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Helping teachers who work in COVID-19’s shadow

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During this year’s Teacher Appreciation Week, we are honored to support our teachers and their important relationships with students and families. 

City Connects Coordinators have always played a critical role in supporting teachers — and they are continuing this work in the face of COVID-19. 

Teachers tell us they often feel the indirect emotional burden of students’ problems, from hunger, anxiety, and depression to homelessness and family stress.

Coordinators help by assessing students’ needs and addressing them with customized in-school and out-of-school resources. This frees teachers to feel supported and enables them to focus on teaching.  Continue reading →

Ohio’s lieutenant governor visits a City Connects program – and calls on his state to invest in students’ success

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It’s budget season in Ohio, and last week, Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted and other state officials, including Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria, visited Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School in Dayton to see City Connects in action.

Husted is encouraging his state to increase its investment in students’ success.

“We believe that this is a replicable model that can be used in public schools and other schools across the state,” Husted tells WHIO Television. “And we want the new money that’s being put into the budget to serve these students to go to programs like this.”

“The visit comes as legislators are considering a new $550 million allocation in the state budget to provide similar ‘wraparound services’ to Ohio schools,” the Dayton Daily News reports. “That budget has already passed the Ohio House, and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted advocated for the plan Friday.” Continue reading →

A new school founded by NBA Superstar LeBron James provides integrated student support

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LeBron James. Source: I Promise School Twitter feed.

 

We’re happy and a little amazed to welcome a superstar to the world of integrated student support: LeBron James.

This summer, James, the world-famous National Basketball Association player, launched the I Promise School in Akron, Ohio. It’s a collaboration between the LeBron James Family Foundation and the Akron Public Schools.

A key component of the school is providing students with services to mitigate the effects of poverty.

As an EdSurge article explains, “Social media lit up praising the litany of services the school will offer to students and families alike: among them, free uniforms, bicycles and helmets, transportation, breakfast, lunch and snacks… It will also serve families with supports like a food pantry and GED programs and job placement service for parents.”  Continue reading →

A Video Tells Our Story

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We’re excited about our new video. It’s an overview of how City Connects gets the right services to the right child at the right time.

In the video, Julia MacEwan, a City Connects site coordinator, says:

“In order for kids to be successful in school, they need lots of different things. A kid might need a backpack, a winter coat. She might need counseling, a family service center. And those are all the kinds of things that your City Connects coordinator can connect you to.”

Eric Dearing — a professor of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology in Boston College’s Lynch School of Education — explains:

“One advantage of City Connects is that it takes a multi-pronged approach to solving a multi-pronged problem. The disadvantage – and also the advantages – that we see among families in poverty are not the same from family to family and child to child.”

And Mary Walsh, City Connects’ executive director, adds:

“We did it by relying on developmental science, and we worked very closely with practitioners in the community. We were able, in a sense, to create a system that built the proverbial village around a child.”

Please take a look.

Now Playing: New “Mini-documentary” about City Connects

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We are pleased to debut a new “mini-documentary” about City Connects. You’ll hear first-hand from school administrators, community partners, and our staff about how City Connects’ system of addressing students’ unique strengths and needs positively impacts schools and student achievement.

The video features thre City Connects schools in Boston (the Eliot K-8, Dever-McCormack, and Quincy Elementary) as well as our partners Big Brothers Big Sister of Mass. Bay, UMass-Boston, and the Red Oak After-school Program of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center.

If you are interested in learning more or partnering with City Connects–as a district, school, or community partner–we’d love to hear from you! Send us an email.

Another 60 Minutes Piece on Children in Poverty

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To follow up on a story aired last March about the sharp increases in child poverty, 60 Minutes last night continued its “Hard Times Generation” theme with a piece about homeless families living in cars in Seminole County, Florida.

Recently revised Census numbers show the child poverty rate hovering around 17 to 21%. Research shows that even housing insecurity–a step before homelessness–puts children at risk for poor health and developmental delays. A program in Seminole County schools, Families in Transition, is trying to help homeless children and their families by working with 50 partners in the community. Beth Davalos, a social worker with Families in Transition, said:

“The longevity of homelessness continues to rise, so people are running out of resources. The unemployment runs out. Their savings run out. The family that lent them money does not have it anymore ’cause they’re looking at economic hardship. And before you know it they find themselves living in their car because they ran out of all options.”

Watch the full 60 Minutes piece here:

Video: “Lending a hand to refugees in America”

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This video, which aired on CBS Sunday Morning, shows how out-of-school factors impact a particular population: refugee families. The story is about Luma Muflah, who started soccer league for refugee children living in Clarkston, Georgia, calling them the “Fugees.” When they started asking Luma for help with their homework, she soon realized that the children were facing a host of other non-school factors that made school a challenge. She launched the Fugees Academy, a school for refugee children, which she hopes to expand to a 19-acre comprehensive and permanent school facility, called the Fugees Village.

For more information:

Community Partners Health & Wellness Breakfast: Video Posted

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Over on our YouTube channel, we’ve posted video of the speakers’ presentations from our May 11 community breakfast, where the topic was “Creating Dynamic School Partnerships to Increase Health & Wellness of Students.” The 5 videos include:

  • Dr. Mary Walsh, executive director of City Connects, discussing  the critical roles health and fitness play in student success, as well as City Connects data about health and wellness services students receive.
  • Dr. Linda Grant, medical director, Boston Public Schools,  discussing prevention, intervention, and management strategies that schools can and are using to support children.
  • Jill Carter, executive director of health & wellness, Boston Public Schools, discussing initiatives in her department to support health and wellness across all schools in the district.
  • Simon Ho, principal, Josiah Quincy Elementary School, discussing how he implements a comprehensive and coordinated health and wellness program for students at the Quincy.
  • Patrice DiNatale, director of new practice at City Connects, discussing how City Connects integrates health as a core component of student support.