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You
are here: Tacoma TEACH: Making a Difference Through Collaboration
by Kurt Miller
Throughout its history, Tacoma has carried a variety of titles and reputations. We were once "The City of Destiny," but over the years, that gleaming title has faded and rusted in some areas of our city. Our neighborhood is now considered an "Empowerment Zone;" Jason Lee Middle School is known as a Title I school that has not met their goals 2 years in a row and is classified as a "failing school." While we have taken steps to change Tacoma—especially the Hilltop—for the better, there is still a long way to go. The Hilltop neighborhood is still a battleground between families and the monsters of poverty, crime, racism and hurting schools. Now we have the opportunity to take a great stride in helping Hilltop to become a successful and connected community. By the end of this year, we hope Hilltop will be known because of a new name: "TEACH Tacoma", an initiative of the faith based organization, Northwest Leadership Foundation.
In January of 2002, representatives from established community/civic groups, faith-based organizations, and the Tacoma School District began meeting to address the needs of the Jason Lee Neighborhood through three initiatives: resource referral, enhancement of ongoing programs, and development of new programs. What developed from informal brainstorming sessions ended up with 35 different partnerships that were focused on the students and families of Bryant, Stanley, and McCarver Elementaries and Jason Lee Middle School. Initially, it was thought that a proposal could be developed that would average $150,000 per year for three years. Well, what finally developed was a program that could be funded with $2.5 million and spread over 5 years.
The numerous people involved in the discussions knew that TEACH didn't need to reinvent the wheel. It just needed to connect the resources already available in the community. Rather than develop new programs and compete against organizations providing the same resources, existing programs were brought into the partnership. Due to funding from a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, TEACH opened its doors in January of 2003. Partnerships quickly solidified with Hilltop Learning Center (HLC) and Metro Parks to provide site coordinators at Stanley Elementary and Jason Lee Middle School. HLC has been providing free tutoring services in the community for over 5 years. The Metro Parks program was expanded to 5:30pm two days a week, with transportation and extra staff provided by TEACH. TEACH also assists the Tacoma Urban League with their Latchkey program at McCarver Elementary by providing training, resources, and programming.
Photo taken at Stanley Elementary
Summer Urban Excursion
The first program introduced by TEACH was the Summer Urban Excursion (SUE) hosted by Christian Brotherhood Academy and in partnership with Intel Clubhouse and Evergreen State College. Two 4-week sessions, each with 40 students, were held. The program operated 12:30 to 4:30 pm from Monday to Friday.Students were divided into 5 groups with 2 adult leaders each. Riding public buses, the groups located resources and points of interest in the community. They photographed, filmed, and conducted interviews to document their activities. 'Resources' or places of interest, included historic buildings, Tacoma's first movie theater, a radio station, the News Tribune, museums, and more. These 'urban excursions' took place Monday through Thursday, while Fridays were used to compile the information gathered, discussed issues, journal experiences, etc. all of which exercised their reading and writing skills. The groups worked together to assemble the information and presented the experience to the community. As a culminating project they also produced a 'Teens' Guide to Tacoma' – in printed form.
The program had a great deal of importance to the participants and was effective in achieving its goals. This was displayed when the mother of one of the participants was suffering from cancer, and when her son needed to go somewhere she had to drive him. However, when she was in the hospital she couldn't help him. Now because of his self-confidence in learning how to ride the buses whenever he needs to go somewhere he just hops on the bus.
Club Ed
Planning is never ending for the programming and scheduling of the Club Ed (after-school) programs at Bryant and Stanley, while providing many of the same programs for McCarver. Community organizations, such as the Children's Museum, are being invited into the schools to provide literacy, cultural awareness, art, and academic programming. Local high school students teach Hip Hop dance to elementary school students; Jason Lee Middle School teaches the students how to DJ, individuals are teaching environmental art and book-making (not the gambling type); due to MESA (Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement) providing training to high school students and adults that program is being taught at the elementary schools during Club Ed.Yearly memberships to the Al Davies Boys and Girls Clubs are provided to all elementary school participants of Club Ed. They attend Club Ed Monday-Thursday and on Fridays, the students participate in activities at the Al Davies Club. Due to the memberships they are able to access all Boys and Girls Club activities year-round.
