Communities In Schools of Chatham County

For 25 years bringing Chatham County Together!

youth

“Programs Don’t Change People, Relationships Do” ~Bill Milliken

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The mission of Chatham County Schools (CCS) is “to graduate globally competitive and confident students by providing a rigorous and relevant curriculum in a supportive, safe and nurturing learning environment.” This is a lofty mission, and it’s difficult to achieve when many students face serious challenges both inside and outside of the classroom. That is why the work Communities In Schools of Chatham County (CISCC) does is so important.  Joelle Brummitt-Yale, CISCC board member, says she values CISCC “for being the piece that schools don’t have time to address. CIS Chatham works to help youth be ‘well’ and that includes academically, socially, and behaviorally.” Taking a holistic and targeted approach to helping students succeed in school and in life is especially illustrated through CISCC’s school-based program.

Chatham Middle School (CMS) in Siler City is one of two sites where the school-based program is implemented. Students who attend CMS live  in a community with many identified risk factors that impede their learning and the likelihood that they will stay in school. These factors include, but are not limited to, poverty, discrimination, housing instability, hunger, poor health, limited extracurricular activities and high levels of daily stress. The CISCC school-based model places Student Support Specialists directly inside schools where they serve as the single point of contact in addressing students’ needs. Tych Cowdin has been the CISCC Student Support Specialist at CMS since the fall of 2014. Since then, he has built strong relationships with school administrators and community partners to secure vital supports that are tailored to students’ and families’ individual circumstances.

Cowdin has one foot in the school and one foot in the community, and he brings them together beautifully. The support that he provides can be as basic as asking local businesses to provide school supplies, volunteers to provide academic assistance or partnering with a local church to provide students in need extra food on the weekends. Support can also be more intensive in the form of small groups and one-on-one check-in addressing bullying, anger management, and dealing with grief. Support can even be after-school enrichment activities. Whatever the needs are, the goal is to combine strong one-on-one relationships with evidence-based programs that leverage resources and remove barriers that keep students from succeeding.

According to Abby Bishop, School Counselor at CMS, “Tych has had a major impact on the students at CMS. He has a caseload of students he serves, but he also has a presence at the school where all students know him and want to work with him. He does a wonderful job of being around and being available to students.” Ms. Bishop is grateful for the many programs and services Cowdin has coordinated such as: summer camp placements, Cooking Matters, yoga classes, Strengthening Families Program, and many more. He works with CMS students about their behavior and focuses on the social/emotional development of each student so they have better academic outcomes. Bishop says, “Tych relates to the students and they feel comfortable opening up to him. He’s such a huge asset to our school! Tych is not only loved by all CMS students, he’s also loved by the CMS staff!” CMS principal Chad Morgan agrees. He said, “Cowdin’s “impact on the school has been just monumental,” and that his “greatest asset to our school is his ability to build relationships. He focuses on building relationships with all stakeholders…and his energy to serve is contagious.” Morgan adds that Cowdin does “not just start programs for the sake of starting programs. He listens, reviews data, and seeks feedback from all stakeholders to ensure the programs implemented match the needs of the school.” The needs assessment, student support plans, and ongoing monitoring of student data are all elements of the proven CIS school-based model; but, as Communities In Schools founder Bill Milliken said, “Programs don’t change kids-relationships do.”

Cowdin says, “It really boils down to a lot of mentoring. Kids often don’t have anybody they can view as a role model or somebody to talk with or look up to—somebody there at school they can have a relationship with.” Attendance, Behavior, Coursework + Parent and family engagement are the focus areas guiding  CISCC’s school-based work, but this ABC+P model only works with strong relationships inside and outside of the school.

The program’s positive impact is reflected in what community members and partners are saying. Recently, participants in the Hispanic Liaison Youth Program in Siler City participated in a focus group as part of a community assessment for the Building Integrated Communities Project out of UNC Chapel Hill on how the youth cope with daily stresses. The draft report stated that the youth may not be able to tell you what ‘programs’ helped them, but they talked about the “great person at Chatham Middle who built relationships with the kids, was enthusiastic and cared about them.

