above Miracle’s required homework," Hanshaw said.

 

Their efforts to help Miracle eventually paid off. Week after week, the instructors began to recognize that a new Miracle was unfolding right before their eyes. That little girl, known for her passion and strong will outside of the classroom, began to show up inside the classroom, and in her study sessions at the Club.

 

"She has addressed some of her deficits and made those her strengths," Hanshaw said. "I'm so proud of the growth she has made academically and emotionally throughout this journey."

 

Sample YMCA Program (offered in partnership with the University of Georgia)

Make 3rd Grade a BIG Success!  Summer Reading Skills Program for Entering 3rd Graders

(Note:  courses are offered for all ages from rising 1st graders to rising college and adults)

Since 2004, The University of Georgia, Center for Continuing Education & Hotel has offered programs designed and taught by instructors from the Institute of Reading Development who has taught valuable reading skills to more than two million students across the United States since 1970.

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These programs help students become better readers at every age and inspire a love of books and reading.  The program focuses on comprehension, non fiction and textbooks, fluency, long word decoding and independent reading. 

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The program consists of five weekly classes with learning in between classes.  Class size is limited to 20 students. This program is offered for a fee.

For more information about this program contact: Lydia Thacker

 

 

Faith Based Programs

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La Amistad

LaAmistad provides a volunteer-led afterschool program that encompasses tutoring and mentoring. They work to improve the academic performance and individual educational needs of each child. Educational support is also supplemented by summer enrichment programs and opportunities that provide students with career, cultural and life experiences. LaAmistad also offers counseling and family support services to students and families.

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LaAmistad deems parent education just as important as student education. Parents must be equally committed to their student’s education and must pledge to ensure their student graduates from high school. Their ongoing parent workshops provide parents with the tools and skills necessary to help their student achieve success both at home and at school. LaAmistad’s 10-week English for Successful Living program offers adult opportunities to learn English. Parents of LaAmistad are also invited to participate in civic engagement opportunities that allow them to establish support groups and a strong community network.

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Lastly, LaAmistad currently partners with churches and religious institutions to provide the students with a safe environment to learn and grow. LaAmistad builds students and families to have strong minds, bodies, and character.

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LaAmistad believes that engaging students, families and caregivers together as a cohesive unit establishes a support system where every student is given the opportunity to succeed and thrive academically, physically and personally.

 

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Privately Funded Community Based Program

 

Horizons - Atlanta

The Horizons summer learning program model has a 50 year track record for producing positive and consistent results, addressing gaps of achievement and opportunity between underserved students and their middle and high income peers.

Outcomes include measurable gains in reading, math, social skills, confidence, school-year attendance, and high-school graduation rates, as well as stable individuals, families, and communities.

 

When a student enrolls in Horizons Atlanta the summer after Kindergarten, he or she joins a learning community that extends year-round, with a signature six-week summer intensive through 8th grade. Horizons Atlanta students, all of whom are free-or-reduced-lunch qualified, come from public schools, and are in need of academic support. By design, roughly 2/3 of students perform below grade level when they first enroll. And, because we make a long-term commitment to our families, siblings of enrolled students receive admissions preference when they are of eligible age to apply. Our programs are physically located within or geographically near communities and public schools in need. For most programs, we provide daily bus transportation to and from our site, helping to mitigate any safety concerns for students who reside outside of walking distance to our program sites. We also strive for our programs to be as closely located to their feeder public schools as possible so as to enhance the collaborative nature of our work and further our understanding and connection to the home communities of our students. 

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The six-week summer session is Horizons’ hallmark. Beginning the summer after Kindergarten, students join a small cohort of approximately 15 students that receives ample individual attention in a new educational environment: the resource-rich campus of an independent school, college, or university. Horizons programs blend high-quality academics – with an emphasis on literacy and STE(A)M – with arts, fitness, cultural enrichment, field trips, and confidence-building challenges. Every Horizons student also learns to swim!

Returning year-after-year, students, staff, and families develop deep, trusting relationships. Working together with families, Horizons sets and fosters high expectations for students’ social and emotional development, engagement, and achievement, and helps students and their families navigate the systems to make success possible. Horizons programs also offer workshops throughout the year for students’ families on topics such as financial planning, English language, navigating the college admission process, immigration/documentation, and more.

 

Corporate Sponsored Program

 

12 for Life is a cooperative education program supported by Southwire Company helping students gain extra motivation to finish 12 years of school and enjoy better lives. By providing students with classroom instruction, on-the-job training, key work/life skills, mentoring, and employment opportunities, Southwire is helping them stay in school, graduate, and go on to become successful, productive members of the workforce – ensuring those real-world skills translate into real-life success. 

 

 

Dalton City of Refuge sponsors a summer literacy program, “No Child Left Behind,” designed to meet needs of students in PreK-through 8th grade who are below grade level reading.  Recently, the program expanded to include Math.  Shaw Industries donated the facility for this program.

 

City of Refuge works closely with Whitfield County and Dalton City Schools.  Through this relationship, City of Refuge can obtain test data, etc., on the students to determine how to address student needs. 

