Against The Grain

It is the second full week of school and Reach & Teach will start back up this evening.  Last night we had a swim party with the 4th grade boys and talked a little about some of the expectations for this new year.  We have learned a lot, in our reading this summer, about working with kids who have grown up in poverty and/or without a father present.  We will be implementing many things that we learned from 3 books that I would highly recommend. 

1.  A Framework For Understanding Poverty - by Ruby K. Payne. 
2.  The Essential 55: An Award-winning Educator's Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child - by Ron Clark
3.  To Own a Dragon: Reflections On Growing Up Without A Father - by Donald Miller and John MacMurray

If you work with kids, especially kids who are being raised in poverty, these books are full of insights and will give you the inside scoop to better understand what the kids face and a clear explanantion of certain behaviors and how to deal with them.  Cristi has brought incredible organization and we are set for volunteers on Mondays, although we still need a few committed volunteers for the Thursday evening program.  Fourth Avenue Church of Christ's youth will once again volunteer every Wednesday and many of the Reach & Teach kids have requested Wednesday as their time to come.  They have begun to establish some great relationship with the kids from 4th.  This year we have a couple of women who have commmitted to help with Purity Plus (group mentoring for girls ages 8 - 18).  At the same time Purity Plus will be going on we will be bringing in a group of Pre Schoolers and preparing them for school. 

We look forward to an incredible year…check back for more updates. 

We would like to welcome Jeff Solomon to the Board of Directors.  Jeff owns a C.P.A. firm in Cool Springs, will be acting as the Board Treasurer and as the Chair of the Finance Committee.  He is going to be a great asset and take many responsibilities off the shoulders of Meredith.  The Board continues to grow and add new people with the skills to move this vision forwarded.  For a full list of who is on the Board of Directors follow the "About AtG" link and click on "Board of Directors".  We are looking for additional Board members, if you are interested in being considered as a candidate please contact Rob Kendall at 791-7885 or email rob@atghope.org and we would be happy to consider your nomination.

Monday night we held our first volunteer training session for the new school year.  It was an great time to meet the new teachers.  Cristi, our Reach & Teach Director, started in the middle of the year last year so this is her first chance to set the standard from the beginning.  What a difference she is making.  During the session we talked about the effects of poverty and acceptable social skills.  We are receiving training from the same sources that the School systems are using to traing their teachers on working with kids who have been raised in poverty.
Thursday we will have our second session with the teachers who have committed to volunteer on Thursdays.  If you are intersted in volunteering with Against the Grain please email your contact information to volunteer@atghope.org.