Erika Guy has been volunteering at CMS regularly for the last two years, conducting school-wide seminars, small groups, and helping coordinate the healthful cooking classes, and she speaks highly of the collaboration that has been fostered at CMS. She said to Cowdin, “I cannot adequately express how much fun it has been to collaborate with you over these last two years.  What I missed the most when I left my job in Boston, was working with a team of similarly motivated folks—always thinking creatively about how to make the lives of kids just a little bit better. I have found that with you and Abby Bishop, CMS and CISCC.”

Thinking creatively and working together to make the lives of the children and families a little bit better—essentially helping add to their overall wellness— that’s what it’s all about.   

To learn more about CISCC school-based model, the work done and partnerships made, please contact Tych Cowdin, Program Director/Student Support Specialist, Chatham Middle School at tcowdin@cischatham.org or (919) 663-0116 ext. 413

 

“Our kids are hungry for knowledge. We just need to feed them the right way.”~Jazmin Mendoza Sosa

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In November 2016, with increased support from Chatham County Schools, Communities In Schools Chatham County (CISCC) expanded its services to Virginia Cross Elementary (VCE) in Siler City to reach the younger siblings of Chatham Middle School (CMS) students and their classmates. Jazmin Mendoza Sosa is the CISCC Student Support Specialist at VCE, and she is great at putting out fires. In fact, she’s even better at preventing fires from starting in the first place. Mendoza Sosa serves as a liaison within the school and also between the school and the community. Whether it’s making sure the school staff is aware of CISCC volunteers coming into the school, helping teachers and non-native English speaking parents communicate, directly helping students needing extra attention, or bridging the school and the community, Mendoza Sosa works with passion and skill. She is especially invested, because, as she tells her students and families, “I was one of you. I grew up in Siler City. My parents are hard workers too. You can work hard and be like me!”

Mendoza Sosa works with 54 students (10% of the school’s population) on emotional, social, and behavioral learning. These students have been identified as needing extra supports to what VCE already has in place. These children have different needs with different intensities, and Mendoza is exceptionally skilled at understanding these needs, anticipating supports, and finding help. Sometimes Mendoza Sosa works with small groups of children, and sometimes she goes into the classroom to work with students one on one. Whether in the classroom, a small-group setting or walking in the hallways, Mendoza Sosa models the behaviors and skills she is trying to teach. She constantly assesses each situation, “thinks on her feet,” and appropriately responds to the individuals’ and groups’ needs.

Mendoza Sosa has 30 minutes each week to work with a small group of 1st graders and 30 minutes each week to work with a small group of 3rd graders—both during the students’ lunch period. She maximizes every minute she has with them to teach pro-social skills (e.g., sharing, helping, cooperating, and empathy). Mendoza Sosa teaches responsibility and how to share by assigning each student rotating jobs such as line leader, door holder, and bathroom monitor. Mendoza Sosa also demonstrates different ways to handle situations, often on the spur of the moment, according to what students are dealing with right then. For example, she concluded a discussion with the 1st graders on strategies to use when they were disappointed by having to divide two cookies four ways. Mendoza Sosa kindly, but firmly, explained, “We don’t always get what we want. It’s ok to be disappointed. But it’s not ok to call people bad names or hit someone.” The children ended up being ok with sharing their cookie. After all, what’s better—half of a cookie or no cookie at all?

In addition to working with children in small groups and one on one, Mendoza Sosa is instrumental in communicating information between the VCE teachers and parents—especially the parents who do not speak English. She might text or call to stress the importance of children taking their ADHD medication the weekend before EOG tests. Or she might remind parents to sign permission slips for students attending summer Reading Camp. Both the teachers and parents appreciate Mendoza Sosa’s vitality in linking the school, homes, and the community. A first-year teacher at VCE with students on Mendoza Sosa’s caseload recently said, “I honestly don’t know how I would’ve made it through the year without her. She was a valuable asset to me and the students who had behavioral struggles. She is truly an amazing person to work with. She always helps to give other possible options to handling difficult situations and students. She helped with parent communication and was great at getting my concerns addressed to the parents. Ms. Jazmin is undeniably the greatest asset I had at VCE the year.”

Mendoza Sosa’s work doesn’t stop when the school year ends, though. She and the media specialist at VCE, Lindsay Shore-Wright, are taking an existing resource to higher levels this summer by expanding the Bookmobile.  Beginning on June 13th and running through August 22nd, each Wednesday VCE will bring a library on wheels to 10 neighborhoods in Siler City. This summer, though, extra activities are planned at two of the stops—activities that reinforce literacy skills and encourage reading for fun. The goal is to double the numbers of Bookmobile participants from last year. Snacks, prizes, bookmarks, pencils, and erasers will be given out and craft and reading comprehension activities will be done. There will even be a volunteer reading aloud at these two sites each week.

