GARY | Technology and Web-based data collection now will be used to link area students with community resources committed to helping youth graduate from high school and prepare for success in life.
Organizers say the partnership, dubbed South Shore Connection, is the nation's first collaborative effort between community groups and school districts to help students reach their educational potential by tracking school performance and participation in after-school community programs.
Announced at a news conference Tuesday, the effort is a partnership between the Legacy Foundation, Lake Area United Way and the Foundations of East Chicago. The public school districts of Gary, Hammond and Lake Station will be the first in Lake County to participate in the project, which is designed for students in kindergarten through high school.
Talks also are being held with school administrators in East Chicago and Merrillville to join the program, said Mike Davis, chair of the Lake Area United Way's Vision Council.
"Our goal is to reach all schools in Northwest Indiana," Davis said.
Participating schools will track student attendance, grades, behavioral issues and accomplishments. That information can be shared with community organizations providing after-school programs, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA's and the Salvation Army. The organizations will track students participation and share the information with their schools.
"We can get a picture of where the child is," said Lincoln Ellis, CEO and president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northwest Indiana. "We can identify the child who is involved and the child who is going nowhere and get them engaged by referring them to a community program."
More than 20 nonprofit organizations already have signed up to participate in South Shore Connection, Ellis said. They include the Crisis Center, Food Bank of Northwest Indiana, Purdue University Calumet, the Salvation Army, Tri-City Alternative Action Programs, Mission of Jesus Christ Church and South Shore Arts.
An Arizona-based company, nFocus Software, will provide the computer program, called Kid Tracks, that will be used to track student data. Company president Ananda Roberts said student only spend 13 percent of their childhood in school.
"We have to focus on the 87 percent of the children's lives that they are not in school," she said.
South Shore Connection aims to improve student attendance, boost elementary school math and reading skills and, for older students, raise high school graduation rates and encourage enrollment in college preperation courses and scholarship programs. The program will track student performance and participation in community programs.
