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2002 Annual Report
LEA'S KIDS, INC. JANUARY - DECEMBER, 2002 ANNUAL REPORT During the year of 2002 LEA'S KIDS served elementary at risk, underprivileged children from Forest Creek Crossing Apartment Complex, now called the Farrington, through the after-school program from 3:00 - 6:30 PM during the school year and through the summer program from 7:30 AM - 6:30 PM during the summer months. The following are statistics that indicate activity during this time frame:
The children ranged in age from 5 to 13 years old and, with the exception of 10 children, were served by Birney Elementary School. Of these 8 children 3 were middle school children placed in the program to help with the younger children; 1 child attended a special education school in the area; 5 children whose families moved out of the complex but wanted their children to continue to receive LEA'S KIDS' services, and 1 child whose parent lived in another complex that wanted her child in the program. This was allowed because maximum capacity had not been reached, and there were not sufficient names on the waiting list to prevent it. Due to parent need for 5 year olds that missed being in Kindergarten by a few months we tried having pre-K students in the program but determined with the exception of the staff person's child, these children were not mature enough to be a part of the program. This practice has been discontinued. However, the middle school students we included in the program in the last 3 -4 months of the year turned out to be very good helpers used with the younger children. Many of the children in the program were single parent children, and many families in the apartment complex were receiving section 8 housing subsidies and were unable to pay for the after school program that Birney Elementary provides because of the charge for their services as opposed to no charges for this program. However, the parents continued to work 2 hours volunteer time per week as their contribution to the program which is based totally on donations received from foundations, grants, churches, corporations, and individuals. This for the parents was in addition to being required to attend a monthly mandatory parent's meeting where there was community building and the parents were kept informed, invested and developed ownership in the program. Having LEA'S KIDS, INC. in the apartment community and volunteering time in the program provided the parents with other parents with whom to share and grow, a stable environment for their children, a liaison with the school, and the assurance that their children were safe and were given opportunities to grow and excel academically, emotionally, morally, and spiritually. Snacks and lunches for the summer program were provided by the USDA through Marietta Housing Authority during the summer months. This year there was an increase in Hispanic students ( 8) staying in the program long term with the rest of the children being African American, Haitian, and South Africans. We were able to hire two men for staff in the program, one African American and one man who spoke fluent Spanish. This provided both good male role models for the children as well as a way to communicate with the children and with the parents.
The number of hourly employees is the number of employees who have worked in the program for the year. We have maintained 7 positions all year round, with 1 added in the summer for the full day's schedule. This gives the program 3.5 FTE's, with 2 three hour per day positions being residents paid by the apartment complex to work in the program. The increase in staff hours was due to the following:
The volunteer hours decreased due to having many multiple children families,
thus decreasing the number of parents doing volunteer hours, a decrease
in some of the outside volunteers due to very busy schedules, and no large
mission group coming during the summer. However, we did have a group of
marketing students from Kennesaw Mountain High School come to the program
to volunteer. They helped develop the marketing plan, the brochure, a
business card, our logo, a display board of pictures of the children to
take on speaking engagements, and a short video to show people what the
program entails. In addition to this 8 education major students from Kennesaw
University came four 2 hour sessions to help tutor the children. We also
had two high school students from the Rainbow Education Center come to
work with the children during their summer break (paid for by Federal
Grant through center).
Twice a month COPE unit police officers came to talk and get familiar with the children, and once a month starting in December a fire department education officer came to talk to the children about fire safety. In addition to the regular services, the following was done:
As did last year this past year has shown an increase in collaboration efforts with the Osborne Prevention Task Force, the East West Optimist Club, McEachern United Methodist Church, the COPE Unit Officers, Birney Elementary, a Christian church, and the Presbyterian churches who provided grant money to purchase 4 Hooked on Phonics Programs to help the children that are behind in reading. In addition to this this past year we have developed a better system with the school to ensure that the children are both doing their homework and handing their homework in to their teachers. In addition to this we have found an experienced volunteer teacher who will administer reading assessments to be done on a child's arrival, in the middle of their time in the program, and when they leave to determine their progress in learning to read. We have continued this past year to develop more specific desired outcomes for the children that related to their behavior and to their academic school work and a process to measure progress toward these desired outcomes.
Lea Langley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||