Not all parents feel comfortable going into their children’s schools, or even onto the Bookmobile.  Last year it took all summer for one parent to feel comfortable getting on the Bookmobile to help pick out a book for her child. Mendoza Sosa wants the whole experience to be friendlier and include more than checking out books. The weekly Bookmobile visits will give Mendoza Sosa the opportunity to engage families and find out from parents what kinds of things they need to support reading with children and their children’s learning in general. Krista Millard, formerly with Chatham Reads— whose mission is to foster community partnerships that are dedicated to ensuring that literacy and reading resources are accessible to all Chatham County residents—said that Jazmin is an integral part of the Bookmobile’s success. “She provides a safe place for families to come and access books over the summer. She interprets and is a familiar face to the students.” Mendoza Sosa is passionate about trying new things to benefit students. She tells the families, “I care about your family. We need to work together to help your child succeed.”

Mendoza Sosa lives her passion and will track data from this summer’s Bookmobile to see if the extra efforts are making positive impacts. “Our kids are hungry for knowledge,” Mendoza Sosa says. “We just need to feed them the right way.” There is no indication that Mendoza Sosa will stop until the right way is found.

For more information on the work done at Virginia Cross Elementary School or with the Bookmobile, please contact Jazmin Mendoza Sosa, Student Support Specialist, at  jmendozasosa@cischatham.org or by calling (919) 663-0116 ext. 410

Where Are They Now? CIS Chatham Nurtures Growth

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Communities In Schools Chatham County (CIS CC, and formerly Chatham County Together!) has been serving at-risk youth in Chatham County since 1989. Over the years, programs have evolved, new programs have been added, programs’ names have been changed, and some programs have even been moved to other local agencies to oversee. What has stayed consistent is CIS CC’s commitment to support Chatham County’s youth. To achieve our mission—to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life—everything Communities In Schools does is guided by the following five essentials: A one-on-one relationship with a caring adult, a safe place to learn and grow, a healthy start and a healthy future, a marketable skill to use upon graduation, and a chance to give back. Meet two remarkable individuals whose involvement with CIS CC has been very different—one a volunteer and one a program participant—but who both embody the spirit CIS CC works to promote.

Bieisy didn’t speak English when she started the pre-K Head Start program in Siler City, but she was making almost all A’s in her eighth-grade year at Chatham Middle School.  Bieisy was one of a hand-picked group of students chosen to participate in Jordan-Matthews High School’s AVID (Advancing Via Individual Determination) program. In high school, Bieisy took Advanced Placement Spanish, multiple honors’ classes, and volunteered for CIS CC’s Teen Court program. As a Teen Court volunteer, Bieisy served the roles of jury member, clerk of court, and she was in the process of being trained as an attorney. In addition to volunteering with CIS CC’s Teen Court program for several years in high school, Bieisy also volunteered with Chatham Area Network for Therapeutic Riding (CAN-TR). She graduated from Jordan-Matthews in 2014 and started college at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Due to some unexpected circumstances, Bieisy had to take time off from school at UNC-Pembroke and ended up back in Siler City for a while. Not one to sit idle, Bieisy returned to volunteer with CIS CC, this time with the Hablando Claro, or “Plain Talk” Program. She first came with a friend and saw that there were often young children present who needed supervision and engagement. Bieisy did a good job with the children and was asked to “officially” help with the kids each time the Hablando Claro program met. In the summer of 2016, CIS CC’s Family Advocacy Program needed a part-time assistant. Bieisy had a good track record from helping with the children and was hired to work five hours a week assisting with paperwork and filing. She did this for one year.

What is Bieisy doing now? She is in her last semester at Randolph Community College where she’ll be graduating in May of this year with a Human Services Technology Associate in Applied Science Degree and a Human Services Technology Substance Abuse Certificate. Oh, and she works full time with CIS CC as the Program Assistant for three programs: Community Service & Restitution, Family Advocacy, and Teen Court. When asked where she saw herself in five years, she said she wants to pursue her Bachelor’s Degree and eventually study Social Work.

