Miami County
4community
what matters.™
A Review of Indiana Association of United Ways 4community Initiatives 2006
Miami County
Kids Soar
To build Miami County’s SOAR program,
schools and organizations that never worked
together helped one another grow stronger.
Some sixth-grade students on the verge of
suspension raised their grades and received
outstanding citizenship awards at the end of
the school year.
When officials from United Way of Miami
County commissioned a needs assessment, they
were in for a surprise. They were pretty certain the
community would respond that its greatest deficiencies were in health care. But the recurring theme of
the assessment was the needs of the youth, especially the poor academic performance of at-risk middle
school students.
“We thought it was medical needs,” says Debi
Miser, executive director of United Way of Miami
County. “I still think medical issues are No. 2, but a
great number of people kept discussing the kids.”
The needs assessment was key in getting the
4community partners to set aside their own agendas
and focus on what Miami County truly needed, says
Jan Douglas, a former director of United Way. “Everyone had a similar desire to update or address the
needs in the community and get a hand hold on what
the needs were,” she says.
The partners made for a diverse group. Those
who took part included American Health Network,
Board of Realtors, Chamber of Commerce-City of
Peru, Community Foundation, Economic Development Corp., Grissom Redevelopment Authority, Ivy
Tech State College and Workforce Development
Strategies, to name a few. Collaborating agencies
were the YMCA and Big Brothers/Big Sisters.
“We got the right people,” Miser says. “And
we went out to the community and brought in people
who wanted to help keep the kids here and make
Miami County a better place.”
Community partners also learned some important lessons about collaboration. “You have to stick
with people and keep on people if you’re going to
accomplish anything,” Douglas says. “Someone has
to take the helm and say we are going to do this and
accomplish this. You must really look for people’s
strengths and use them.”
Helping the Kids
School partners—Maconaquah School Corp.,
Peru Community Schools and North Miami School
Corp—already worked together to help troubled students through Project Ed, a court-ordered program.
But Project Ed was a reactive program.
Students Obtaining Academic Results, Miami
County’s 4community program, is committed to
preventing students from getting into situations that
would end in assignment to Project Ed. “We’re trying to get these kids to realize that success in school
leads to success in life,” says Douglas, who is also
president of the SOAR board.
4community
Treated as a club, SOAR focuses
on the intellectual and emotional
needs of at-risk sixth-graders with
the intent of improving their attitude,
behavior and academic performance.
Under the leadership of two teachers
at schools in each of the three school
districts, community volunteers mentored students from each district two
nights each week. Students also were
helped with homework, went on field
trips and were led in team building
and leadership activities. SOAR even
puchased a curriculum to help students
discover more about themselves and
how to be a leader.
Parent involvement also is an
important component of the program.
They signed contracts agreeing to their
children’s participation and committed
to providing transportation. In addition, a series of three workshops was
developed to help parents successfully
deal with their children’s adolescence.
Sweet Success
The students from each school
were brought together at the end of the
school year for a graduation ceremony.
Miser says she’s excited about the
program’s success rate. “Four or five
of our students received outstanding
citizenship awards and were recognized when they wouldn’t have been.
At the end of the year, it was fun to
see how the kids had changed.”
Many kids thought that it would
be great to come back in the seventh
grade to mentor the new sixth grade
students.
The SOAR program also has
encouraged the participating schools
to talk more to each other and share
ideas on how to track homework and
encourage kids to reach their greatest
potential, Miser adds.
Douglas’s involvement in the
program has changed the way she
looks at the United Way. “Up until a
few years ago,” she says, “I thought
about them one time a year – when
they collected money. SOAR helped
our leaders and others like me view
United Way as a go-to organization.”
A Great Example
Not only was the involvement of
business, government, not-for-profit
and faith-based leaders inspirational
for the community partners, it set an
example for the students, notes Shari
Cassler, a clinical social worker for
Hope Family Counseling and a member of Local Coordinating Council for
Drug Free Indiana.
“So far it is helping our students
see the community take an interest
in their success,” she says. “It also is
exposing business people and other
community leaders to the youth and
some of their struggles,” Cassler says.
Because of her experiance with
families and the community Miser
and Douglas invited Cassler to join
SOAR’s assessment committee. “I
saw it as a great way to energize the
county toward positive assessment and
change,” Cassler says.
In addition, the project was an
exciting opportunity for the rural community depressed by limited economic
opportunity. “Personally, I was glad
to see this funding opportunity. I
thought it would be a shame to not
take advantage of the win-win proposition,” Cassler says. “By experiencing
the interaction and listening to each
participant’s vision of hope, I was
encouraged that this community could
thrive again.”
Douglas has developed rewarding personal and professional relationships with all the 4community partners. “We all feel this project has a lot
of potential. We touched a lot of lives,
networked with one another and are
excited about that.”
The Money Trail:
Community Contribution:
$ 50,000
IaUW Match: $ 50,000
For Jan Douglas, president of the SOAR
board, the fundraising was the really hard
part. Her dream, she laughs, is to find a
rich benefactor to continue to fund SOAR.
“We’ve bare-boned it as much as we can.
You have to have a coordinator and teachers. You have to pay those people. We’re
on the right track and have a lot of potential. It will boil down to how we can sustain
it. Even if we can’t, the money we spent
wasn’t wasteful. We touched a lot of lives.”
Keys to Success
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Didn’t assume to know what the community wanted or needed. Conducted a needs assessment to find out.
Selected a doable and measurable project.
Looked for committee members’ strengths and used them. Let someone take the helm and say we are going to do this and accomplish this.
Sent community partners frequent updates to let them know how their money was being used and what was happening with the project.
Hired a project coordinator to visit all the schools, oversee the program and continue moving it forward.
Transforming Communities Through High-Impact Partnerships