Children Rising Program and Tutor Update

By Jim Wambach | March 31, 2020

Dear Friends,

Children Rising “check-in” program will let the children know we are still here for them.

We send warm greetings to you. We pray that everyone is sheltering in place and staying healthy during this unprecedented and challenging time.

Throughout this health crisis, Children Rising is steadfastly focused on nurturing and equipping the vulnerable children in our community – students whose academic growth is being so disrupted this year. Unfortunately, the challenges so many of these children face will only continue to grow. All of us care desperately for the children in our community who are falling further and further behind, each and every day. Accordingly, we are working hard to strengthen our programs in several ways so we can be prepared to support the children in a more expansive fashion when they do return.

As you know, developments are occurring rapidly. We want to use this forum to keep you apprised of updates and changes relevant to our programming.

• Oakland Unified School District Update: School closures, originally scheduled until Monday, April 6, have been extended until Monday, May 4, 2020. District leaders are working hard to ensure that students have access to meals and learning materials during this closure. There is also an effort to identify families in need of technology support. For more updates on the OUSD’s COVID-19 response, please visit https://www.ousd.org/coronavirus.
• Children Rising “check-in” program: We are developing a “check-in” program so we can let the children in our Path2Math and Succeeding by Reading programs know we are still here for them and miss them. More information on this program will follow shortly.
• NEW Tutor recruitment and training: Even before this crisis struck, there were many more schools in need of one-on-one tutoring in math and reading. We will use this time to introduce tutoring to larger numbers of the community and develop a pipeline of interested, caring adults so we can recruit and train many more tutors. When the children come back to school, there will be a caring adult waiting to help them!
• Recommended Reading: Our dedicated Succeeding by Reading staff team is utilizing this unexpected time for study, reflection, and discussion on a wide range of topics that inform our literacy work with students. In particular, we recommend “The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity” by Nadine Burke Harris, a pediatrician who now serves as surgeon general for the state of California. “A pioneering physician reveals how childhood stress leads to lifelong health problems and what we can do to break the cycle.”

We will continue to reach out to you with updates and other developments as they come into focus.

For the children,

Jim

YES, I CAN help a vulnerable child when they return to the classroom.

 I want to learn more about reading or math clinics to see if tutoring is right for me!

 I want help fund Children Rising to empower many more children when they return to the classroom!