It has been a busy month at CISCC! We have been gearing up for the start of school, as well as welcoming new staff. Read below for some of August’s highlights.
Each summer, our state office – CIS North Carolina – hosts a conference to gather Communities In Schools staff from around the state. This is always an event that inspires and encourages our staff, as well as connect us to our broader CIS community. Our CIS Chatham County team left the conference with many helpful takeaways, and we left even more unified as a team!
One particular highlight for CISCC was our very own Jazmin Mendoza and Eva Depaz leading a breakout seminar. Their seminar showcased the effective practices CISCC uses to engage Hispanic/Spanish-speaking families, as well as resources and strategies to build community through potential partnerships. We encouraged affiliate offices throughout NC to consider including bilingual team members to better reach all of our communities.
Program Director Eva Depaz shared this about the conference:
The 2024 CISNC Impact Conference was valuable to me because it allowed me to share my expertise in Parent Engagement and share with others how to partner and build trust with Hispanic families in their communities. This was very exciting for me as it was my first time presenting at a conference where there were so many passionate and dedicated people who strive towards the same mission! I also had the opportunity to meet, learn, and feel inspired by other great presenters. I am growing every day with CIS!!
We are grateful to CISNC for putting on such an enriching conference!
It is always a delight to provide much-needed school supplies to students in Chatham County. We are thankful to all those who contributed and organized collecting supplies. We give a special shout-out to David Weekley Homes, our local SECU branches, Chapel in the Pines, the Salvation Army, and Mayme Boyd for your efforts on behalf of our students. It takes a whole community to surround our students with the support they need to stay in school and achieve in life.
And it was a joy to see the smiles and excitement on all the young faces as they came to our office to pick out their supplies!
The summer bookmobile was a huge success! Over the course of the summer, 524 student visitors came by the bookmobile in July and August (many of these were “repeat customers” week after week!). We are grateful for our partnerships with Chatham County Schools and CORA in offering the weekly bookmobile!
A member of our community recently shared this with us:
The bookmobile keeps the kids reading over the summer break. Thank you for taking the time to continue coming out summer after summer. I can’t believe the kids get to have this.
In August, we welcomed our two newest team members to CISCC. Rosa Salazar is our new Student Support Specialist at Siler City Elementary, and Karmen Brown is our new General Youth Services Program Assistant. Both Rosa and Karmen grew up in Chatham County, and we are thrilled to have them on our team as they bring their experience and background to bear on our work!