A program that was developed in partnership with the Foundation Multi-Cultural Solutions is CARS (an acronym that represents Commitment, Achievement, Recognition, Success,) which operates at the three elementary schools at different times during the year. A group of boys which has been identified as needing extra support meet once a week with a non-school counselor where the boys are taught skills to build their self-esteem, show how negative attitudes can affect them and their surroundings, and how to control their anger. Small matchbox cars are used during the session as a way to work through issues. At the second meeting, the counselor forgot to bring the cars, but a student, one of the "hardest" in the group, brought enough cars from home to share with the rest of the children. While the adult was acknowledging what that student did, he had the biggest smile on his face and you know that had an incredible impact on him. After only 8 sessions teachers are noticing a difference in behavior of the students.
Paul Johnson and Taylor Bentley from Jason Lee Middle School competing at the First Lego League State Championship.
Jason Lee Middle School
TEACH partners with Metro Parks to develop programs at Jason Lee Middle School. The Parks Department currently has site coordinators at 9 of the 11 middle schools in Tacoma. They provide assistance to school staff during the day and provide programming for after school activities. Due to funding from us, we are able to provide an extra staff member for the after school component at Jason Lee. We also are bringing in different types of programs. One of them is Lego Robotics, which involves robots that are made out of Lego pieces that are then programmed by computer to do different tasks. In December of 2003, a state competition was held where one of the teams from Jason Lee was awarded 6th place and the Rookie Team of the Year Award. Also, all participants received medals to hang around their necks. The competition was held on Saturday, and on Monday morning the team members were wearing their medals at school and telling the Assistant Principal about the competition.
Bill Hutchinson from the Tacoma News Tribune doing an "In the Corner" at Jason Lee Middle School
In the Corner
Community members and business people are invited to help stimulate students' interests in a variety of hobbies and/or professions. Every other Wednesday, space is made available in the corner of the Jason Lee cafeteria during lunch to share with students the presenters passion and/or profession. During that time the students come over to the display where they look at the materials and ask questions until lunch ends.Community Facilitator
TEACH connects the educational and social services communities together to develop a forum for discussion and sharing of ideas and resources:
• Facilitate discussions with agencies/organizations with established programs in the schools.
• Fiscal agent for Barb Fritchey Center and Hilltop Family Support Center for their families in need funds.
• Provide networking for agencies that have resources that partner organizations can access.
• Provide training opportunities for partner agencies.
• Coordinate distribution of in-kind donations from various businesses.
• Hold monthly partner meetings to share ideas and resources.
• Contact local college and university students and develop hiring pool programs.
• Find resources for families referred by counselors from the schools.
• Identify programs/needs for the community and develop partnerships
• Developing a program for expelled/suspended middle school students.'Urban Fellows' (Internships)
Through TEACH, a variety of internship positions were created in partnership with several different organizations: Evergreen State College Urban Educator Class: Development of Parent Handbook and Curriculum Development for the Summer Program by class participants; Tacoma Goodwill Industries, Summer High School: In partnership with Club Friday, Hilltop Health Ministries, and Tacoma College Ministries, TEACH helped create three summer internships. These students learned transferable job skills. University of Washington – Tacoma, Social Work Department: Two internships have been developed on behalf of Social Work students from the UW-T with partner agencies.Partners
Other partners, not mentioned, include; PRISM, Tacoma Pierce County Health Dept., City of Tacoma, TRIO, MESA, University of Puget Sound, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma Community College, Neighborhood Learning Center, Hilltop Artists in Residence, RALLY, 4-H, Club Friday, Vision Youth, the Disney Store, and United Way.Conclusion
During the life of the grant it is our goal to develop leadership within many levels of the community to both financially sustain and manage the various programs. This is being done by providing training and employment, listening, and working with churches and community organizations on a daily basis.
Kurt Miller is Program Director of Teach of Tacoma, which is an initiative of the Northwest Leadership Foundation, a faith-based organization in Tacoma. For four years he has been outreach coordinator for Trinity Presbyterian Church, located on the Hilltop of Tacoma, and is currently Co-chair of the citizens committee for the Tacoma School District that helped pass a $450 million facility bond in 2001 and a four year M&O levy in 2002. In June he was appointed to and in November elected to the Tacoma School Board.Email: miller@northwestleadership.org
For mor information about Tacoma TEACH, go to www.northwestleadership.org/initiatives/teach.
©June 2004 New Horizons for Learning
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