Communities in Schools meeting needs of at-risk students

Jun. 30—"Every kid is one caring adult away from being a success story." — Josh Shipp

One caring adult is but one of the benefits Communities In Schools is bringing to Wyoming County students.

A pet project of West Virginia First Lady Cathy Justice, the initiative is a national program designed to reduce dropout rates by connecting at-risk students to community resources that will help keep them in school.

Founder Bill Milliken began Communities In Schools in New York City in the 1970s, according to the CIS website.

"It's not programs that are transforming young people's lives, it's relationships," Milliken said of the program. "A great program simply creates the environment for healthy relationships to form between adults and children. Young people thrive when adults care about them on a one-to-one level, and when they also have a sense of belonging to a caring community."

Communities In Schools (CIS) is specifically designed to bring community resources into the school directly to at-risk students in an effort to remove both academic and non-academic barriers that may keep them from attending school.

The community resources may address basics such as food and clothing, or provide counseling services, encourage family engagement, enhance life skills, and/or meet physical health needs.

"We want these students on an equal playing field," noted John Henry, assistant superintendent of schools. "Communities In Schools does that."

During the 2018-19 school year, Wyoming County was among the three pilot counties — in addition to Berkeley and McDowell — in which the program was introduced in West Virginia. The program had been ongoing since 2004 in Greenbrier County.

During that first year in Wyoming County, CIS was only available to students at Westside High School.

The program was then expanded to the Westside High feeder schools and Wyoming County East High.

Now in its sixth year in Wyoming County, CIS is available in all the schools with the exception of the Career and Technical Center. Those students are served through the high schools, Henry said.

Last year, the county's 13 CIS coordinators completed 6,000 home visits/parent contacts and provided 2,500 pieces of clothing and 1,000 pairs of shoes to students.

Nationwide, CIS is in 3,270 schools across 25 states and the District of Columbia.

In West Virginia, CIS has been expanded to 38 counties in 208 schools with 210 site coordinators, impacting 89,000 students.

Justice has also added another dimension to the program in West Virginia — Friends with Paws, which provides certified therapy dogs to schools.

The service dogs are placed in schools within Communities In Schools counties "where students are disproportionately affected by poverty, substance misuse, or other at-risk situations, and are in the greatest need of a support animal," according to officials.

The service animals can help people feel at ease, improve their mood, relieve anxiety, and remove social barriers.

Therapy dogs are also trained to work in stressful environments, ignore distractions, and provide therapy to people with diverse backgrounds and circumstances.

In 2022, the first lady delivered River, a young yellow Labrador retriever, to Pineville Elementary School.

"We often joke that River is an employee," Henry said. "He's had a great impact on the students and employees."

The county's CIS site coordinators provide a wide array of services to students served by the program, Henry explained.

Additionally, coordinators work closely with each student's parents and family in an effort to further remove any attendance barriers.

"They've worked with businesses to help parents get jobs," Henry said. "They've helped parents fill out job applications."

Coordinators try to address whatever an individual student's needs may be — attendance issues, academic decline, medical and dental services, food, adequate clothing, shoes, a shower, a washer or dryer, or personal hygiene products such as soap, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste.

In some instances, the electricity may have been turned off in a student's home and the coordinator will try to work out a solution to get it restored.

Coordinators have also helped provide Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners for families as well as assist students with whatever is needed to go to the prom and other special occasions.

The coordinators also maintain stockpiles of needed items — food, clothing, shoes, hygiene products — in the schools so that at-risk students can "shop" for items that many children take for granted.

"They also help the students realize the impact of an education," Henry emphasized.

Coordinators fill a lot of roles — from parent figure to teacher to role model.

"They provide a soft place for the student to land," Henry emphasized. "Then, sometimes, the student may need someone to hold them accountable."

It's not unusual, during graduation ceremonies, to see some of the students in the program search out their CIS facilitator, Henry noted.

Coordinators also build relationships with area businesses, churches, and organizations to help provide for student needs — bringing community resources into the schools to at-risk students. The businesses, churches and organizations provide the items for the schools' food pantries and other stockpiled items.

If a student's family needs a washer, an area church may step in and provide it, Henry explained.

A major part of the county's annual Back to School Bash is the relationship CIS coordinators have built with community partners, Henry emphasized.

"Our strength has always been our people. They always come together and meet the needs of the kids," he said.

The CIS program will continue through the 2023-24 school year, the approximately $730,000 annual cost funded with American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) monies. American Rescue Plan funding is federal money provided in response to the economic downturn created by the Covid-19 pandemic. The funding will dry up in 2024.

After that, schools officials hope that legislators see the important part the program plays in keeping at-risk students in school, Henry noted.

"It's a wonderful program," Henry said. "It really digs down to the root causes.

"The beauty of this program is that students have that one person ... that one specific link."