F.A.C.T.S. Program-East Boston High School

F.A.C.T.S. is a program in which at-risk high school students pair up with and tutor second grade students.

During the 1992-93 school year a needs assessment indicated an excessive dropout rate at East Boston High School. The Headmaster, unhappy with the numbers, initiated a study group to research the effectiveness and possible implementation of an alternative program for the at-risk high school population. From that effort, the F.A.C.T.S. (flexibility, acceleration, competency based, teamwork, service) Program was established. The program is geared towards students who have had a difficult time in the mainstream for a variety of reasons. Many are teen parents, some have had previous trouble with the law and most have never found their place in the academic and extra-curricular life of school.

In the spring term of the 1994/95 school year, the program’s managers submitted a proposal to pair F.A.C.T.S. students with second grade students at a local elementary school. The principal and teachers embraced the idea and the existing collaboration began.

F.A.C.T.S. students focus on children’s literature in their English class, study child psychology and learning styles, design their own lessons and learn responsibility and commitment. Thirty of the students leave the high school to work with the second graders. Accompanied by their teachers, they go into the elementary school twice a month and spend forty-five minutes to an hour reading, writing, talking and drawing with their thirty second grade partners.

In addition to the individual mentoring aspects, the students designed and ran a citywide book drive in Boston, which collected over one thousand books to give to the young children.

Both the elementary students and the F.A.C.T.S. program students are experiencing success with this program. One second grader began the program unwilling to work with a partner and unable to read a single phrase successfully. By the end of the school year the student was reading whole stories to the class. The F.A.C.T.S. program volunteers are put into leadership positions that bring out their best qualities and build their self-esteem.

Tess Wise

Tess Wise founded the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center (HMREC) of Central Florida in 1980 and worked for more than 17 years in a volunteer position as executive director of the Center.

Mrs. Wise was born in Poland and lived there until 1945. She escaped from a concentration camp in 1943 when she was 17 years old. She and nine surviving relatives smuggled themselves into the American zone in Germany, where the United Nations relief organizations and American Jewish organizations cared for them. Since coming to the United States in 1947, Mrs. Wise has made it her life’s work to make sure the lessons of the Holocaust are never forgotten.

Mrs. Wise presented a proposal to the Federation and Valencia Community College to initiate Holocaust education in the public schools. From the inception of the Holocaust project, HMREC has been a focal point for national conferences on the Holocaust and on terrorism, a speakers’ bureau and a library.

Mrs. Wise has developed and implemented educational programs and curricula, which is now included in the Library of Congress and is in use throughout the country. She has organized an annual film and lecture series and consults in colleges and universities nationally. Mrs. Wise’s main goal is to create educational tools that help shape a just and moral community.

Mrs. Wise and the Holocaust Center were instrumental in helping pass state legislature mandating teaching of the Holocaust in all Florida classrooms.

Ron Gonzales

In 1989 when Ron Gonzales, then mayor of Sunnyvale, California, visited a group of middle school students, many were surprised that someone who looked like them could achieve such a prominent position in the community. After his experience, Mr. Gonzales created The Role Model Program to supplement the work of parents, teachers and schools, and to inspire children to be achievers.

The mission of the program is to empower middle school students to realize their potential by using community and business leaders of Santa Clara County as sources of inspiration. Today, 150 Role Models representing successful individuals from the public and private sectors volunteer in the classroom. They “adopt” the classroom for four visits, utilizing a specially designed curriculum to facilitate discussion around positive life choices such as: staying in school, avoiding gang involvement, avoiding drugs and alcohol and planning a career. In addition, the program provides parents with information relative to a student’s educational development

Another segment of The Role Model Program is Twelve Together. This program serves 12 to 15 young people who are performing below a D level. Each student is paired with a college mentor who works with the student to overcome his or her personal and academic problems.

Under Mr. Gonzales’ leadership, the program has grown from five schools to 28 schools covering 15 districts and serving more than 5,000 students.

Although Mr. Gonzales is no longer mayor of Sunnyvale, he continues to further educational opportunities for students. He is a classroom role model and co-instructor of the Student Leadership Program that is designed to teach leadership skills to community college students.

