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After-school success began with Mrs. B. (and Everybody Benefits)
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | October 22, 2008
There was a great column by Andy Parker in today’s Metro Section. Parker writes about a mentoring program that has been making a profound difference in the lives of Clackamas County kids and families by offering after-school, summer and language programs to hundreds of families. Part of what makes this program work is the high school students that drop in one or twice a week to work with kids.
I am always on the lookout for stories that show how, when schools, families and the community work together, everybody benefits, and this story came with its own statistics. “The result, (of the afterschool mentoring program) measured by Portland State University, shows higher attendance, fewer behavior problems and rising academic performance for a majority of the 100 or so kids in the Lot Whitcomb program every year.”
The program, begun years ago, at a school “long considered Clackamas County’s poorest elementary school,” has been so successful, that the program is now expanding to four more schools in the North Clackamas School District. In fact, “on Tuesday, Susan Castillo, Oregon schools superintendent, came … to tell the educators and nonprofit leaders (who fund and run this program) they’d been chosen as one of seven outstanding school/community partnerships in the state.”“It proves,” said school counselor Ellen Baltus, who “has been running this program for years now”, “what can happen when we all just do our part. Everybody does a little bit, and it works.” Or, said another way, everybody benefits.
Topics: Community Service, Creating a Positive, In The News |