 

City of Refuge staff meet with students’ parents at their homes.  They discuss the summer school program and the benefits.  This is a very important step because parents need to understand the program and support their children as they participate.  This meeting is also important in building trust between instructors and parents.  Parents are asked to sign a FERPA release so that staff can review students’ grades, test scores, and other academic matters. 

 

During the summer months, students meet twice each week.  Students meet for approximately two hours in the afternoon.  Students’ siblings are also encouraged to attend on these days; the program provides books for them to read during this time.

 

The summer school day consists of time for recreation, snack time, a character building activity, then instruction.  A hot meal is provided for dinner.  City of Refuge provides transportation for parents so that they can join students for dinner.  This is an important part of the program; it helps to build trust among parents and helps them understand the importance of education and literacy training. 

 

Currently employed teachers and retired teachers serve as instructors.  City of Refuge also has a partnership with Dalton State College; student teachers can serve as instructors under the supervision of a certified teacher or retired teacher.  The student to teacher ratio is small – one teacher for every eight students.  The small ratio provides an environment for quicker improvements.  The instructors use Fountas and Pinnell leveled literacy intervention program to assist students.

 

In the upcoming year, the City of Refuge is moving into a larger facility (also donated by Shaw Industries). The goal is to expand the summer program from two days a week to four days and to provide afterschool programs for students.  Additionally, parents will be provided vocational programs while their children are in after school classes. There will also be opportunities for parents to use their skills to make money (making jewelry, etc.)  Parents who did not graduate from high school will be provided GED preparation while their children are on campus. 

 

Donors to City of Refugee’s education programs include Shaw Industries, local churches, and other local businesses.

For more information on this program contact:

Pamela E Cudd

City of Refuge, CEO

Dalton, GA 30720

706.226.1301 – O

706.226.5097 – F

706.271.0293

Food Bank: (706) 226-1301

 

 

Housing Community Programs

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There are numerous programs improving family literacy, provided at housing communities.  See the GLC Housing Community E-Source for examples.  Add hyperlink to Housing e-Source here

 

Willow Branch Community, Clarkston, GA (a Star C community) – A 501(c)(3) focused on reducing transience in the local school system and improving students’ academic success through a collaboration of the three important pillars of an individual’s success: affordable housing, free access to on-site afterschool programming, and affordable medical care.  Transience is student turnover due to students changing schools during the school year.  It is very disruptive to individual student’s learning and the overall classroom environment.  When families have access to safe, decent, affordable housing, they are able to remain in their communities.  The outcome is reduced transiency, which stabilizes the community and improves the performance of the local elementary school.  For the 2017 – 2018 school year, Willow Branch’s community wide GPA averaged 3.5, and their milestone pass rate was 88%.

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Willow Branch is a privately-owned community with affordable rents.  (Rents are not subsidized).  Willow Branch receives wraparound services through Star-C whose mantra is an education model with an affordable housing solution. 

 

Here’s a great quick video to show the power of a program such as Star C  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=uY68Vew0-vY

 

 

Gainesville Housing Authority

The Gainesville Housing Authority has many efforts underway to improve literacy and educational outcome for their residents:

• Six-week summer program on-site which includes lunch.  To make this program possible, the Housing Authority partners with the local food bank to provide lunches and the Brenau School of Education to provide education students as teachers.

• Utilizes a third-party database that allows them to measure student progress and incorporates school data so that the program directors know whether programs are effective.

• Relationships with local school counselors.  This is critical as many of the student residents need additional support and share housing concerns with counselors who can work with the Housing Authority to determine solutions.

• Parent liaisons at schools. These are part-time, paid positions that provide communication between schools and parents.  These liaisons are present in the housing community office during rent collection times to meet parents, form relationships and discuss the importance of children’s education.

• Resident services directors sit on the local board of education to strengthen the partnership with local schools.

For more information on the Gainesville Housing Authority programs, contact Beth Brown, bbrown@gainesvillehousing.org.

 

Summer Transition Programs

 

A Guide for Georgia Schools on Kindergarten Transition Planning for Terrific Transitions 

The transition into Kindergarten is an important time for students. This guide provides the steps communities can take to ensure that students are prepared to enter Kindergarten.

 

School Transition is a process that prepares all partners – students, families, schools and communities - to develop knowledge, skills, and relationships that help students move from one educational setting to another.

 

Voices for Georgia’s Children infographic with stats about the importance of summer transition programs

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DECAL summer transition program

The Summer Transition Program is a six week intensive academic program with high-quality instruction and a focus on language, literacy and math. The experience is designed to reduce the achievement gap by providing additional family support and resources to targeted high needs populations.  This program is for rising kindergarteners or pre kindergarteners who meet specific criteria. 

 

Horizons

The six-week summer session is Horizons’ hallmark. Beginning the summer after Kindergarten, students join a small cohort of approximately 15 students that receives ample individual attention in a new educational environment: the resource-rich campus of an independent school, college, or university. Horizons programs blend high-quality academics – with an emphasis on literacy and STE(A)M – with arts, fitness, cultural enrichment, field trips, and confidence-building challenges. Every Horizons student also learns to swim!

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For more ideas on how to improve literacy in your community or program, check out GOSA’s grantee initiatives.  These initiatives range from bookmobiles and summer programs to teacher education.  Most initiatives involve community partnerships, and the list represents most geographic regions in the state.