CAN Programs

CAN Programs - School Comes First

Goal • Key Components • Evaluation of Program Success • Community Impact

CAN serves families with extremely low incomes caused by multiple complicated parental challenges. Though there are exceptions, these challenges also make it difficult for many parents to provide the at-home academic support experienced in mainstream families.

Sometimes parents are simply unavailable because of their work schedules.
Often parents' literacy skills are limited, or their mental health issues impair their ability to assist their children.
Many parents had unpleasant or unsuccessful school experiences themselves and are still intimidated by things school related.
Sometimes parents pass along negative views of school and education, and do not convey the importance of attending class, completing assignments, graduating from high school or considering advanced training or college.

As a result many of our parents are not very effective advocates for their children. The cumulative effect of the lack of academic assistance, encouragement and advocacy can be devastating, and many children struggle academically.

Goal

The goal of this program is to help the low-income children CAN serves achieve their academic potential and become successful self-supporting adults. This goal is accomplished by offering students academic support, and their parents assistance in strengthening the relationships with the schools their children attend.

Key components

The key components of CAN's School Comes First! program are:

1. After-School Academic Support at our Community Centers, including:

One-on-one homework assistance for all students in all subjects
Supplemental one-on-one reading tutors for beginning and emergent readers
Internet access for research and homework assignments
Computer instruction for the youngest set (though frankly, they teach us too!)
Educational games, reinforcing basic math to complicated problem-solving skills
Regular science programs and visits to our Ann Arbor's Hands-On Museum
School supplies for those who need it (graphing calculators, multi subject binders, science project materials, poster boards).

2. Facilitating Communication between Parents and Schools:

Frequent communication with parents, teachers and school administrators about student performance and behavior - acting as a go-between when schools experience difficulties reaching parents (e.g. due to lack of phones, chaotic work schedules)
Joint problem-solving when school attendance, tardiness or inappropriate behavior impairs our children's academic success
When needed, IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting attendance & support, as well as parent transportation to schools for meetings
Encouragement and facilitation of teacher involvement in our communities, by inviting teachers to volunteer, and organizing teacher appreciation events
Personal and individualized notification of school events to parents, with specific targeted outreach, for example for Kindergarten Round-Up and curriculum nights.
Transportation to & adult supervision at evening school events for children with parents unable to attend (such as library nights, book fairs, International Night)
Advocacy with our schools about the social exclusion our children experience due to their limited financial resources- for example our families often don't have money to pay for fieldtrips, yearbooks, etc. CAN works with PTOs to optimize social inclusion.

3. Other School Related Support:

Annual Back-to-School BBQ's. These highly popular events take place a few days before the start of school. Schoolteachers, principals, parents and children all attend. Each school-aged child chooses a brand-new backpack filled with school supplies - collected by a local church congregation. It starts the school year on the right foot!
Weekly gently used book give-aways through our Serendipity program. Each child can pick two books every week to take home and build a personal library.
Frequent field trips to local libraries, during our after-school programs and in the summer time.
Other school-related supportive services, for example, the purchase of eyeglasses, which CAN secures when a parent can't. CAN also obtains $90 Warm the Children shopping vouchers every year through the Ann Arbor News and back-to-school shopping vouchers to second-hand clothing stores when needed.
Enrollment in Head Start or a similar preschool program, so our children will be ready to learn when they start Kindergarten.

Evaluation of Program Success

The success of the School Comes First! program is evaluated at the elementary & middle-school level. Two short surveys are conducted twice each year in December and June:

Parent-School Communication Satisfaction Survey among parents and teachers/counselors and
Homework Quality & Completion Survey among teachers and counselors.

The surveys also allow program staff to adjust the amount of monitoring each student and parent-teacher pair receives.

Community Impact

While the School Comes First! Program affects the families living at our public housing sites most immediately, the wider community also benefits. Without these academic supports, our children are less likely to be academically and socially successful in school. In the short term, some will display more behavior problems in their classrooms and will be less likely to graduate from school. In the long run the communities will pay an even steeper price - by having to provide ongoing financial support and with higher crime and incarceration rates. A recent Alliance for Education publication confirmed what we already knew: "education has a strong impact on crime prevention and the personal safety of Americans."