Bridges for Youth without Support

While in Norman, I stopped by a new member of our mentoring network--Bridges, "Empowering students who live alone to succeed."  Reading on the website or about an organization is never quite the same as visiting. With Debra Krittenbrink, executive director, out of the office, Jen Anderson spoke passionately about Bridges and its students and gave me a tour.  Her description clarifying the range of clients and some of the services is at the bottom.  Of course, view the website. 

One of the quadruplexes for students. Each apartment has a bedroom, kitchen/eating area and bath.

Community organizations and volunteers decorate each apartment so they are pleasant and often chic.

Inside the community building/room were senior portraits of graduates and above them the lettering painted on the wall.  This is a terrific idea! 

Community Room

Rotary built a two-story building that houses the large "family" or community room pictured below, the offices, a computer room, a kitchen where they can cook together, and a laundry room.  Although students can cook in their apartments, they enjoy (and need) family time.

Jen mentioned the digital or technical divide that children living alone have, e.g., many assignments must now be done on computers and emailed directly to the teachers.  Work and library hours are not always compatible so the inhouse computer room is essential.

Once a year for the past two years, alumni come back to share stories, encourage youth at Bridges, and celebrate their bonds and achievements. 

From Jen:

We serve teens and young adults that are homeless and trying to finish their high school education.  These young people come from a variety of circumstances.  Some students are dealing with family homelessness and need a stable home outside of a shelter.  Others have parents who are incarcerated or deceased, and no other stable housing plan is available to them.  Many of our students have dealt with parental substance abuse or parental mental health problems, and are no longer able to live in their family home due to these problems.  Additionally, we also serve young people who have been kicked out of their homes unfairly.  The young people in Bridges receive social services and low-rent housing, along with the guidance to finish high school and make plans for their future.  All students receive comprehensive case management services, a weekly Life Skills class, a community volunteer who serves as a mentor, and educational advocacy.

Jennifer Anderson

We provide intensive support for our students, so we have high expectations of them.  The young people in our program must be enrolled in school and making steady progress toward their high school diploma.  They are required to maintain good attendance and passing grades.  They also must work part-time, and pay a sliding scale rent for their apartments.  Additionally, they must commit to staying drug and alcohol free, and must not allow their friends or family members to bring drugs or alcohol onto our property.  The majority of the young people we work with go on to some form of high education, and we help them with school applications, scholarship applications and federal financial aid forms.




Jennifer Anderson, MSW                               
Director of Social Services
Bridges
1670 North Stubbeman
Norman, OK 73069
www.bridgesnorman.org

Grant Opportunity, After School Programs

21ST CCLC GRANT OPPORTUNITY

The Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) has announced funding for 2012-2013 Oklahoma out-of-school time programs through federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grants.

http://ok.gov/sde/21st-century-community-learning-centers

http://www.okafterschool.org/

[Forwarded to us by Brenda Wheelock,
OFE's Director of Public Relations and Development]

Peer Mediation Training: Elementary and Secondary

Goal: "To train school representatives, including students, from around Oklahoma to develop a peer mediation program in the school they represent."

Locations:  Tulsa and Oklahoma City

Ideally this would involve "a training team of five people: Administrator, Counselor, Teacher, and (2) Students [preferably one female and one male]" to begin implementing in a school; however, mentor organizations can encourage local schools or use your mentees (with mentors attending).

Scouting, 4-H, college groups, and other teams of five can also be trained.  This is a life skill. 

Jane McConnell, the LRE Coordinator and a former Norman school teacher, says peer mediation was and is a beneficial way of life in Norman schools. 

See the website for dates, application, and video from Dibble Middle School.

FREE training!

http://www.okbar.org/public/lre/pros.htm

                                                                                   Google free clip art from acclaimclipart.com

Mentor Receives National Award

Doris Long, Mentoring Director, Little Dixie CAA in Antlers, Oklahoma, sent us this special recognition announcment and interesting newsletter.  Passport to the Future, her mentoring program, serves children of prisoners.  (A road trip to Antlers to meet Doris and see the program is now on my to-do list. Photo at right courtesy of the OKHP.)

Little Dixie CAA's website and past newsletters have many creative ideas and heart-warming stories. Although not to detract from Clinton Crawley's dedication and award, a quick read of the newsletters includes a reading contest to distribute backpacks, Doris Long's winning an award from the Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program (2011), mentored children decorating cookies for nursing homes as well as painting large yard ornaments for a motionless parade, crafts a volunteer taught the mentees, and much more.

We have not posted a newsletter previously and may never again, but the full August 2012 issue is below.  Clinton is pictured on pages one and six.

Congratulations, Clinton, Doris, CAA staff, and the townspeople of Antlers!   

