Chapter 21

The School Specialist’s Role as a Champion of Prosocial Education

Becky Wilson, Vonda Martin, and Betty Straub

“Getting everybody to do a little bit—everyone in the community—that’s how we meet students’ needs.” This theme for the Spencer County (Kentucky) Family Resource and Youth Service Centers has served to create a system for an unbelievable level of cooperation to help our kids. We focus on our goal: Reducing barriers to learning. Our centers, therefore, embrace the whole philosophy undergirding prosocial education, with our goal inspiring us to serve as a critical support mechanism that investigates and attends to the comprehensive needs of the whole child and families. Our processes focus on ways to operate outside the school building and to bring needed services into the schools.

Since 1991, our rural community has relied on the Centers’ mission to provide a process much like case management for our school district’s children and families. Collectively called the FRYSC (pronounced “Friskee”), the Family Resource Center serves the two elementary schools, and the Youth Service Center assists the middle and high schools. We are the two FRYSC coordinators, employed as school staff with education and social work degrees; we are not school counselors. Expertise in community collaboration is a nonnegotiable requirement for our positions. For the most part, we do not offer direct services ourselves but act as referral agents for a wide variety of concerns that affect families (e.g., mental and physical health, basic needs, day care, financial assistance, housing, after-school programs, jobs, and job training).

We are a very close, tight community that has little industry and no large businesses, leaving us with a small tax base available to help families in need. FRYSC was the catalyst for getting the community to communicate and collaborate to identify the kind of outside-the-classroom assistance that would ensure students could focus on learning. Our structure connects people who are willing to help gather and distribute very limited resources, and we continue to find more people almost on a daily basis. Our story that follows illustrates how we reduce learning barriers.

The Advisory Council is the heart and soul of the FRYSC, a remarkable testament to our continuing success. Required by the state, this group has at least forty members that have continued to meet bimonthly since 1991 to catalog activities and needs, provide updates, and celebrate the successes we build upon. The council’s members represent the diversity of the county: parents; school staff; community organizations (health, multipurpose, mental health and substance abuse prevention agencies, the Ministerial Association and individual churches, community businesses); and other volunteers. Even with the recent state budget being cut for FRYSC staff hours, our council continues to find resources for our ongoing programs, which include many unique opportunities to get parents involved in our schools. To get a sense of services and programs that make up the FRYSC efforts, let’s follow a typical client.

Finding FRYSC

Margie at First Baptist Church meets with Bess, who just discovered that her husband has lost his job. Referred by a neighbor who has volunteered multiple times with the Advisory Council, Bess didn’t know where to begin to find help. Margie calls us at FRYSC, since Bess has one child at each school level (elementary, middle, and high), and we contact the Multipurpose Community Action Agency to connect the many dots necessary to respond to Bess’s needs. We first find transportation to Mary’s Closet, run by the Methodist Church, where Bess finds clothing for one of her children. Vonda at the Youth Service Center conveys to the students that it’s nobody’s fault that Dad lost his job and can’t afford to buy school clothes. She emphasizes that decisions they make about taking care of their needs will ensure they perform well in school.

Bess’s husband is invited to Donuts with Dads and finds several leads for job interviews in Louisville, the largest nearby city, where many county residents work. Bess attends Muffins with Moms, hears a skills presentation on parenting teenagers, and finds two babysitting jobs for her sophomore daughter. Bess’s children are worried about school supplies until they attend the Health Fair/Readifest with sixty booths, one loaded with backpacks full of school supplies.

There’s an interesting story about these backpacks. When FRYSC state funding for materials was exhausted, our churches stepped up, each one selecting an item needed for school, including the backpack itself. The churches purchase five hundred to one thousand of each item and then send volunteers to fill the backpacks. We have many children that wouldn’t have school supplies each year without this kind of generosity from our churches.

Back to Bess. She and her family attend our annual festival that starts the school year off on the right foot. The Health Fair/Readifest has gotten bigger every year, held the first Saturday before school begins. Booth sponsors turn away no one, regardless of income level and need, so Bess is thrilled to find so much help in one place. She and her family enjoy activities that include health screenings from volunteers outside the county (Jewish Hospital from Shelby County) and helpful school and community-related publications (Publishers Printing from Bullitt County provides printing for ten thousand materials). North Central Health Department is one of our big contributors, with T-shirts for volunteers and a major item each year, so Bess’s three children each get a bike helmet this year.

Because all school agencies take part in Readifest, Bess’s family sees presentations on martial arts, cheerleaders performing, and school clubs sponsoring information booths. She is so delighted at this chance to meet over one thousand people who attend, many who urge her to sign up for a variety of school activities. Our Health Fair/Readifest really works to get whole families involved early in the year.