Jordan, also a graduate of Jordan-Matthews High School, said that his family has been helped by CIS CC as long as he can remember. CIS CC secured school supplies for Jordan and his two sisters, as well funding for all three children to attend summer camp, through the Send a Kid to Camp program of the Triangle Community Foundation. Both sisters had CIS CC mentors, and Jordan participated in the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) when it was one of CIS CC’s programs.

Jordan said that his grades in high school weren’t very good and his options for college were limited. The WIA program provided opportunities for Jordan and other youth to prepare for and advance their education and careers. Jordan learned a lot of work-related skills and also skills he could use in real life such as how to bank and manage money. He was exposed to occupational skills training and employment services information through workshops and seminars. Travis Patterson, the WIA Program Manager at the time, was a mentor to Jordan. Travis assisted Jordan in enrolling in Central Carolina Community College where Jordan earned his Associate in Arts Degree. Jordan said being part of the WIA program delivered the motivation he needed that ultimately led him to going on to college and choosing a career field in helping others as others had helped him.

What is Jordan doing now? He transferred to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is in his second semester where he is studying Elementary Education. He wants to teach Kindergarten through Second grade. Jordan also works while being a full-time student. He commutes to Greensboro three times a week, and back home in Siler City he works as an assistant manager at Wendy’s.

Kim Caraganis, ED says of Bieisy and Jordan, I can’t think of two better examples of advancing via individual determination! Biesy says that ever since she was young she has wanted to help others because she wants to return the favor that other people have given her. Likewise, Jordan is excited about his future as a teacher. He looks forward to molding young people in positive ways.

CIS Chatham’s spring “Tapas” event represents its primary source of community support. Support that encourages kids like Bieisy and Jordan to stay in school and achieve in life. This year’s April 15 event is at the Agricultural Conference Center in Pittsboro. Catered locally by Angelina’s and 39 West, it will include a silent auction, 50/50 raffle for a chance to win $2,000 (only 100 tickets sold), and local music by the Onyx Club Boys, renown from Bynum to Bear Creek and beyond, featuring swing and gypsy jazz. Please join us at Juke, Jive & Jazz for the Kids. Sponsorship, event and raffle ticket sales, and additional details can be found at CIS Chatham’s website www.cischatham.org.

Teen Court: A Positive Side of Peer Pressure

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The courtroom was silent, except for some shuffling papers and nervous whispers. Eyes locked on the judge: “Would the defendant please stand and face the jury. Now, if the Foreperson would please read the sentence of the jury.” Eyes shifted to the Foreperson as he stood and read the verdict: “Four hours of jury duty; Fifteen hours of community service; One self-advocacy seminar, and a mediation session with the victim.” “Do you understand your sentence?” asked the judge, and, “Do you agree to complete this sentence?” “Yes,” said the defendant. The judge then explained that if this had been traditional district court, s(he) could have received up to 60 days in a juvenile justice facility for committing a Class 2 Misdemeanor.

 

This wasn’t, however, district court; this was Teen Court. Run by Communities In Schools of Chatham County (CISCC), Teen Court is managed by program coordinator Jeremiah McCaffity and program assistant Bieisy Santiago, who also coordinate CISCC’s Community Service & Restitution program. Teen Court is a key element of juvenile diversion, an intervention strategy that redirects youths away from formal processing in the juvenile justice system, while still holding them accountable for their actions. Teen Court accepts referrals of first-time offenders ages 11-17 who have admitted guilt to misdemeanor offenses such as assault, affray, underage possession/consumption of drugs, alcohol and or drug paraphernalia, vandalism, disorderly conduct, and larceny/shoplifting. Cases are referred by law enforcement, school resource officers, judges and court counselors.

 

Sessions in Teen Court are structured to resemble traditional district court as much as possible. Sessions are held each month during the school year, and the location alternates between the Siler City courtroom at City Hall and the historic Chatham County Courthouse in Pittsboro. An adult judge presides over court proceedings, and an armed deputy serves as the bailiff. Jeremiah and Bieisy provide supervision in the deliberation room, but everything else is conducted by the youth. The trained student volunteers take on the roles of attorneys, jurors, and clerk of court. The attorneys present the facts of the case, the defendant makes a statement, student jurors question the defendant and the defendant’s family (if applicable), and the jury deliberates until a consensus is made about a constructive sentence that benefits the defendant and the community. At a recent session, student juror ‘Ray’ asked the defendant thoughtful questions such as, “What are your hobbies? Do you have any friends you can talk to? Have you ever thought about seeing a professional to help you with your negative view of yourself?” The youth take their positions seriously, because they know that what they say and what they ask directly affect the defendant.

