Churches put their faith in students

Kansas program creates school partnerships

by Julie Fanselow

May 24, 2007 | | Kansas City, Kansas

The United States maintains a separation of church and state, including the public schools. But that doesn’t mean faith communities can’t play a powerful role in helping students navigate the challenges in their lives. In Kansas City, Kansas, an Adopt-A-School program fostered by KCK Study Circles is pairing local schools and nearby churches to give students better after-school choices and opportunities for community involvement.

 

Wyandotte High School students take part in the MP3 program. During the program's study circles, students talk about how positive change can happen in their community during. Courtesy: MP3

One such partnership, the MP3 program, is piloting this spring at Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church. Every Wednesday afternoon, 25 teens from nearby Wyandotte High School come to the church for the program, which stands for “Mentors: Parents, pastors, peers.” Wednesday is early release day at Wyandotte (and throughout the KCK district), so the students have several hours to learn life skills, make friends, and stay out of trouble. Students who complete the program will receive an MP3 music player.

Pastor Golden Davis says the church felt called to help students from Wyandotte, where 30 percent of the girls enrolled will become pregnant or have a baby while still in school. The church wanted to educate youth about HIV and AIDS, which Davis calls a “pandemic” in the nation’s urban communities.

The MP3 program grew out of that, but it has become much broader. The first four weeks of the 12-week program involved a series of study circles in which students had a chance to share their experiences and talk about how positive changes happen in their community. Since then, participants have heard from a wide range of mentors.

One Wednesday in April, the guest speaker was a local TV producer who helped the students write, direct, shoot, and edit a video. Radio host Don Imus was in the news due to his racist remarks about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team, so students integrated that into their video. Another week, the students took a field trip to a visit to Baker University, a liberal arts college in nearby Baldwin City, Kansas.

“Most of the time, I’m pretty shy, but I’ve overcome a fear of speaking out,” says Corey Kinney, a  Wyandotte freshman enrolled in MP3. Kinney had to give a speech on his goals in life, which include finishing high school and college, going to law school, and becoming a sports agent. Before MP3, “I was messing up in school  … since I’ve been in MP3, I’ve kept myself out of problems.”

Corey’s sister, Jasmine, agrees. Before starting MP3, she used to go home and either baby-sit her siblings or “watch TV and take a nap. I wanted to do something better with my time,” she says. Like her brother, the Wyandotte junior also is interested in being a lawyer, and she was interested in the lessons about abstinence and budgeting her money. “I liked the fact we got a good positive message,” she says.

Walt Thompson, principal of Wyandotte High School, is impressed by the Adopt-A-School program, which – for his school – also includes partnerships with the Evangelistic Center and Grace Lutheran Church. “We’re hearing positive things from the students and the churches and the people who staff it,” he says.

Adopt-A-School is a partnership between KCK Study Circles, KCK Public Schools, and School Linked Services, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving student performance. In its pilot year of 2006-2007, nine churches adopted four high schools and one middle school. Organizers hope to have all 49 schools in the district adopted in the next three to five years.

 

Corey Kinney displays his MP3 completion certificate while posing for a photo with Pastor Golden Davis. Courtesy: MP3

Linda Quinn, current director of the KCK Study Circles, says the partnerships are resulting in good outcomes across the city. Following study circles at J.C. Harmon High School, for example, staff and volunteers at the Living Stone Family Worship Center worked with the students to create an after-school program at the church, where between 100 and 200 students visit each Wednesday to take part in mentoring and tutoring.

“It has helped tremendously,” says Christal Watson, a former director for KCK Study Circles who now works for the school district and created the Adopt-A-School program. “The school is a lot calmer. They’ve been able to reduce violence and keep the kids active.” Watson says the Adopt-a-School partnerships have also helped take pressure off teachers by curbing in-school behavioral problems and increasing classroom respect. 

Kansas City, Kansas, launched its Adopt-A-School program on its own, but soon after, Watson learned about and attended a training put on by Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, which has adopted dozens of schools in its region through its Project Turn Around program. “We’re now using that as a backbone, but with the added study circles component,” Watson says. “We believe this is something that can be implemented in any school district.”

“We’re not asking the churches to evangelize,” she adds. “We’re asking the churches to support the school and lead by example. It’s modeling love. It’s modeling outreach.”

Learn more: Youth Issues