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Houston ISD Finds Solution through KIDS HOPE USA By Jenny Pope
Nearly 80 percent of students in your school district are considered at risk. HISD School Board President Harvin Moore acknowledges this dilemma and thinks he’s found the best solution – mentoring. “Kids that are at-risk have the same needs as any other child for a stable adult role model, it’s just that they don’t come with one,” Moore said. “The greatest thing we can do is to unlock the potential of those in the community and get them into schools. KIDS HOPE USA is a great organization to do that – one that I’ve seen from the inside out.” KIDS HOPE, a church-based mentoring program which trains and recruits volunteers to mentor at-risk elementary students for one hour a week, has been a part of Moore’s life for the past four years. As a KIDS HOPE mentor through his church, St. John the Divine, Moore has connected with students on a personal level unlike ever before. “[Being a mentor] puts a face on what I do,” he said. “It’s easy to start to see the schools as numbers and systems and be drowned by statistics. But you lose the power of the individual. You lose that picture of a light coming on in a child’s face and knowing that it just takes one adult to do that, to make that kind of impact. “Knowing that I’m a cause in that change just makes everything else seem more achievable.” Mixing church and school may appear to be contradictory. But to Moore and most school administrators, it’s never been a problem. “The district has a goal to have really solid neighborhood mentorship programs in public schools, and I think the church is a great way to do that. It’s one of the most obvious ways,” he said. KIDS HOPE USA has been in the Houston community since 2002. Eight churches currently mentor elementary students in neighborhood schools and four new churches have recently signed on. Buckner Children and Family Services connects local churches with KIDS HOPE and provide resources and support for current mentoring churches. “Houston ISD has really rolled out the red carpet for us,” said Jon Hogg, director and team leader for Buckner in Houston. “It’s a misnomer that the churches want to do something but the schools have closed the door. That’s not the case. The schools are open and ready; it’s the churches who haven’t stepped up.” Barbara Elliott has been a longtime advocate for KIDS HOPE USA in Houston and throughout the United States, even including the program as a best practice in her book “Street Saints: Renewing America’s Cities.” She currently works part-time for KIDS HOPE alongside Buckner to recruit churches in the Houston area. Elliott echoes Hogg in acknowledging the schools’ eagerness to invite caring, consistent adults to mentor their students. “Schools have a lot of other partners that are coming in from other organizations around the city,” Elliott said, “but they have consistently remarked how grateful they are to have people of the caliber that KIDS HOPE brings in – people who are trained, who are consistent and who are responsible. “In many communities, even when you have a church that’s willing, you have to go and figure out where the schools might be,” Elliott continued. “In Houston that’s not the case. If we can convince a church to step up, the schools are eager to have them. And that’s a good situation to be in. We have more churches in this town than schools.” Elliott connected her own church, Our Lady of Walsingham, with KIDS HOPE to mentor Houston students at Treasure Forest Elementary School three years ago. The church now sends 17 mentors to meet children each week in a school where 95 percent of students are considered at risk and do not speak English. “We are a small church, the smallest parish in our arch-diocese,” said Catalina Brand, KIDS HOPE USA director and mentor for Our Lady of Walsingham. “I thought it was going to be difficult to recruit mentors. But it hasn’t. It’s been amazing. “When we first started this, we thought it would be good for the school. But the benefit has been more for us. People have joined our church because they’ve heard of what we’re doing. And it’s given us more of a purpose. We’re beginning to see the fruits of our labor.” Nine-year-old Caroline has met with her mentor Peb Rock, Our Lady of Walsingham member, once a week for the last three years to review the latest Mini Page from the Houston Chronicle. Rock patiently watches her read and helps her through difficult words. “When I first started with Caroline she was diffident, withdrawn,” he said. “She’s more outgoing now. She smiles a lot more.” Principal Imelda de la Guardia credits the KIDS HOPE mentors in her school with helping Treasure Forest reach exemplary status in just a few short years. “Four years ago we were one of the lowest, if not the lowest school in the whole district,” she said. “And we are now exemplary. It’s been a huge, amazing thing. It’s very powerful and our mentors have a really big part in that. “They build strong relationships with the kids, even with the most difficult students…and the fact that they continue to return year after year has been really key to helping some of our struggling students. They’ve just been a constant that our students really need.” More churches are needed to join KIDS HOPE USA to make a difference in all of Houston’s elementary schools. For more information, contact Jon Hogg at 713-278-9213. |
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Houston, we have a problem. 
