Lawrence Nonprofit Receives Grant To Fight Chronic Absenteeism

LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP, NJ — The Lawrence Township based Every Child Valued nonprofit group is among a group of nonprofit and school partnerships in Mercer County that will share in $3 million in grants to reduce chronic absenteeism in the region, the Princeton Area Community Foundation announced.

Each partnership has been awarded a $300,000 All Kids Thrive grant that will be paid out over 5 years. This long-term commitment will likely reduce administrative burdens on schools and nonprofits, allowing them to focus on impact, according to the foundation.

All Kids Thrive is the foundation’s new initiative to transform the lives of young people living in poverty, which is among the risk factors for chronic absenteeism. In Mercer County, more than 1 in 10 students are chronically absent from school — they miss an average of two days a month or about 10 percent of the school year. Those absences dramatically lower their chance of success throughout their lives.

Every Child Valued will work with the Eggerts Crossing Village housing development and Educational Testing Service to focus on students living in that neighborhood and other low-income students who attend Lawrenceville Elementary, Franklin Elementary, Slackwood Elementary, Eldridge Park Elementary and Lawrenceville Intermediate schools.

Every Child Valued already runs successful after-school and summer programs for children at Eggerts Crossing. They plan to begin a breakfast program, and they will hire a monitor to supervise children at the local bus stop because before-care is a problem for parents there, according to the foundation.

They also plan to add another learning coach at their 4th to 6th grade after-school program because parents indicated students are missing school because of incomplete homework. The organization will also host quarterly dinners for parents and will connect families with other social service agencies.

Key to this plan is community involvement. The George H. and Estelle M. Sands Foundation, NJM Insurance Group and Verizon have pledged financial support to All Kids Thrive. The partnerships awarded All Kids Thrive grants have designed plans that require parents, educators, students and nonprofit leaders to work together to help keep kids in school. Often that means providing services for entire families.

“We are thrilled about the community’s enthusiasm for All Kids Thrive,’’ Princeton Area Community Foundation President and CEO Jeffrey M. Vega said. “We look forward to working with our nonprofit friends, teachers, parents and school administrators on these plans. We are also grateful for the financial support we have already received, and we hope other funders will join us as we work to strengthen the educational pipeline in Mercer County.”

The 10 partnerships that were awarded these grants were among a larger group of 18 teams that received $12,500 planning grants earlier this year. As part of that planning process, the teams were required to conduct focus groups with students, parents and educators to learn more about the causes of absenteeism in our region.

Those findings showed there is a myriad of reasons students miss school in Mercer County: hunger, a lack of clean clothes, illness, family responsibilities, transportation and childcare barriers, bullying and bad weather.

Based in part on those survey responses, the teams developed individualized strategies to reduce chronic absenteeism in schools, including plans to:

· create a laundry facility at a Trenton elementary school;
· provide volunteer translators for parents;
· determine which students are most at risk, including kids with chronic illness, then develop personalized plans to help them;
· match students with mentors; and
· feed students breakfast before the school day begins

“We are so excited about these partnerships,” said Eleanor Horne, the Chair of the Community Foundation’s Committee on Impact. “Awarding these grants is the culmination of a whirlwind of activity for us. We have been working and learning together in mutually beneficial ways. We are usually thought of as a grantmaker, but we are now, literally, the foundation upon which many plans are standing. We have created new partnerships that have made us, truly, a community foundation.”

The attached images were provided by the Princeton Area Community Foundation