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Make A
Donation
We
appreciate your assistance in meeting the needs of our
community in addressing dropout prevention and literacy
programs. Please consider making a contribution to the
cause. Contributions can be made by check, money order, or
cashier’s check. Coming soon will be the ability to make an
on-line donation.
Please
make your donation payable to: Communities In Schools of
Milledgeville/Baldwin County, Inc. or CISMBC. Our mailing
address is:
Community In Schools of
Milledgeville/Baldwin County, Inc.
P. O. Box 783
Milledgeville, GA 31059-0783
Who
Makes
It Work
Founded in 1977,
Communities In Schools is the nation’s leading
community-based organization helping kids stay in school and
prepare for life. The CIS mission is to champion the
connection of needed community resources with schools to
help young people successfully learn, stay in school, and
prepare for life. Small, caring teams of social service
providers form one-on-one relationships with students and
work alongside teachers, volunteers and mentors in the
battle to keep children in school.
The success of this
approach has been documented repeatedly. Thanks to CIS,
young people are graduating from high school and going on to
higher education or productive careers. But who makes CIS
work? Who actually implements this highly collaborative
strategy to help kids remain in school?
Young People and
Their Parents
First and foremost, it
is the students themselves who guarantee CIS' success. Last
year, nearly one million young people demonstrated that hard
work, commitment to learning and a desire to give back to
peers and community can equal success.
Parents give their
approval and support to each child's participation in CIS.
They become involved in CIS' mission, volunteer their time
and often benefit themselves from parenting classes and
other family-skills initiatives brokered into schools by
CIS.
Educators
The school
superintendent is the crucial player who approves CIS'
presence in each community. He or she invites CIS to explore
the feasibility of establishing an initiative in the public
schools, and acts as an advocate and facilitator for the CIS
process.
The school principal
leads the school's partnership with the CIS team, chairing
meetings to introduce CIS to teachers and administrators,
and making CIS an integral part of the life of the school.
Teachers know their
students better than anyone else at the school. They refer
young people for needed services, create lesson plans with
other members of the CIS team and often incorporate a "CIS
class" into the school day.
Community Partners
Social service
providers, relocated from public and private agencies into
the school, form the nucleus of the CIS team. Career and
college counselors, health professionals, drug-education
specialists and many others all work together to treat each
student's needs holistically.
The local CIS board of
directors, drawn from both the private and public sectors,
provides leadership, experience and public visibility for
the initiative. All local CIS affiliates are independently
incorporated, thus ensuring that community decisions remain
in the hands of community leaders.
Local businesspeople
provide invaluable resources to CIS affiliates: funding,
employee mentors, job-shadowing opportunities, part-time and
summer jobs for students, and in-kind donations of supplies
and equipment. The chair of most local CIS boards of
directors is also chosen from the private sector.
Local government
leaders help create access to public agency services for
relocation into CIS sites. A mayor, county council chair or
school board representative can be a powerful advocate for
the CIS process, rallying community support and sending the
message that local government is determined to improve our
children's chances.
Religious leaders, long
accustomed to creating a community of spiritually committed
parishioners to address social issues, find a new outlet
with CIS. Volunteers from religious congregations play an
im-portant role with many CIS affiliates, and churches,
synagogues and mosques support CIS by sharing space for
after-school activities.
CIS Staff and
National Partners
The CIS staff in each
community is usually quite small, since CIS teams are
created by relocating staff from other agencies. But the
small core of paid staff comprising the CIS executive
director, individual project directors and administrative
staff are indispensable to the initiative's success. These
individuals receive in-depth training from CIS training
institutes, leading the way in implementing the CIS
collaborative strategies.
CIS national partners
help bring resources to the front lines for kids and
families. The CIS national office has longstanding
partnerships with many government, private and nonprofit
organizations. In addition, the CIS national board of
directors advocates for the CIS network, helping to raise
funds and public awareness for CIS’ work with children.
Lastly, CIS depends on
thousands of community volunteers who serve as tutors,
mentors and role models for young people. The spirit of
volunteerism is essential for any community-based program,
and CIS volunteers help forge the vital one-on-one
relationships that connect with kids. During the 2004-2005
school year, nearly 53,000 volunteers contributed 2.8
million hours of service – a dollar value of $50.6 million.
The average CIS affiliate would have to add about $240,000
to its budget in order to pay for these resources!
Communities In Schools
is truly a coordinated, cooperative approach to working with
kids. As our name reflects, we bring the community into
schools — and we need every one of our community partners.
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