TPS, CISTA to combat poverty with new partnerships

Tecumseh Public Schools (TPS) and Communities In Schools of the Tecumseh Area (CISTA) are hoping a partnership with Goodwill Industries and Community Action Agency will be a first step in addressing generational poverty and affected students and families in the school district. On Thursday, Aug. 13, a group of community leaders, residents, city and school administrators and residents sat down for a “think tank” to hear the proposed goals of the partnership and provide TPS and CISTA with their thoughts, ideas and questions. TPS Supt. Kelly Coffin said the idea to offer programming at local schools that not only addressed the needs of students but also assist parents began when she noticed a number of students not meeting statewide assessments that lived in close proximity to the district’s schools. “Here we have the resources available with technology, with materials, with staff members, that are very close to where some of these students live, yet they continue to struggle in school,” Coffin said. “If families are struggling, we see that in the school setting. We know that its going to take an entire community to really get to the root of this problem and really make a difference for our kids.” Nathan Salazar, Director of Program Operations at Goodwill Industries, and Burt Fenby, Executive Director at Community Action Agency, were both on hand to describe the programs they will be offering at TPS during a program set to start next year at Tecumseh Acres Elementary School. The Adrian Dominican Sisters are funding the trial program. Ten families will be invited to participate in the program designed to not only assist students in academic areas, but also assist the families with financial matters, budgeting and other areas that could be affecting family dynamics. “Until we do something to address the family dynamics... to really address the root cause of those family dynamics, it's going to be difficult for our kids to be successful,” Coffin said. Heather Perez, Executive Director at CISTA, discussed how her program is in every school in the district and already assisting student needs, like when a student needs new shoes or reading glasses; however, she said these were often just Band-Aids to larger problems that often keep recurring. “We’re just kind of putting a Band-Aid on the problem,” Perez said. “When you start to look at the Band-Aid approach over time and what that looks like, you could have these families in our district for a couple of decades and all we're doing is sending them back home to en environment where their basic needs aren’t being met or it could be caustic for them. We want to take a more holistic approach to this and really focus on that root cause. We know that we’d be remiss if we weren’t focusing on the parents as well.”Fenby said part of the problem with helping people is getting them engaged. He said it’s hard for someone to hear they're doing something wrong and then show them how to fix it. “That’s pretty hard to make that work,” Fenby said. “If you don’t know how you’re going to pay that heating bill, or you don’t know how you’re going to pay for rent or where you’re going to stay tonight, or how you’re going to get your car working to get to work — nothing else matters.” Fenby discussed how each social class has its own rules, mannerisms and skill sets that must be learned. He gave an example of a middle-class worker slipping into poverty and that they might not know where to find help to pay a light bill or where to sell their food stamps in order to pay rent. Fenby said selling food stamps may not be right, but it is something people in poverty often know how to do in order to make ends meet.“Not everyone is going to be able to do it on their own,” said Salazar, who discussed long-term assistance coaching is needed for families and that when combined with different types of assistant services in one location, can improve outcomes for families. The long-term approach is necessary, he said, in order to help change people’s mindsets about what they can accomplish. “I did want to assure you we weren’t pie-in-the-sky thinking we can change the entire world or fix a system that’s been broken for a hundred years. We’re well aware of what we’re dealing with,” Perez said. “We have a lot of things that these kids are dealing with when they go home. I know a lot of people think Tecumseh is an affluent area, but we do see the same thing you see across the county. These kids are hungry, and they’re struggling, and they’re misguided, and education isn’t valued in the home as much as we’d like to see.”