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A Chance for Dignity
| Article
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15655 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1989 |
2,466 Words |
| Author
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Gayle White and Maureen Spagnolo
Gayle White is a staff writer at the Atlanta Journal and
Constitution. Maureen Spagnolo is an editor at THE WORLD & I. |
In 1984, Canveta Burke was a pregnant high school dropout. Her future seemed as bleak as the asphalt landscape of the Atlanta public housing project she called home. She had no aspirations, no dreams.
Four years later, Burke stood in front of public officials and residents of another city housing project, and said with conviction, "I found out it's not where you come from. It's where you're going."
She has earned her high school diploma and is majoring in English at Huston-Tillotson College in Austin, Texas. The attractive, articulate young woman is determined to make a good life for herself and her child.
Her success story is just one of many from Cities in Schools, Inc. (CIS), a national program that connects youth-serving agencies and volunteers with youths at risk of dropping out of school. This takes place at their schools or at another chosen location. CIS' aim of reducing the school dropout rate is being achieved in the 150 sites within 28 cities across the United States where the program is implemented: In Miami, 96 percent of at-risk students stayed in school or graduated as a result of involvement with CIS programs; in Atlanta, high school attendance rates of at-risk students who were assisted by CIS programs went up to 82 percent. Thousands of at-risk students around the nation have benefited from participating in CIS programs.
How does it work? CIS, in operation since 1977, is a community effort that draws together private businesses and public agencies. "We take representatives from existing service agencies and bring them into a particular school site," explains John Morris, a spokesman for CIS. "Thus, instead of the kids going out to seek help, help is brought to them. That is why it is such a cost-effective program."
CIS has three major goals:
·To establish working partnerships between the public and private sectors for governing and funding the CIS system.
·To make use of schools and alternative sites.
·To help volunteers and the human service agencies in developing interdisciplinary teams to work with students.
A prototype of
...
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