Mission Houston Newsletter

Reaching out to Dropouts

Aug, 2008

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But, the staff took the assignment seriously and has nearly finished. Our work in progress is at the end of this article. But, I was out running yesterday and remembered the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, and the face of Mark Day came to my mind. Mark IS our elevator speech.

Mission Houston is partnering with Expectation Graduation, a non-profit partnership created by the City of Houston, in a multi-year commitment to serve in the annual "Reach Out to Dropouts" Walk. This year's walk is taking place citywide across 12 Houston area school districts on Saturday, September 6, 2008. Mission Houston is asking that you serve as a volunteer on this day to reach out and encourage our city's future citizens to return to school to complete their studies and earn their high school diploma. Most of these students just need one person who will care and take the time to listen to their concerns and fears. You can be that person who can make the difference in this young student making the next good choice that could yield potentially positive outcomes or making a choice that may yield a life filled with potentially unhealthy outcomes.

This annual commitment to serve in the "Reach Out to Dropouts" Walk is part of a 10 year initiative called "Whole & Healthy Children", where volunteers from across Greater Houston will adopt 3 at-risk elementary schools in their Community Service Area. Our goal is that each of these community/school relationships will achieve what we call the 4 M's:

· 100 Mentors serving in a one-on-one relationship with a child
· 100 intercessors engaged in Mobilized Prayer for the schoolchildren, their families and the school faculty & staff
· An annual Makeover project aimed at beautifying the school campus
· $10,000 in Money raised to supplement funding that the school needs to enhance their educational offerings to the students

Mission Houston has made the bold decision that we will not sit back and allow this city's future to fail to reach their God-given potential on our watch. This commitment is a call to action where the Body of Christ can serve as missionaries to benefit their local community. A number of research studies indicate that student engagement starts declining as early as 1st grade, increasing the probability of students actually dropping out in high school. The sad reality is that children drop out of school as early as 1st grade, but they don't actually walk out of school until 9th grade. Left unaddressed, this reality will jeopardize Houston's economic and social health. There are several factors that result in this erosion of student engagement. In a study conducted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the top 5 reasons why students are leaving school are as follows:

· Classes are not interesting
· Absenteeism: can't catch up
· Spending time with people who are not interested in school
· Not enough structure in life
· Failing in school

Several recommendations to address these reasons include:

· Creating smaller learning communities to reduce class and school size
· Engaging 1 adult in each student's life who is an advocate and supporter of their educational career (The "Whole & Healthy Children" initiative serves to promote the engagement of one adult actively involved with one child through mentoring)
· Improving teacher & administrator quality

We look forward to serving with you on Saturday, September 6. You can form a volunteer team with members of your congregation, company or community. If you have any questions about where to serve or what to do to get started, please contact your local school district Event Coordinator listed at http://www.expectationgraduation.org/WWU.htm. Thank you and God bless..