RAINBOWS

When Suzy Yehl Marta, a divorced mother of three, was unable to find counseling and peer support for her children following her divorce, she established a weekend retreat for children of divorced parents. The 1983 retreats grew into RAINBOWS, which helps children, adolescents and adults face the emotional pain of death, divorce and other family loss.

Volunteers in the program have created a national network of community-based, peer-support groups for individuals dealing with emotional loss. There are more than 6,000 sites nationally and 14 sites internationally with more than 37,000 trained volunteers.

At RAINBOWS sites, which range from churches to hospitals, volunteer facilitators conduct weekly sessions which provide an environment where participants begin to understand their new family unit, redevelop their self-esteem and create a healthy approach to changes in their lives.

The initial pilot program in Chicago area schools grew from three to 12 schools within one year. Today, there are more than 600,000 participants in the four levels of the program. RAINBOWS and Spectrum curricula focus on elementary and high school students; Kaleidoscope and Prism concentrate on college age and single adults. Volunteers are trained by the group’s staff and receive continuous training to face new issues like natural disasters and fires.

RAINBOWS continues to grow and recruit more individuals as registered directors and facilitators. The long-term goal of the group is to provide each family with a community-based program to resolve emotional loss and pain.

Dr. Audrey E. Evans

When Dr. Audrey E. Evans came to the United States from Scotland to establish her medical career, she saw many exhausted parents of sick children sleeping and waiting in hospitals. As a doctor who works with children who have cancer, she wanted to provide parents, especially those from other states, a home-away-from-home environment and a better place to stay.

Without the finances needed to buy a house close the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, where she was practicing, she formed a committee and recruited the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles and McDonald’s Restaurant to purchase the house. This house became the first Ronald McDonald House. Since 1974, Ronald McDonald Houses have grown to number over 130 in the United States with an additional 45 in other countries.

Each Ronald McDonald house operates independently with a Board of Directors and volunteers who provide a family atmosphere for parents and sick children. At some houses, families pay a small fee depending on their financial standing.

Dr. Evans continues to play an active role in the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House serving on the executive board and continues to seek a solution to cancer at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. She also works with Ronald McDonald Charities and other organizations across the country.

Common Cents of New York

Common Cents New York, a public charity founded in 1991, is dedicated to animating the resources of society to benefit children, and the resources of children to benefit society. To accomplish this, the organization designs and offers young people enjoyable projects with meaningful outcomes that contribute to their own growth, and the well-being of others.

In 1994, Common Cents forged a partnership with the Chancellor of the New York City Board of Education to provide age-appropriate community service to all city students. These programs are designed to help young people develop and enjoy the skills to make them indispensable resources to their communities.

One program is the Penny Harvest, an annual fall campaign that involves schools and the surrounding community in recycling the resource of idle pennies. In four years, the program has grown from serving 50,000 students in 54 schools to 400,000 students in 470 schools, while the annual dollar yield has increased from $16,000 to $275,000.

Once the pennies become dollars, Common Cents Student Roundtables swing into action, turning the dollars into deeds. In 1997, the organization provided ongoing instruction to teachers running Student Roundtables in 53 Elementary, Middle and High Schools across the city – plus a citywide Roundtable of high school student leaders, called the Student Community Action Fund (SCAF). Over 770 students discovered the challenges and rewards of philanthropy by responsibly allocating 185 well-researched grants – 139 to neighborhood charities and 46 to youth-run community service projects in New York schools.

Common Cents also pilots Cookies & Dreams, a literacy and near-peer mentoring program with an inherently fun, semi-structured format. The program trains middle school students to be responsible and creative teachers of preschoolers, and then offers them ongoing support as they take on the responsibility of tutoring their buddies in reading and language-based play. Cookies & Dreams currently runs in two public schools as part of the curriculum and as an after-school program at a private Manhattan school, where advantaged middle schoolers are paired with preschool children from a transitional shelter.

Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps

Incorporated in March of 1985, the Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps (RAM) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with no paid employees. Using an airborne force of volunteers, the group provides free health care, veterinary services and technical and educational assistance in remote and rural areas of the United States and around the world.

The program was started by Stan Brock, who lived for years in the Amazon region of South America, an area with no health care whatsoever. When he left the region to co-host the “Wild Kingdom” television series, he continued to travel extensively still discovering medically helpless people around the world. Mr. Brock made it his mission to find a way to take medical care to people who had none.