Doris writes in her email about mentor Clinton Crawley:

Attached is our agency newsletter with an article about one of our mentors, Clinton Crawley.  He was awarded the Jayne Thomas Grassroots Volunteer Award by the National Partnership of Community Action Agencies.

He has been a mentor and volunteer with my program since 2005 and has mentored several young men that have gone on to be successful.  He has provided transportation and been a chaperone at nearly every one of our activities and events.

Doris Long
Mentoring Program Director
Little Dixie CAA
603 S.W. "B" Street
Antlers, Oklahoma 74523
www.little dixie.org

It is better to build strong children than to fix broken men.



Cultural Thought Provoker

Dayna Rowe, our foundation's communications specialist (major tech guru) as well as coordinator of the Fund for Teachers forwarded this from Carrie Pillsbury, the manager of marketing and communications for Fund for Teachers. 

Last week, national Fund for Teachers brought together representatives of its different partners. Damian Hoskins is from Cincinnati's STRIVE Partnership, an organization focused on "every child, every step of the way, from cradle to career." While explaining STRIVE's mission, he shared some information about a traditional greeting in the Masai tribe.

How Are the Children

Adapted by Pat Hoertdoerfer from an excerpt of a speech by Rev. Dr. Patrick T. O'Neill

Among the most accomplished and fabled tribes of Africa, no tribe was considered to have warriors more fearsome or more intelligent than the mighty Masai. It is perhaps surprising, then, to learn the traditional greeting that passed between Masai warriors:"Kasserian Ingera," one would always say to another. It means, "And how are the children?"

It is still the traditional greeting among the Masai, acknowledging the high value that the Masai always place on their children's well-being. Even warriors with no children of their own would always give the traditional answer, "All the children are well." Meaning, of course, that peace and safety prevail, that the priorities of protecting the young, the powerless, are in place. That Masai society has not forgotten its reason for being, its proper functions and responsibilities. "All the children are well" means that life is good. It means that the daily struggles for existence do not preclude proper caring for their young.

I wonder how it might affect our consciousness of our own children's welfare if in our culture we took to greeting each other with this daily question: "And how are the children?" I wonder if we heard that question and passed it along to each other a dozen times a day, if it would begin to make a difference in the reality of how children are thought of or cared about in our own country.

I wonder if every adult among us, parent and non-parent alike, felt an equal weight for the daily care and protection of all the children in our community, in our town, in our state, in our country. . . . I wonder if we could truly say without any hesitation, "The children are well, yes, all the children are well."
What would it be like . . . if the minister began every worship service by answering the question, "And how are the children?" If every town leader had to answer the question at the beginning of every meeting: "And how are the children? Are they all well?" Wouldn't it be interesting to hear their answers? What would it be like? I wonder . . .

From REACH February 1999

http://archive.uua.org/re/reach/teaching/masai.html  Retrieved 8-15-12

Masai photos from Lushpix, http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/masai.html

Oklahoma's Big Sister of the Year

"Sisters, sisters: Big Brothers Big Sisters honors a special volunteer"

Article on August 6, 2012 By World Staff Writer Mike Averill

The title above the newspaper photo sums up mentoring well--
"FINDING MENTORS: SOMEONE KIDS CAN COUNT ON"

Caption from photo:  "Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteer Martha Jennings is pictured with her "little sister" of nine years Brittany Stucker, 15, in Utica Square. Jennings was recently named Oklahoma's Big Sister of the Year. MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World"


http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20120806_11_A11_CUTLIN646539

A Model Program in Tulsa, OK

This school-based program speaks for itself.

Adult volunteers in the Congregation B'nai Emunah/McClure Elementary School Mentoring Program are matched in a one-on-one relationship with kindergarten through sixth grade students at McClure Elementary School in Tulsa.

Volunteers work as "literacy mentors" because they primarily focus on building reading skills to help their students close the literacy gap and read at or above their grade level.

A unique hallmark of the program is that literacy mentors are able to track their students' reading growth throughout the year, a strategy that helps the program problem-solve around best practices for supporting students.

Volunteers commit to weekly hour-long sessions which take place during the school year and summer school.

Volunteers are also able to participate in the Reading Club where they work with 1st and 2nd students in small groups to significantly increase their reading levels.

Last year, many of our students grew over a year in their reading skills and kids in the Reading Club doubled their expected growth. As the program enters its ninth year in the 2012-2013 school calendar, we are aiming for 150 volunteers to join our ranks as literacy mentors and are hoping to set new records in reading growth for struggling students. 

Literacy mentoring takes place in a portable classroom which has been designated as the "mentoring center." The program is self-contained, with a leveled library, reading games, phonics activities, math resources, and other enrichment material.

Updated program information provided Jay Pendrak, Director of Community Development