CISNTblog

Six years is a long time to commit to mentoring a child.  But that’s the kind of commitment CISNT volunteer mentors possess.  Last Friday, CISNT celebrated another great year of mentoring in our dropout prevention program at Tomas Rivera Elementary School in Denton ISD.  Brenda Bennett, our Campus Manager at Rivera, with the help of our friends from State Farm Insurance, treated the mentors and their students to her annual ice cream party!

CISNT Mentors from the Denton County DA Office, The Village Church, FEMA, UNT, TWU and across north Texas all share one vision - to make a difference in a child’s life at Tomas Rivera.  It was amazing to look across the room and see the vast differences among our mentors - all ages, a variety of walks of life, interesting people who were all deeply admired by the student they mentor. 

Walking around the room it was clear that the relationships that have been built over the year, or over the years, are very important to each student. 

One Brenda Bennett at Tomas Rivera that coaches, supports and encourages 70 volunteer mentors who change 70 lives.  That’s Communities In Schools of North Texas at its best!

January is National Mentoring Month and CISNT has a lot to celebrate!  It was just a few short years ago that we strategically invested time and effort into building a school-based mentoring program that would be “best in its class” (pardon the pun).   We’re very proud of our mentoring program now.  In 2007, CISNT volunteer mentors donated over 11,000 hours working with students who are at-risk of dropping out of school - students in all age ranges, from elementary to high school…

CISNT mentors meet students before, during or after school - some volunteers even get up early on Saturday morning to spend time each week with their mentee.  The stories seem endless - caring and compassionate people - some as young  as high school, many in college, busy professionals, community leaders, empty nesters, retired experts in life - all making life changing connections with CISNT students across Denton & Wise counties.  “It is the most rewarding hour of my week”, a CISNT mentor once told me.

I believe that CISNT has the very best mentors around.  We ask a lot and our mentors deliver a lot.  One hour a week, every week of the school year is a bg commitment.  As executive director of CISNT, I want to personally thank each CISNT mentor for their amazing generosity and consistency.

Why don’t you consider spending one hour a week mentoring a CISNT student?   We will train you and support you - every CISNT mentor has access to our school-based CISNT staff who are trained to help students who are at-risk of dropping out of school.  Go to http://www.cisnt.org/volunteer_application.html and take the first step by completing an online CISNT volunteer application.  We have many children who need you today.

On any given day, CISNT stands in front of groups to advocate for students who are at-risk of dropping out of school.  Well, actually we beg for help…  In the last 24 hours, CISNT has talked with Mayors, a County Commissioner, prominent business leaders, UNT faculty & students, chamber of commerce members, school board trustees and non profit leaders.  And this was a slow week!

CISNT had the pleasure of meeting with the Denton Young Professionals organization yesterday.  What an AMAZING group of emerging leaders!  One of their members has been mentoring a child for about a year.  His dedication to doing “whatever it takes” to help this boy succeed was inspiring to me.  And as is most often the case, the mentor wondered if he was really making a difference…he is.

I am encouraged that so many people are hearing the message about our growing “at-risk” population in Denton and Wise counties.  23% increase in the last year!  Even more exciting is the action people are taking to help meet the growing need. 

Before many of us even begin shopping for our holiday gifts this year, CISNT will have received thousands of dollars in donated gifts for CISNT students to receive this holiday season.  Students who will return to school in January without “their story to tell” if we don’t help.  If you haven’t already, please consider contacting one of our CISNT campus staff at http://www.cisnt.org/campusesserved.html and help provide an at-risk child a gift this holiday season… 

Each month CISNT produces a “balanced business scorecard” report for our management team to guide the organization by and for our board of directors to oversee the business that is Communities In Schools of North Texas.  The scorecard contains key metrics about our customers (the at-risk students we serve and the volunteers who generously donate time to us), metrics about our financials (cash flow, revenue vs. expenses, budget vs. actuals, etc.), metrics about the “internal” activities that drive our organization (website hits, status of our top 10 partnerships, etc.) and metrics on “learning and growth” (our public relations activities, staff retention, professional development, etc.).  It is a great monthly “check of the gauges” in the airplane that is CISNT (which by the way never lands!) that reminds us of our progress towards the big rocks, our strategic goals…

 Today, as I went through the routine of entering results into the scorecard.  Our e-mentoring program caught my eye.  In October, CISNT mentors and CISNT students exchanged 939 e-mentoring messages. WOW!  That’s 939 times an at-risk student used technology to communicate.  939 times a mentor connected with an at-risk student, but never left their work space or lost productivity or just grabbed 10 minutes between meetings or college classes. 

What’s really cool is that the majority of those 939 messages came from General Electric staff in Lewisville, Irving and Addison and connected with 5th grade students at Hedrick ES providing help with their social studies project.  Did you know that the lowest elevation point in the U.S. is below sea level and it is at Death Valley in California?  Well, it is… 

Why do we take CISNT kids to a UNT basketball game instead of a Dallas Maverick’s game?  It’s not that we aren’t Mavs Fans For Life!  We love the Mavs!

We take students who are at-risk of failing in school to the University of North Texas coliseum to see Mean Green basketball game because of the awesome experience of taking CISNT students to a university campus.  They think we’re watching basketball - in reality, we’re introducing them to a life changing experience called college…

 Later this year, CISNT will once again take hundreds of our students to Denton to see a UNT basketball game.  Many of our mentors, including our ePals from General Electric, will be joining us.  We need help paying for buses to transport our students.  Can you help?  For less than the cost of 2 floor tickets at The American Airlines Center, nachos and a coke, you can provide a bus for 50 kids to the game!

NorthPoint Christian Church deeply invested in the CISNT Saturday Connections program at Central Elementary school last year.  Returning this school year, NP volunteers are a vital part of the CISNT Connections program success at Central Elementary. 

NP volunteers and CISNT staff recently took our Connections students to the Lewisville Central Fire Station for a tour.  What a great experience for our students!

It’s great to see people make their first connection and find out how easy it is to help kids who are at-risk of dropping out of school.  Last week our dear friends from Pinewood Hills retirement community came out to our Saturday “Connections” mentoring program at Hedrick Elementary School in Lewisville. 

In only a few minutes, two very different generations were building relationships.  It’s relationships that really make the difference.  It’s so simple.  It’s so powerful. The seniors really connected with the kids and the kids really loved meeting the seniors.

 On October 31st, the friendships formed will be renewed when Connections students visit the seniors at Pinewood Hills for a fun afternoon of decorating bags and going “trick or treating” to the guests of Pinewood Hills.

After a record breaking mentor training session, we are still amazed with our growing school-based mentorship partnership with The Village Church.  On October 14th nearly 200 individuals were trained from The Village Church in Highland Village and Denton campuses to serve as CISNT volunteer mentors to at-risk students in CISNT programs at Denton ISD, Lewisville ISD, Lttle Elm ISD and Northwest ISD.  We met an amazing group of people who have reached out to serve the at-risk students in a very meaningful way!  Joe Ader and his crew are truly making a difference in our community!

 Watch a portion of the training event here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_UNLbM5uQ8