 

Teen Court is powerful and effective. According to Paul Bauer, a retired chemical engineer who has been volunteering with the Teen Court program for over three years, the peer jurors make a big impact on the defendants in a way that adults aren’t able to. The jury members are teens too, and they understand first-hand the environments, pressures, and temptations the defendants face. Also, many of the jurors have been defendants themselves and are fulfilling their jury duty as part of their sentences. ‘Sandra’ is one of those jurors. ‘Sandra’ is a sophomore at Jordan Matthews High School who recently participated in her first session volunteering as a Teen Court jury member. ‘Sandra’ was positive, polished, showed empathy when questioning the defendant, and was especially engaged in the deliberation process. She says, “You really learn no matter what side you are on. You’ve been a defendant and you learn from your mistake. You’re nervous at first, going into a real courtroom.” By having been a defendant already, she feels that it is easier to know what questions to ask that will get to the root of the issues that will lead to an appropriate verdict.

 

As a long-time volunteer, Bauer helped develop the extensive training module for the student attorneys, and he currently serves as the lead judge for Teen Court. He is proud of all of the teen volunteers and has seen them mature as they take on new roles. The volunteers are middle and high schoolers from all parts of the county, representing all races and socio-economic levels. During deliberation, the jurors determine the facts of the case, discuss their personal conclusions, listen to other points of view, and reach a consensus. They learn to work as a team since all judgments must be unanimous. The volunteers are exposed to real-life events containing sensitive information. They treat the defendants with respect and sincerely listen to what they have to say about their offense, their home life, and plans for the future. Bauer says that “leaders develop in the jury room.” ‘Justin,’ a junior at Jordan Matthews, has been associated with Teen Court for three years, and currently knocks it out of the park as a prosecuting attorney. ‘Justin’ says that working with Teen Court has opened him up to many experiences including interacting with people he wouldn’t typically interact with.  He feels that Teen Court is beneficial to the community in a variety of ways. After the sentencing, defendants have closer ties to the local community, there is less recidivism, and Teen Court is much less expensive to operate than traditional court. ‘Justin’ said, “Juvenile Detention Centers are the ‘end of the line’ and at Teen Court, youth get a second chance.”

 

We all make mistakes, and Teen Court provides youth an opportunity to learn from their mistakes as they develop positive life skills. Some skills are learned as they take the other side as jury members. Other skills are developed through working their community service hours, educational seminars, and additional sanctions. Jeremiah works hard to ensure that the experience of completing a sentence is restorative instead of punitive. He is always looking for new ways to partner with the community and offer high-quality evidence-based educational seminars that will serve our youth well. Teen Court has volunteers that set examples for their peers, helping them understand there are positive alternatives to the choices that have led them down their current path. All involved are learning skills that they can apply now as well as take with them as these youth mature into contributing members of their communities and of society at large.

 

For more information on any aspect of the Teen Court Program, including ideas on new and expanded educational seminars, please contact Jeremiah McCaffity at: jmccaffity@cischatham.org or (919) 663-0116 ext.406

 

Restorative Justice: An Opportunity Rather Than a Punishmet

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It’s not a person’s mistakes which define them—it’s the way they make amends. ~Freya North

Teenagers often make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes get them in trouble with the law. When someone breaks the law, they have to face the consequences. What if the consequences for delinquent youth focused less on punishing them and more on helping them take responsibility for their actions while making amends for the damage they caused? This less punitive approach is known as restorative justice and is the approach that the Community Service & Restitution Program at Communities In Schools Chatham County (CISCC) uses. The restorative process seeks to repair the harm by involving the entire community in rehabilitating offenders and holding them accountable for their behavior. CISCC’s Community Service & Restitution Program is led by Coordinator Jeremiah McCaffity and Program Assistant Bieisy Santiago. Youth in the program are referred by the Department of Juvenile Justice, are between the ages of 10-17 living in Chatham County, and have committed non-violent crimes as first-time offenders.