Now that the school year is under way, Bess’s elementary-age son Bart participates in Backpack Buddy. At Taylorsville Elementary, Kaye is the home/school/community liaison who coordinates donations from churches, school staff (who sign up for monthly payroll deductions to help with funding), and private citizens. On Friday for under three dollars, Bart picks up a backpack filled with food that will last over the weekend. Bess had to give parental permission that identifies any food allergies. Last year, 184 students enrolled in the program, serving kids who didn’t have to do without food, literally, on the weekend. This program doesn’t happen during summer, so Bess will continue to struggle. To meet that need, Dare to Care programs (one supplies fresh produce for backpacks) are available at four sites in the county on the second week each month; food stamps are distributed during the first week of the month. Bess experiences for herself that the community sees need and meets it.

The Kids Need Counseling: Can FRYSC Help?

Bess realizes she has to figure out how to get individual counseling for her children to help them cope with pressures of a father out of work and its impact on the family. She’s in luck. We FRYSC coordinators are connected to multiple mental health services, including school counselors, to which we refer students and their family members. Counseling needs are critical for some students, and we are diligent in protecting confidentiality when they express that need to us. That’s a primary reason that our offices are located in the schools at a considerable distance from the schools’ administrative offices. Parents especially appreciate our protective stance regarding confidentiality.

Mentoring, a robust FRYSC component, provides additional help for Bess’s kids. The program began when a new principal came to Spencer County. He immediately started working hand in hand with our staff to create an effective mentoring project that continues to this day. He placed the home/school/community liaison, who is also the school’s parent involvement coordinator, in the office next to the FRYSC. When our current superintendent came, he had the school board agree to require all staff members to mentor a student—on school time. That act alone has really contributed to mentoring being one of our biggest successes. The role model that mentors provide has led to improved attendance and academic performance and has increased participants’ self-confidence. Administration support is the absolute key. Mentors meet with students at lunchtime and during recess. Several of our male mentors are retired workers from General Electric who share mechanical expertise and teach bicycle repair. Other mentors are ministers, retired school teachers, and insurance salesmen. Speaking of lunchtime, Spencer Elementary has a lunch backpack program where students go to their pods to eat privately with their mentors. If a student is having a bad day, the mentor stays longer to provide extra needed time to help. The program is referral based; we always have a waiting list.

In addition to mentoring, Bess has discovered a world of volunteer projects through one of FRYSC’s basic elements, a broadly disseminated monthly newsletter that goes to local legislators, parents, students, principals, and teachers. We want everyone to know about our work, and yet we believe we only reach a small proportion of the county’s need. We work closely with community members primarily to reduce duplication. Bess is just one of so many examples of the great good hearts we touch. She gave back from the day she began receiving assistance. For example, she helped a great-grandmother who provides care for three of her great-grandchildren (ages two, four, and eight years old) and needed clothing, bedding, diapers, and furniture. Bess took her to places like Mary’s Closet, operated by the Methodist Church for children (infant to size 8), and filled every need. Lots of families help with the Father-Daughter Dance for the elementary schools, which promotes the Fatherhood Initiative originally funded by a state grant from Community Collaboration for Children; moms help with food for the event. This event has been sustained by our many local partners—our heroes.

Bess is finding that nearly all activities in Spencer County somehow involve FRYSC. We have sites set up all around the county due to transportation problems that many families have in this hilly, rural area. At Vacation Bible School at many churches, our summer feeding program provides breakfast or lunch for children. We deliver flyers during the community library’s summer Story Hour to inform parents that breakfast or lunch is available at Taylorsville Elementary. A local resident works in Louisville for a large management company that removes stoves and refrigerators during renovations. She stored the discarded appliances in her garage and gave them to families as FRYSC told her about families in need. This is so typical. People hear about furniture needs; someone calls up and donates to fill the need.

One bit of anxiety for Bess is the coming holidays. She begins seeking FRYSC sources. A grandmother, working at CVS, arranges for seasonable merchandise to be given to FRYSC. A one-thousand-dollar value, we distribute donations like this through the Christmas Assistance program to families who otherwise wouldn’t have a holiday for their children. One church always asks for fifty angels each year, followed by smaller requests from our other churches, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, various student clubs, and private citizens. Similar to the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree, we provide lists to these special helpers who anonymously buy and wrap gifts for hundreds of families in Spencer County.

We used Christmas Assistance as a way to increase parent involvement. To participate, we make it a different requirement each year to keep participants interested and to prevent families just coming every year for a handout. We believe that you need to help yourself. One year, parents had to volunteer twelve hours, of which four hours could be for community events or spending time in the library reading to their children. Eight hours must be devoted to such school-related activities as PTA meetings and events, open houses at the start of the school year, or attending board of education meetings. The next year, we added a parent–teacher conference per child. It has worked beautifully. Parents are proud to carry the sheets of paper that verify hundreds of volunteer hours they’ve donated so that their families can have a Christmas. Students also are involved in community volunteer projects as their way of giving back for the assistance.

