Throughout 2018, The Klondike Smokey City Community Outreach Team will focusing on arming the KSC Neighborhood with Rights and Policy Awarenesses that will address the immediate needs of their families which will also address the outside barriers that directly affect students attendance, behavior, and course performance.
The Whole Child Strategy is an initiative that focuses on how to solve the growing trend of poor attendance, behavior and course performance. Whole Child is dedicated to working with communities to develop capacity and identify resources and long-term sustainable solutions necessary to ensure that students arrive at school ready to learn and succeed. The Klondike Smokey City Neighborhood is the pilot for the Whole Child Strategy initiative. To lead the efforts, Whole Child has formed an implementation Team, (The I-Team), informally know in the Klondike Smokey City Neighborhood as the Community Outreach Team. The team is made up of a Neighborhood Facilitator, a Neighborhood Meeting Specialist and a Neighborhood Organizer.
The purpose of the I-Team is to promote civic engagement by developing strategies to recruit diverse members of the community for the purpose of participating in the neighborhood meetings, as well as create awareness about Whole Child Strategy Inc. Starting in the month January, the team will focus on Community capacity building through a Know Your Rights and Policy Awareness Series that will marry the needs of the community and the immediate needs of the families. The goal is to let community members see that attending monthly neighborhood meetings will not be a waste of their time.
During the September 2017 Neighborhood Meeting, the participants compiled a list of barriers that contribute to the attendance problem. One outside barrier that was unanimously agreed upon was transportation. To give a solution to this barrier, we are inviting representatives from Shelby County Schools, The Achievement School District, The Bus Riders Union and RyeCatcher to give meeting participants information that can aid in a solution for the transportation issue. Representatives from SCS, the ASD and the BRU will share transportation options and Arthie of RyeCatcher will present the need and benefits of asset mapping. With the information presented during the January 25th meeting attendees will be equipped with the information they can use to obtain more routes for school bus pick up as well as restore the routes to the 31.
The KSC Neighborhood meetings are at Dave Wells Community Center every 3rd Thursday of every month. Keep an eye out in the newsletter for more information about the project. If you have any questions, or you’re interested in joining our work, contact organizer Cassandra M. Smith at cassandra@midsouthpeace.org.