Monroe County introduces CAPE program in schools

Monroe County has long been seeking a way to get students excited about school and to offer preparation for advanced learning while involving parents in their children's education. The community might have found an end to its quest in the Community Alliance to Promote Education. \nThe CAPE program is headed by Executive Director Michael Conn-Powers, who said he believes strongly in the program and has confidence the program will bring improvement to the Bloomington educational system and to the community. \n"I believe that the CAPE program has and will continue to build a partnership between families and the community. It will give the youth of the community initiative to succeed in school and will make school fun again," Conn-Powers said. \nThe four-year CAPE program was established in December 2001 and has since provided many families with a positive outlook on education. Already, the program has raised $890,000 in grants which have benefited the students of Monroe County both with family involvement and education. \nThe program strives to build community learning with emphasis on family involvement and community literacy. \n"We are looking to build many strong families that are actively involved in their children's schooling," Conn-Powers said. \nThe main goal of the program is to have strong resources and information that are conveniently accessible to the community and will benefit the community as a whole. \n"Our big goal is to promote strong families that care about education," said Melanie Rieth, the Family Literacy coordinator of the Banneker Community Center. "We promote education in safe, caring and healthy ways while working with existing agencies to form a comprehensive, coordinated and easily-accessible family educational support service."\nThe CAPE program heads three education-oriented initiatives that help form strong families. Each is targeted toward a specific age group and involves different activities that are specific to each group's needs.\nThe first initiative is Strong Families. This initiative focuses on children that are not yet old enough for a formal K-12 education. Family Resource Center coordinators, like Shelly Turnbaugh from the Shalom Family Resource Center, strive to get parents involved in their child's education at an early age. Parents are encouraged to read to their children and support them in everything that they accomplish, both academically and otherwise.\n"We provide the resources and the answers to questions that parents have regarding their child's education," Shelly states. "We are here to help provide support and assistance." \nThe second initiative is Family Literacy, which is designed for students at the elementary level. Groups of families are given a literacy coordinator who helps both the child and the parent to communicate and learn to read and develop together. \nBrenda Trent, a Family Literacy Coordinator for Rogers Elementary School, takes on many duties in her line of work to ensure the success of early childhood education. \n"Our current programs involve engaging families in at-home activities that support literacy and learning; having families experience positive working relationships with the schools and increasing the amount of time and the level of enjoyment children experience reading at home," Trent said.\nThe coordinator will also schedule events that are geared to make learning fun. One of Trent's favorite events is a student-to-student interaction which benefits both the younger and older participant.\n"Our 'Book Buddies' program is a collaboration with Binford Elementary School in which sixth grade students come over to Rogers each Tuesday and spend part of their recess reading stories to small groups of first graders," she said. "It is a wonderful opportunity for all of the students to get together and enjoy reading."\nAnother favorite is "movie night," when parents and children gather together to watch a movie. After the movie, parents are instructed to help their child construct a book based on the movie that they can both read together.\nThe third initiative is Strong Communities, encouraging junior high and high school students to keep a positive outlook on school. The initiative recommends that parents remain active in their child's education and encourage their child to succeed. \nThough the community continues to struggle with keeping its youth interested in school, the CAPE program strives to benefit the community and commits itself to achieve its goal. \n"We are committed to learning," Conn-Powers said. "We are optimistic about the future of our program and we are confident that we will be able to help the Bloomington community." \n-- Contact staff writer Kourtney Schepman at kschepma@indiana.edu.