Involvement of Other Agencies

Not all FRYSCs across Kentucky are like ours. Others depend more on social service agencies to refer for needs, or they have big corporations that provide help. We accomplish so much of what we do by word of mouth. Two of our staff—Kaye (the liaison) and Vonda’s assistant—go to meetings with the Chamber of Commerce and Ministerial Association to inform them and stay informed about county needs and news. As you can likely tell, the churches are great partners; some churches directly buy the food for the Backpack Buddy program. Without our churches, we wouldn’t exist. Regular funding donations come from other organizations and multiple private citizens. When there are special events, various groups take the lead. The PTA comes up with volunteers whenever we need them and develops project ideas for which we reciprocate their incredible support. The local University of Kentucky Extension Office agricultural center might provide information to homes about good nutrition. The 4-H agency recently distributed hygiene items around the time flu shots were being given. Vonda coordinates events around prom and graduation, involving numerous organizations and volunteers in helping to keep our seniors safe and alive on these important nights in their lives.

The Area Health Education Center is another powerful, multi-serving partner. At the high school, its members discuss health careers; for elementary and middle schools, its Scrubby Bear teaches good hand-washing technique. The University of Louisville Dental School sends great role models for our kids on October 31—dental students in lab attire, the tooth fairy, or Mr. Decay to talk to every classroom about eating candy, providing free toothbrushes and toothpaste. Later, in mid-November, the Smile Kentucky Dental Program helps FRYSC reach students. The largest dental event in the United States, Smile Kentucky is led by the Louisville Water Company’s collaboration with the U of L Dental School to provide free dental screenings for third through sixth graders and dental educational programs for grades K–6. The Colgate corporate van is on-site, outfitted like a dental office with free brushes and toothpaste for participants. Volunteer dentists, hygienists, and other providers analyze the results of our students’ screenings and arrange for needed treatments at no cost that occurs in February each year. This project addresses our students’ serious lack of dental insurance.

Without FRYSC, Who’s Going to Do it?

We often ask ourselves this very question. Other school staff members do not have the time to attend meetings, make contacts, and coordinate the resources. To illustrate, one of the important tasks we perform to sustain FRYSC and its ongoing resources is our work with legislators. We keep them informed about learning barriers and challenges families face in our rural setting. When Spencer County hosted one of our Region Six Coordinators quarterly meetings, several local legislators attended at our invitation. They regularly express interest in our FRYSC focus and outcomes, and they provide resources. One state senator recently hosted a booth at Readifest to meet residents and answer their questions. Legislators annually attend a FRYSC reception at the capital in Frankfort in February to hear updates about our work and pressing needs. We also coordinated the legislative page program selection process this year, and two of our middle school students participated in the daylong program.

Getting everyone to do a little, FRYSC will continue. We can’t depend on one person to do it all, or it will simply end. One church volunteer takes vacation time to work an entire week at Christmas to distribute the gifts gathered by the church for families. A single mother, referred to Mary’s Closet, has become a church member and now helps gather and distribute clothing. She is an example of learning that time given is more important than nice clothes or money, a philosophy that we share with many of our county’s residents.

We believe that we only reach a small portion of the needs in our county. Summer stops the external funding, but the need never ends, so the staff continues to meet and collaborate throughout the summer to help families. Our basic philosophy hinges on meeting needs so children can learn. Why not? Without clothes, children can’t attend school. We can’t change the circumstances that parents and children are experiencing. It’s a hard reality, but with resources the students can make conscious decisions about succeeding at school. Vonda actually tells students, “You don’t have to give up; you have choices.”

Editor’s note: New Jersey is one state that replicates Kentucky’s FRYSC model. With its School-Based Youth Services Centers (SBYSC) in all twenty-one counties for all youth ages ten to nineteen, New Jersey is serving students in sixty-seven high schools, eighteen middle schools, and five elementary schools through the one-stop-shopping format. A three-year evaluation of the SBYSC program indicated that SBYSCs are effective in providing services useful for adolescents to address problems and meet their needs. Funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and conducted by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), the evaluation concluded that SBYSC made important differences in the lives of vulnerable students. Specifically, involved youth showed (1) increased educational aspirations and higher accumulation of credits toward graduation; (2) diminished feelings of unhappiness, sadness, depression, and suicidal thoughts; (3) improved sleep habits and less worrying; (4) less destructive behavior and feelings of anger; (5) decreased use of tobacco and alcohol; (6) more and improved interaction with families and friends; and (7) better use of contraceptives to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (State of New Jersey, 2011).

Reference

State of New Jersey. (2011). About school-linked services: School-based youth services program. Retrieved on November 28, 2011, from http://www.nj.gov/dcf/prevention/school