EDUCATION RECONNECTION 

 

Presenters

Colin Andrews, Case Manager

Youth Opportunities Unlimited

422 East South Street

Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007

Phone: 269-488-0994

Email:candrews@kresa.org

Norma Sullivan-Thornton,

Navigator Coordinator

Big Brothers Big Sisters

3501 Covington Rd

Kalamazoo, Michigan 49001

Phone: 269-382-6800, x 123

Email: normathornton@bbbsmi.org

What Is Education Reconnection

♦ Education ReConnection is based on the beliefs that everyone can learn, that everyone is born with a desire to learn that can be nurtured, that a high school education is within the reach of virtually all and is the basis for life-long learning that will ensure that people have the skills required for employment and for citizenship.”

♦ An initiative designed to positively impact

the high school graduation rate of Kalamazoo area youths and expose them to education opportunities beyond high school, so that all of Kalamazoo's youths will have the skills and education needed to lead successful lives.

 

♦ A pilot program seeking with the assistance of local Kalamazoo County Schools, to identify twenty-five fully disengaged or “At Risk students to reconnect with education.

Education ReConnection

Target Population

Goals and Outcomes

Educationally Disconnected YouthAge 16-19years

Goals

• Assist area agencies and organizations in identifying relevant data and using factual information about youth achievement and programs to develop effective interventions.

•  Identify and/or establish school and community-based programs that help disengaged youths successfully reconnect to educational opportunities that enable them to finish high school.

• Identify institutional and organizational policies and practices that impede or improve educational outcomes, and develop appropriate recommendations.

• Identify why youth drop out of high school and improving the solutions to reconnect these youth to education by involving local businesses, build bonds of trust between families, communities and schools as well as provide information on job training and support services.

 

Outcomes• Mobilize community support for policies,

practices and programs that improve educational results for Kalamazoo County.

• Use alternative learning and other education options by involving local businesses, building bonds of trust between families, communities and schools as well as provide information on job training and support services.

For decades educators in all communities have labored to help kids remain connected to school and education

to no avail, thus community-wide problems need community-wide solutions.  

Through the collaborative efforts of Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.) and Big Brothers

Big Sisters (BBBS), fully disconnected students as well as potential drop-outs or at-risk students will be

provided opportunities to re-engage in the educational process.

 

A Collaborative Effort

Youth Opportunities Unlimited will

• Offer Credit Recovery thru computer generated NovaNet classes

• Assist in re-entry into last high school attended

• GED Program

• GED prep courses if needed

• Job placement for those who qualify

• WorkKeys and Keytrain classes

• Tutoring

• Assistance with other transition services related to education

• Adult Education Referrals

• Transportation services

• Connect youth with positive role models

• Promote close relationships with adults

• Enhance the connection between school and work

• Instill or enhance a sense of self worth

• Offer educational options 

Providing youth with positive adult role models and the building of relationships with adults can promote a positive learning environment.

Statistics show that approximately 62% of students who disengage have no adult mentor or role model with whom they can discuss their problems, concerns or desires.

Mentors and Navigators can fill that void.

Did You Know• Every year, 1.2 million students ages

16-19 years drop out of high school

• Dropouts earn $9,200 less per year than high school graduates and more than $1 million less over a lifetime than college graduates

• In the last 20 years, the earnings level of dropouts doubled, while it nearly tripled for college graduates

• High school dropouts commit about 75% of all crimes comitted in the United States

• Dropouts are more than eight times as likely to be in jail or prison as high school graduates

• More than a quarter of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.

• The dropout problem is likely to increase substantially through 2020 unless significant improvements are made.

  

Education ReConnectionThrough the efforts of the Kalamazoo Community

Foundation on behalf of the Kalamazoo County Multi-Purpose Collaborative Body and the Charles S. Mott

Foundation funding provider, the sincere desire is thatevery young person in Kalamazoo County receives the

necessary tools to be successful and well equipped for thefuture.

With the cooperation of agencies such as yours and otherswithin the community we will be able to accomplish this

mission.Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to share this

initiative with you.