Communitites in Schools (2005, 2007,2011)
Founder Neil Shorthouse started working with
at-risk high school students in a church basement in midtown
Long time friends LaTonya Gates of CIS Atlanta and Neil Shorthouse, President and Founder of CIS Georgia at the Communities in Schools Headquarters in Midtown Atlanta.
Tell an educator you know, or find out more for yourself at www.cisga.org
To read a great story about an earlier visit to CIS, look here.
Communities in Schools 2011 Update
“It’s not a kid problem, it’s an adult problem,” said Neil Shorthouse. Neil is referring to the 20,000 children that drop of high school across the state of Georgia per year.
CityLights had the opportunity to visit with Communities in Schools at what was once Bankhead Courts and is now home to the West End Academy Performance Learning Center (PLC). West End Academy PLC offers a place of refugefor teenagers down on their luck. Here we were reminded of the extraordinary value relationships are in helping students achieve in the classroom and in life. And as the principal of West End Academy PLC, Ms. Evelyn Mobley, reminded us those relationships are key to saving lives.
Neil, through Communities in Schools, is persistently working to build significant relationships with students to assist them in creating a successful roadmap for life.
Impact Points:
- 107 students who never considered graduating received their diploma
- Communities in Schools serves 27 states and the District of Columbia
- Communities in Schools has worked with Washington, Carver and South Atlanta high school campuses for over 6 years and have increased the combined graduation rate from 37% in 2002 to 87% in 2011
CityLights had the opportunity to visit with Communities in Schools at what was once Bankhead Courts and is now home to the West End Academy Performance Learning Center (PLC). West End Academy PLC offers a place of refugefor teenagers down on their luck. Here we were reminded of the extraordinary value relationships are in helping students achieve in the classroom and in life. And as the principal of West End Academy PLC, Ms. Evelyn Mobley, reminded us those relationships are key to saving lives.
Neil, through Communities in Schools, is persistently working to build significant relationships with students to assist them in creating a successful roadmap for life.
Impact Points:
- 107 students who never considered graduating received their diploma
- Communities in Schools serves 27 states and the District of Columbia
- Communities in Schools has worked with Washington, Carver and South Atlanta high school campuses for over 6 years and have increased the combined graduation rate from 37% in 2002 to 87% in 2011
Communities in Schools 2007 Update (Parks Middle School)
MacArthur Randolph and Robin Gittens drew much applause from those in attendance at CityLights on Tuesday, February 13. We gathered in a classroom at Parks Middle School, where Mr. Randolph and Ms. Gittens serve as Communities in Schools (CIS) Program Coordinators.
As employees of Communities in Schools, MacArthur and Robin have the freedom to work within the school to help meet the emotional and social needs of the students, many of whom have never left the Pittsburgh neighborhood and face countless disadvantages at home. At Parks Middle School, the two CIS staff personally interact with as many and 300 to 400 of the 468 sixth through eighth grade students.
A major goal of MacArthur and Robin’s work is to facilitate increased school attendance and advancement into high school. To help one student known for absenteeism, MacArthur goes knocks on the door to his house, with parental permission, until the student gets out of bed and heads to school. Work such as this, which traditional school staff do not have the freedom to do, has resulted in a significant decline at Parks in the number of students who are absent ten or more days per school year.
Another success of MacArthur and Robin’s work comes through their small groups, Boys to M.E.N. (Making Education Number One) and Lady I.C.O.N.S. (Ladies Implementing Change & Overcoming Negative Stereotypes). The students in the groups are a mix of those who have good classroom conduct and those who need improvement. The students benefit from the sense of belonging and high expectations the group provides. Students have even been overheard calling one another to better behavior, such as, “Remember, you’re a Lady I.C.O.N., we don’t do that.”
One of MacArthur and Robin’s goals for the rest of the school year is to take 20 to 30 students on a college tour. In what seems to be typical for these two, they are looking for every opportunity to broaden the experiences of the students by hoping to take them not just a few miles to an Atlanta school, but to a major university in Florida or North Carolina. As well, they are taking eighth graders to Canada in April, which will be the first school trip outside of the United States.
Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her. Proverbs 3: 13-18
On Tuesday, March 1st, City Lights was privileged to convene at Communities in Schools/Georgia (CISGA), a program founded and led by Neil Shorthouse that targets high school dropouts throughout the state of Georgia and around the nation. The Communities in Schools office, located across from North Avenue Presbyterian Church, in Midtown's Wachovia building, looks like any normal business, but its goals have more to do with raising educated youth than raising capital. For nearly 30 years, Neil Shorthouse has worked with public school systems, aiming to decrease the high school drop-out rate, improve students? educational experiences, and create an encouraging, supportive community on which they can rely.
Shorthouse began his career by working with Young Life in suburban communities. His desire to work in urban areas, however, was ignited by a student named Eugene Bailey, who went to high school in the inner city. After spending some time with Bailey through a Young Life-sponsored urban Bible Study, Shorthouse was dismayed to find that the teenager was illiterate. Today, Communities in Schools stands as a testament to Bailey and to Shorthouse's desire to offer inner-city kids a better way of life.
Generally, Communities in Schools/Georgia focuses on high school reform, with three goals at its core:
1) That all children will succeed in high school and in life
2) To connect community resources with schools
3) To build community resources throughout the state of Georgia
The organization also holds personal relationships close to its core, and maintains the vision that high school kids need to have a healthy start in order to enjoy a healthy future. Through their Performance Learning Centers, Communities in Schools seeks to provide their students a safe place to learn, and to equip them with marketable skills upon graduation.
"School needs to be a place where you belong" has become CISGA's mantra -- Shorthouse and his dedicated team understand that before kids can focus on schoolwork, they need to be in a stable, balanced environment. The hurdles that CISGA must often overcome are hunger, poverty, family crises, drugs, gangs, low self-esteem and negative peer pressure. By forming relationships and building a faithful band of support around the students in the form of community, school, and family, Communities in Schools brings together educators, parents, students, community and government leaders, the faith community, and private-sector professionals to encourage students and keep them from falling through the cracks.
After finding that many senior classes in the state of Georgia are up to 40% smaller than freshman classes, Shorthouse and Communities in Schools set up a five year plan via Georgia Learning Centers with a focus on high schools, mainly, according to Shorthouse, because people had given up on them. Communities in Schools is looking for change to happen in everyone?s life. They offer a business-like learning environment and seek to reverse the all-too-common scenario of giving the worst kids the worst teachers. Recently, one student who lived in the Bankhead Courts neighborhood of Atlanta was offered a scholarship to the San Francisco College of Art and Design. Were it not for the phenomenal impact of the Georgia Learning Centers in her life, she may have been on the street after graduation rather than on her way to higher education.
Communities in Schools programs are paid for by the public system. Their strategy is to form relationships that motivate the students, to bring relevant instruction to the kids, to introduce them to engaging, rigorous academics, and to achieve results that will increase the students' self-esteems while inspiring them to strive for more.
Communities in Schools has been endorsed and supported by many essential individuals over the years. However, Bill and Melinda Gates' in-depth involvement, they recently rewarded Communities in Schools with a $6.3 million grant over the next five years, has brought about a record-breaking amount of press for the program. Gates has said that America's public schools are running at 1.0 in a 5.0 world. With the help of Communities in Schools, students at risk to drop out will be encouraged, supported, and accelerated, rather than broken, dispirited, and remediated.
Many thanks to Neil and his staff for taking the time to present to City Lights, and for providing a wonderful breakfast for our attendees! Please join us in prayer as Communities in Schools seeks to grow throughout the state of Georgia, throughout the United States, and around the world. CIS currently has a presence in thirty-plus states and is seeking to broaden its exposure internationally. They also need public funds to leverage the private funds that they have been so blessed to receive. If you would like more information about Communities in Schools and the programs they offer, please go to www.cisga.org OR email Neil Shorthouse at nshorthouse@cisga.org.
Next month, we will hear from Sam Bandela about his recent experiences in tsunami-ravaged Thailand. The meeting will be on Tuesday, April 5th at 7:30 am. Mark your calendars! Details on location with directions are forthcoming.
Until next time ..
Towles Kintz