In attendance: Stephanie Barnes (Boys & Girls Club), Linda Chaffin (School for Ethical Education), Che Dawson (City of New Haven), Richard Everett (Greater New Haven Help Alliance), Rachel Heerema (Citywide Youth Coalition), Kai Perry (Yale-Bridgeport GEAR-UP Partnership), Letisha Harrison (Youth Rights Media).
Purpose of meeting: We want to brainstorm and learn from each other, what we are doing and what we can do, how we can collaborate and what needs to happen within our community so all youth graduate high school prepared for success as adults.
Rachel passed out the notes from the 12/16/10 annual meeting on what organizations reported they are doing and want to do
Discussion: Youth Rights Media is doing a public awareness campaign on “Pushed” youth rights to stay in school with their documentary showings and fact sheets. There are issues with administrative advice on pushing out and also kids at risk. School for Ethical Education has made a “school success” map of free afterschool activities and tutoring opportunities. Youth helping youth has been working for 3 years on these issues. Yale-Bridgeport GEAR-UP has a MAX youth-development curriculum which includes college awareness. The intervention is 8th-grade level through college and graduate student staff to facilitate a curriculum – time management, navigating high school transition, high school schedules, college tours, and cultural awareness. In the Bridgeport project, there is parental engagement and workshops.
The Truancy Drop-out & Prevention Office has set up a schedule of meetings to discuss this same issue. New Haven Public Schools has been doing a lot of intervention, and could do more prevention.
Why do kids drop-out in New Haven? What’s the demographic and neighborhood? What are the reasons that kids drop-out? Some people think that the risk factors are present in kindergarten.
At Boys & Girls Club, they see kids from 5 years old, and parents not being in the home, in jail, or not being with parents. You can tell which kids have had a terrible day at school. There should be a family approach to drop-out prevention. Issues of poverty impact school retention. Most students drop out from 8th through 10th grade. It’s important to look at study habits and addressing social-emotional needs.
The two top indicators are: (1) truancy in 6th through 8th grade and (2) special education status. Kids say that they drop out because they are not prepared for the high school level of work. The issues are different for boys and girls. It’s important to look at race and ethnicity as a factor in school retention issues. One caring adult can keep youth engaged in successful school involvement. Language barriers with parents and family members are troubling. There is a problem with a “school to prison pipeline” of students getting in trouble doubly, both administratively through suspension/expulsion as well as a criminal arrest by in-school police officer.
Who is informing parents that kids are getting in trouble? How do we find this out?
The most successful efforts have been led by youth. Campaign of kids being accountable to each other. Peer to peer support such as POSSE (groups of kids to the same college and set them up as supports for each other), with a senior adult or advisor.
Next Steps: We could host a summit on the drop-out issue. We need to look at the policy issues. We really need to organize our work because we’re all doing something that impacts this issue. Rachel will contact Charles Blango about the NHPS truancy meetings. We could neighborhood meetings this fall. The most successful efforts have been led by youth. Campaign of kids being accountable to each other. Peer to peer support such as POSSE (groups of kids to the same college and set them up as supports for each other), with a senior adult or advisor.
The youth-led Rights Squad at Youth Rights Media is meeting weekly to narrow down their agenda around this issue: Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. We want to meet with these youth and learn from them. All youth are invited to these meetings.
Next Meeting: Thursday, March 25 at 3 p.m. – perhaps with the Rights Squad.