The first step is completing a comprehensive intake. In addition to assessing the youth’s risk to the community, Jeremiah and Bieisy have a chance to learn about the youth’s hobbies, interests, schedule, and family life. A vital part of the intake includes establishing an Individual Service Plan that maps out how the youth will fulfill their court-ordered service and/or restitution commitments. Each person’s plan is thorough and includes specific and measurable goals, dates for regular Work Site visits, dates for progress reviews, and a well-developed exit strategy. Once the intake is complete and the plan is in place, the youth are placed in one of our 13 partner Work Sites throughout Chatham County, based on their interests and availability.

 

Youth might not be thrilled about having to do community service hours, but every effort is made to pair them with Work Sites that will provide them with the most personal growth and the best possible outcomes for the community at large. Some youth like working with animals. Others prefer working outside harvesting food from local gardens. We are grateful for the partnerships with our current Work Sites as they provide diverse opportunities for youth to integrate into the fabric of their communities while being exposed to resources they might not otherwise have access to. Our current Work Sites are:

 

Chatham Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore

Chatham Trades Inc.

Communities In Schools Chatham County

Community Lunch at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church

Chatham County’s Health & Wellness Committee Garden

Happy Hills Animal Foundation Inc.

Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge

Small Museum of Folk Art

Take and Eat Food Pantry

Virginia Cross Elementary School

West Chatham Food Pantry

 

An advantage of implementing the restorative justice model on our county’s youth is that the benefits are observed well after the community service and/or restitution has been satisfied. When deliberating with his peers about what sentence to give a youth defendant in Teen Court, “John” recently said, “I think we should give the maximum number of hours. Maybe (s)he’ll enjoy the community service work and want to continue doing it. I enjoyed mine. Mine was fun.” In addition to “John” enjoying giving back to his community, he was great at it. His Work Site was Virginia Cross Elementary School (VCE) where he helped distribute food bags to families in need. Site Supervisor/Student Support Specialist Jazmin Mendoza said, “I am very happy with “John.” He did an amazing job and teachers love him. He came to VCE, and he is remembered by teachers as a great student.”

The youth aren’t the only ones who gain from the Community Service & Restitution partnerships. Courtney Goldston is the Human Resources Analyst at the Chatham County Manager’s Office. She is the volunteer Site Supervisor for Chatham County’s Health & Wellness Committee’s shared garden. One of our youth recently completed community service hours at the garden, and Ms. Goldston had only positive things to say about him and his work. She said, “It was such a pleasure working with and getting to know “Jay.” I could not have asked for a more perfect garden companion!  He was knowledgeable and very helpful to our novice gardeners. Our youth can teach us so many things about life, ourselves and others.  His grandparents have raised an exceptional young man and I hope they are very proud of him.  I look forward to seeing what the future holds for “Jay”!

 

Jeremiah is passionate about the program being a positive experience for youth to learn, grow, and develop and is always seeking out new, creative ways to build relationships with new partner Work Sites and volunteer Site Supervisors. Currently, there is a need for more volunteer Site Supervisors in the northern part of Chatham County. Mahatma Gandhi said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” We invite you to become a part of Chatham County’s youth finding themselves.

 

For more information on any aspect of the Community Service & Restitution Program, including how to become an approved partner Work Site, or how to become a volunteer Site Supervisor, please contact Jeremiah McCaffity at: jmccaffity@cischatham.org or (919) 663-0116 ext.406