Over half of RAM expeditions are in the United States, with most of those in East Tennessee. On American Indian reservations RAM teams conduct one week “health blitzes” designed to provide hard-to-find specialists or catch up long waiting lists of routine medical needs. Appalachian area clinics are two days, Saturday and Sunday, in communities which suffer from a lack of providers and/or have a large unemployed/uninsured population. County health departments, housing authorities, regional health agencies or private primary care facilities host the teams in these areas.

RAM volunteer health care delivery teams are comprised of physicians and surgeons of all specialties. Nurses, dentists, optometrists, veterinarians and support personnel travel to destinations as far away as South America. Team members pay their own expenses and are asked to bring medicines and other supplies.

Since 1992, there have been as many as 22 expeditions a year, totaling more than 86 expeditions with more than 71,400 patients served.Incorporated in March of 1985, the Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps (RAM) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with no paid employees. Using an airborne force of volunteers, the group provides free health care, veterinary services and technical and educational assistance in remote and rural areas of the United States and around the world.

Since 1992, there have been as many as 22 expeditions a year, totaling more than 86 expeditions with more than 71,400 patients served.

Warner Canto

Warner Canto is a founding member and Vice President of the Student/Partner Alliance (S/PA). The S/PA is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization based in Newark, New Jersey, which provides educationally and economically disadvantaged young people with the opportunity to receive a quality high school education in a private school as an alternative to their zoned public school. In many New Jersey cities, such as Newark, the graduation rate of high school students is below 50% and the state has taken over some school boards.

S/PA recruits individuals, called Partners, who commit to support a student throughout their four years in high school. The commitment is in the form of time and money. Typically, a partner donates between $2,000 and $4,000 which covers tuition. In addition, Partners monitor the student's progress, provide counseling and teach career and life skills.

In 1993 when S/PA began, Mr. Canto took a year's leave of absence from his employer to ensure that the program's start would be successful. During this time, he appealed and received financial support from different philanthropic foundations and organizations, such as American Express and the Link Foundation. S/PA has received foundation grants that cover all administrative costs of the program allowing all partner contributions to go to student tuition.

Another component of S/PA is a partnership with Footstar, Inc. Each year, Essex Catholic High School of East Orange, New Jersey, provides Footstar, Inc. with a list of juniors and seniors that would have to drop out due to financial problems. The company provides financial scholarships to these students.

Through his efforts, the number of partners in the program has increased from 19 to 50 and the numbers of students has increased from 29 to 150. Since the program began, S/PA has annually graduated 98% of its students and all but one, who joined the military, has gone on to four-year colleges.

City Year’s Young Hereos

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Martin Flores

In 1994, Martin Flores, then 21, experienced the tragic death of his brother, Rogelio, 17, who was a victim of a drive-by shooting incident in East Los Angeles. Both brothers were actively involved in the community, specifically with the graffiti abatement program, which put murals in place of graffiti.

Instead of turning his pain and sorrow into violence, Martin initiated a program to address the issues facing young people in his community. He felt that had the shooter received more attention at home and school, he may not have dropped out of school and become a killer. He established the Rogelio Flores Foundation in 1994, in memory of his brother; to help young people stay out of gangs, drugs and to encourage them to further their education.

The Foundation operates on the motto, “Teachers of the Children” and believes that the youth should be involved in addressing issues that face them. The volunteer base primarily consists of high-school and college-aged “teaching interns” who tutor and provide personal guidance to approximately 80 second through sixth-grade students in the Foundation’s Si Se Puede! (Yes You Can) Tutorial Program.

In addition to assisting younger children in their studies, the “teaching interns” receive assistance in the areas of application writing, test taking and essay writing as they pursue higher education. The Foundation has also raised funds to take the “teaching interns” to different schools in the University of California system. To date, out of the 36 juniors and seniors who have participated in the visitation program, 30 are either in college or are applying to go to college.

La Belleza Del Barrio (The Beauty of the Neighborhood) Program, another component of the Foundation matches adult artists with “taggers” (people who spray paint graffiti on neighborhood buildings) to adorn stark walls and freeway overpasses with murals depicting Hispanic culture. These programs, he feels, do more than beautify the neighborhood, they also educate the youth of their rich Mexican/Latino heritage.