Communities In Schools Of Philadelphia Inc

Programs: Organization program service accomplishments cis of philadelphia is celebrating 31 years of service to students and families in philadelphia. Cis of philadelphia is one of 155 affiliates throughout the county reaching over 10,000 students locally. Cis national issued an organizational target goal of reaching 2 million students by 2020. Utilizing the cis five basics, cis of philadelphia has integrated them into the research based integrated student services model. The cis model has been researched and proven to significantly reduce the rate of dropouts and increases graduation rates. All programs and services work in concert, with shared accountability and student centered applications, to remove non-academic barriers for young people as they learn and achieve their goals. Cis of philadelphia also supports young people by deploying the best in technology based academic supports, which target learning challenges. Communities in schools model is proven to be effective: the department of education's what works clearinghouse compared the results of a 5-year, independent, rigorous evaluation of the communities in schools model with over 1,600 studies of a similar scope. It concluded that the communities in schools model is associated with the strongest reduction in dropout rates among all existing, fully scaled, dropout prevention programs in the united states. Specific findings included: communities in schools' positive effect on both dropout rates and graduation rates is unique among dropout prevention programs; the higher the level of fidelity to the communities in schools model, the greater the effects, which validates the power of the model; positive effects accrued to schools across states, settings (urban, suburban, rural), grade levels and ethnicities; and the austin randomized controlled trial, which demonstrated a reduction in student dropout rates that was nearly three times the what works clearinghouse's (the department of education's gold standard for education programs) threshold for "substantively important" effects. Over the past year, cis of philadelphia has seen success in: urban technology project over the past fifteen years, in partnership with the school district of philadelphia, cis of philadelphia developed a program to address digital inclusion issues within philadelphia. This program, the urban technology project, provides urban youth with opportunities for meaningful access to information technology tools and education, promoting ownership of knowledge, problem solving, and self-reliance. The youth, in turn, use the acquired it skills to address community issues and problems. Digital service fellows (dsf) is a full time americorps pre-apprenticeship program for recent philadelphia high school graduates who have an interest both in serving their communities and in pursuing the information technology (i. T. ) field. The dsf program is distinguished by its workforce development model that simultaneously provides young people with 21st century skills while also providing a valuable service to the school community. Digital service fellows learn under the guidance of a school district of philadelphia i. T. Professional and actively apply skills learned to install new or repair broken equipment in schools and leading in and after school technology programs and workshops. Upon completing a full term (1700 hours), digital service fellows earn a 5730. 00 segal education award that can be used toward higher education costs. The school district of philadelphia and communities in school of philadelphia, inc. (cis of philadelphia) have partnered to create the computer support specialist (css) program to provide additional technical support to fifteen schools and five selected central offices. The css initiative is a registered it apprenticeship program with the pennsylvania department of labor and industry - the only program of its kind in the state. Now in its fourteenth year, the css program builds upon the digital service fellows initiative, which offers recent school district of philadelphia high school graduates the opportunity to serve for one year as information technology apprentices with district master technicians. Computer support specialists are primarily recruited from the pool of qualified digital service fellows alumni and graduates of district technology programs. For those css completing the apprenticeship program, they achieve the journeyperson certification, which prepares them to work in start up it companies, government agencies, big box stores and other school districts. Performance learning center this program is modeled after the performance learning centers (plc's) developed by cis of georgia. Cis of philadelphia provides a unique, nontraditional learning environment for high school students who have been unsuccessful in traditional high schools. Students work in a small academic setting at an accelerated pace utilizing an integrated on-line curriculum program and project based learning. The students are challenged and supported to meet their academic goals. The students are guided through the program under the guidance of teachers, who act as learning facilitators. All students are prepared to meet the rigor of post-secondary experiences; employment or approved apprenticeship programs. The site coordinator works with the students to bridge personal challenges with the demands of the classroom, over seventy-five students completed the requirements to obtain their high school diplomas. Southwest e3 power center the southwest e3 power center was designed to create a comprehensive system of service delivery that allows resources, knowledge and expertise of citywide systems and community-based organizations to work in a cohesive way to benefit youth between the ages of 16 -21. This initiative is one component of the city wide project u turn collaborative to reconnect, disconnected youth. The five centers operate under one umbrella, philadelphia youth network serves as the intermediary organization; a different non-profit partner operates each center. Centers are committed to empowering out-of- school youth and youth returning from delinquent residential placement to grow, develop skills, and become healthy, responsible and caring adults. The staff works in partnership with families and the community to meet youth where they are, help them identify and remove barriers so they are able to move closer to goal achievement. Philadelphia's e3 centers are designed to provide supports along three interrelated pathways: education, employment, and empowerment. Elect in 1993, cisp submitted an education leading to employment and career training (elect) proposal to the department of education and the department of welfare and opened programs at ben franklin, simon gratz and william penn high schools. It presently serves 28 schools and education options programs (eop). The district receives the funds and then contracts with cisp and four other provider agencies to work directly in and with schools to provide administrative supervision, professional staff development, coordination and management of day-to-day implementation and oversight of program components to a targeted 800 expectant and/or parenting teens. Cisp is contracted for services to 355 of those teens. Any eligible expectant and/or parenting student up to age 22 in a designated school site will receive elect services once completing an enrollment process. Eligible students must submit a parent/guardian permission form, proof of pregnancy/parenting and complete an intake form. Each site has a designated elect site coordinator (sc) responsible for the coordination of services including: access to credit recovery, tutoring/homework assistance; child development/parenting; fatherhood resources; health and nutrition education; homebound instruction access; home visits; individual planning for attendance, academic and social service supports; motivational interviewing; life skills; mentoring; post- high school options including vocational and career planning; summer service delivery and enrichment activities for students and their children; and transition component services for up to 120 days after graduation. The elect component dedicated to young men is known as the elect fatherhood initiative (efi) and/or males achieving responsibility successfully (mars). Diplomas now diplomas now was piloted at feltonville middle school in 2008 and had expanded to five additional middle schools in philadelphia to target students outcomes in a multi-tiered response to an early warning intervention model that addressed attendance, behavior and academics. It was based on the premise that a team of professionals developed, struggling students, a strategic plan, implemented an early warning system, provided the needed supports and regularly reviewed the data; all of which would help students stay in school, get promoted and graduate on time. A true team consisted of per site: a co