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EMMA HETHERINGTON
Hiking the Next Step
Whatever It Takes Pushes Toward Its Goals
O ne could feel the excitement permeating the room
at the Classic City Performance Learning Center on
the evening of May 26. Parents and children with
happy faces, greeting familiar and new friends alike,
buzzed about the room, shaking hands and giving hugs while
never losing the skip in their step created by the anticipation
of upcoming possibilities.
Whatever It Takes Athens, still fresh from a recently granted
$500,000 for planning purposes from the federal govern
ment, was about to reveal its "Drafts of Proposed Solutions
for Childhood Success" at a community meeting intended to
solicit ccmrpunity input on the program's strategic plans. WIT
is a community initiative that seeks to promote the health and
safety of children in Athens, and to set them on a course for
graduation from institutions of higher learning.
More than 200 participating community members are
charged with the purpose of creating potential solutions
that will promote the organization's overarching goals. They
are divided into six strategic action teams: Neighborhood
Engagement, Early Care and Learning, K-12, Post-Secondary
and Career, Safety and Juvenile Justice, and Health and
Wellness. At the meeting—one in a series of WIT "Community
Conversations"—each team presented potential solutions to
the myriad problems in Athens-Clarke County that affect the
success of children in the community.
Currently, the high school drop-out rate for students in
the Clarke County School District is about 33 percent. In a
report issued in January 2010, the Georgia Family Connection
Partnership listed the teen pregnancy rate in ACC at about 27
percent, and stated that around 29 percent of babies born here
were born to mothers with less than 12 years of education. The
report also stated that 26 percent of children in Athens live in
poverty, and that-33 percent of Athens families with children
receive annual incomes of less than 150 percent of the federal
poverty level.
The staff members of WIT looked at the outcomes of chil
dren in Athens and came up with a main solution: to imple
ment a community program similar to the Harlem Children's
Zone in New York City. During their initial presentation at the
Community Conversation, WIT Executive Director Tim Johnson
and Lewis Earnest, the WIT board president, showed the
attendees a short message from Geoffrey Canada, the Harlem
Children's Zone president and CEO. Canada described the main
goals of his organization that would be transferred to Athens,
including rebuilding the community, creating a pipeline from
early childhood to college, accountability and data collection,
and a change in community attitudes.
Every speaker emphasized that parents are the most effec
tive teachers, and that parental involvement is key to a child's
success. Other central priorities of WIT include early child
hood learning (the WIT website highlights that "the odds of
completing high school rise from 39 percent to 53 percent for
children exposed to preschool"), high expectations for chil
dren, neighborhood leadership, focusing resources in a limited
geographic area and creating a culture of success. "If it'c cool
to raise your hand in class, then you'll raise your hand in class.
It has a domino effect in the community," explained Earnest.
The staff members and community leaders of WIT are not
simply coming up with solutions from thin air. The organiza
tion uses research studies to help formulate solutions. During
the meeting, Johnson urged community members, "Please read
the information at your tables and scattered throughout the
room. The packets include research and reports we are using
to come up with solutions. If you want a copy of any of the
reports, please let us know and we will send them along."
WIT is also implementing a longitudinal data system to
track its progress in the community. Earnest used the example
of public health data to illustrate how the system will work:
"Right now we're working with two-year-old data. With the
new data system we will know clusters of data immediately.
For example, instead of knowing the teen pregnancy rate in
Athens from two years ago, we will know the percentage from
within the last two weeks." WIT
will be tracking 48 data indica
tors, and six key indicators—teen
pregnancy, readiness for kinder
garten, childhood obesity, third
grade reading, juvenile crime and
the high school graduation rate-
will be published once a month in
Flagpole and the Athens Banner-
Herald.
Speakers at the meeting
emphasized that the organiza
tion is a community effort. WIT
is composed not only of a board
and staff members, but also of
the more than 200 committee
volunteers, the U.S. Department
of Education, Harlem Children's
Zone, CCSD, and more than 70
other community partners. WIT
has also chosen 16 neighborhood
leaders to help gain community
support and maintain close ties with each neighborhood in
Athens. Earnest and Johnson played a video of one neighbor
hood leader pronouncing, "We are all full of information that
we have to share. We just have to tap in." »
The remainder of the meeting was dedicated to the pre
sentation of WIT's proposed solutions. A common theme—
taking existing community services, expanding them, and
adding new elements to complement existing structures—ran
throughout each strategic plan. For example, the Neighborhood
Engagement team proposed to improve on neighborhood pro
grams such as the Boys and Girls Club and Head Start early
learning programs, while expanding their reach to include new
classes such as those in parenting or job training. The Early
Care and Learning team proposed establishment of family
resources centers, where existing services would be combined
in order to provide central offices where families would know
they could access all needed information. The Safety and
Juvenile Justice team proposed an expansion of mental health
services to include a more comprehensive juvenile counseling
and assessment program, and other mental health services in
schools.
With little time remaining at the end of the meeting for a
community discussion, WIT provided community input forms
for attendees to respond to the proposed solutions and to offer
additional ideas. The Draft of Proposed Solutions is available
on the WIT website, and WIT staff encouraged further input,
which can be made through a contact form on the website.
Whatever It Takes is a community effort driven by the
unique needs of the Athens-Clarke County community, with
goals and proposed solutions backed by data and research. Its
leaders and staff have issued a call for community involve
ment, and many have answered. Yet, the organization hopes to
generate still more excitement and input from the entire com
munity, in order that, when its strategies are implemented, the
program may truly hit the ground running.
Emma Hetherington
For more information on WIT and how you can help, visit www.witathens.
org. The next WIT at-large meeting will be held on Friday, June 10 from 9
a.m. tu a0:30 a.m. at Classic City Performance Learning Center, 440-3
Dearing Ext., Athens.
Tatiyana Webb (right) and Emmanuel Obi fill out community input forms at the WIT Community
Conversation on May 26.
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