What A Difference One Person Can Make

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 On a cold January morning in 2015, in the middle of the school year, a school bus pulled up to the America’s Best Inn motel in Siler City. It was the first day of school for Kaylin, a new sixth grader at Chatham Middle School whose family had just arrived in town. Neither of Kaylin’s parents had jobs. Her father, an Army veteran who had served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, and the family was homeless, living in the motel, with the Veterans Administration picking up their tab for the first three weeks.
 The latest in a string of dislocating moves by the military family during her short life had left the 13-year-old feeling self-conscious and isolated. “It was kind of hard,” says Kaylin, now 14 and an eighth-grader at Chatham Middle who lives with her family in a trailer park. “I didn’t know anybody.” Then she met Tych Cowdin, the Student Support Specialist in the school for Communities In Schools of Chatham County and the middle school winner of this year’s annual Impact Award from Communities In Schools of North Carolina.
When asked what difference he has made in her life in the nearly three years they have known one another, Kaylin pauses for a long moment, then apologizes for what she says may sound like a trite comment, “He’s like a savior,” she says.
Cowdin says that when Kaylin first enrolled at Chatham Middle she “had decent grades, but she had a lack of extracurricular or enrichment opportunities. “She was siloed in Siler City because of poverty,” he says. “There were a lot of opportunities for her to break down and give up over the last two years.”
A Plan for Kaylin
Cowdin, a member of the leadership team at the school, created a plan to provide Kaylin with support in and outside school. He signed her up to receive a food bag every Friday with meals for the weekend. He enrolled her in a program to learn about cooking and nutrition. He tutored her two afternoons a week after school. Cowdin also arranged for Kaylin to volunteer in a one-day town beautification project that would connect her to other kids. Last year, he enrolled her in a program to learn about careers and also in a one-week overnight camp.
Kaylin, who already was a good student, has earned all A’s and B’s in her classes. This fall, she played in the outfield on the school’s softball team — her first experience with a team sport — and was voted the most improved player. She wrote a poem about the experience, with a degree of detail that Cowdin — who played football and baseball in college — says he himself never could have put into words. “She’s an amazing student,” says Cowdin, who in 2014 piloted the Communities In Schools program in Chatham Middle. “She’s really developed some goals and some purpose despite every possible obstacle you could think of for a middle-school girl.
Social-Emotional Learning
The support Cowdin has provided for Kaylin is precisely what Communities In Schools is all about, says Kim Caraganis, Executive Director of Communities In Schools of Chatham County. Communities In Schools focuses on “having a caring adult, in addition to a parent, someone outside the family that can open windows for a young person they may not have access to, that can give this young person a vision of what they can be, where they can go, what are the possibilities,” she says.
As the student support specialist at Chatham Middle, Cowdin serves as case manager for 56 students, or 10 percent of the student population. Based on their individual needs, he typically meets at least every week or two with each student assigned to him, and sometimes as often as once or more a day. He develops a plan and goals for each student. And as needed, he finds community partners to provide services to address the needs of the student or family. “It really boils down to a lot of mentoring,” Cowdin says. “Kids often don’t have anybody they can view as a role model or somebody to talk with or look up to — somebody there at school they can have a relationship with.”
Caraganis agrees. “Kids need to be seen and given positive messages, given encouragement,” she says. “It affirms that you’re valued. It gives you connection.” Many children face hurdles outside school ranging from stress to trauma that can hurt their academic performance, she says. “When you have someone who is kind and encouraging,” she says, “it just opens you up again in a way that allows you to remove some of the barriers.”
In October, Cowdin helped Kaylin’s older sister, who had dropped out of 10th grade, enroll in a literacy program leading to a general equivalency diploma, or GED. He also has helped Kaylin’s mother, who has just started a job working in a chicken plant, enroll in a program volunteering in the community. “He went above and beyond everything,” says Tammy, Kaylin’s mom. “Kaylin has excelled physically, mentally, emotionally because of him.”
Community Connections
In addition to his work with individual students, Cowdin coordinates roughly a dozen school-wide programs that serve about 100 students and 50 families in partnership with 10 community agencies. He also coordinates six small groups of four to 10 students each that meet with social workers, guidance counselors, volunteers and other service providers on issues ranging from mental health to chronic stress. “His impact on the school has been just monumental,” says Chad Morgan, who joined Chatham Middle School as principal in 2014 at the same time Cowdin became the school’s student support specialist for Communities In Schools. “My goal was to focus on community involvement in the school because there was none,” Morgan says.
At the school, 75 percent of students are Hispanic, 15 percent are black, and over 88 percent are eligible for lunch that is free or at a reduced price. Over the past three years, Morgan says, the percentage of students performing at grade level has grown to 48 percent from 25 percent. Cowdin has been “instrumental in reaching out to the community at large and telling our story, letting them know areas where we need support, finding people with the same vision and goal, and helping them support not only our students but our families,” Morgan says. “He’s my right hand when it comes to making those community connections and building those community partners,” he says.
Cowdin also has had a big impact on Kaylin, Morgan says. “There are a lot of struggles in her life that are non-academic,” he says. “Without his support and making those connections, she probably would have fallen through the cracks.”
Kaylin says Cowdin has been her inspiration. After high school and college, where she may study marine biology, she says, she wants to be either a counselor or physician. “I kind of want to do things like Mr. Tych,” she says, “helping people.”
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