This is a production of West Virginia public broadcast.

Staying in school and staying focused for many children in West Virginia is a challenge.

Poverty, bad grades, a lack of interest, family problems and mental health issues.

All sometimes leave a child believing the only option is to drop out.

More students are struggling with so many things that we were all familiar with.

There's so many students in foster care, there's the drug addictions, the poverty, and all of those things just put our students at a disadvantage.

But a national nonprofit organization called Communities in Schools shares an intervention program that aims to address those disadvantages by creating a safety net of caring relationships for every student.

The program was founded more than 40 years ago.

It's been implemented in 25 states and thanks to an effort by Governor Jim justice and First Lady Kathy justice, that group has included West Virginia since 2018.

We saw the need for the children besides the materialistic things that they needed there.

We need the emotional tie that we have for that one person in every school, one caring adult, to be that child's person in life that they go to, and they feel good about it and they're their support system.

The Communities in Schools program seeks to connect public schools with community resources to ensure every child is nurtured and supported that every child flourishes in school and successfully graduates.

West Virginia is a licensed Communities in Schools or cis partner, following the national evidence based model receiving the latest data research and professional development training.

Under the National Model, the County Board of Education hires a site coordinator who is assigned to a specific school.

The site coordinators sole focus is to identify those student needs, and get delivered whatever is necessary.

Whether that's providing a tutor to help with a Class Subject, a uniform to participate in band, or in some cases, appropriate health care to save a child's life.

Joe Sloane is a freshman at Marshall University.

During his senior year at Huntington High School, his life took an unexpected and frightening turn.

My teeth had a infection at the root.

I was raised to brush my teeth every day every night.

That was fun all.

But over time, it got bad and I hadn't notice.

So at one point, I started having teeth pain.

And my family doesn't have didn't have a car at the time.

So I help from the communities and schools person at my school.

Carlos No.

So we sat down, and he opened up his hand and he says, well, I need some help.

And I said, Okay, what's going on?

What can I help you with?

And there was a little black pebble in his hand.

And I thought it was a rock like what is that?

And it was his teeth?

And it was a black tooth and I thought okay, okay, well what do we need to do?

And he was like, I need to go to a dentist and I'm like, okay, that's the first step.

And they actually discovered with infected root it was so bad to a point it wasn't visible.

But it was at a point where it needed to be removed to go in there with them all and then be told you have to lose them all.

It was a really big shock to me.

Because like I said, I don't want this I'm no one wants to fuck a big chain, but I also knew I had to have it because it was a matter of like, you need this or eventually it will kill you.

It's not a impossibly it's an eventually, after a second medical opinion, which concurred with the first all of Joe's teeth were pulled the Communities in Schools program then found a community partner and got him dentures.

It's the denture store.

And they worked it out with them and entirely for free.

They gave me my dentures.

And they're all amazingly nice people.

And anytime I need to get them fixed or get them adjusted.

They take me in entirely for free.

Free.

And I'm so grateful for that.

Joe's story is one that first lady Kathy Justice says, illustrates why she wanted the Communities in Schools program in West Virginia.

Well, when I see Joe now I see this confident young man who thinks that he can do anything he wants to do notice he has a source to go to to get help.

And I'm sure going to be a very productive young man and have a life ahead having a good life that he will work have a job and be a really important part of society.

In West Virginia, the program first started in three counties in has now expanded to 31.

With its current appropriation of $4.9 million from the state legislature, additional existing county funds and corporate sponsors.

The Communities in Schools Program is serving 70,000 students in more than 170 schools across the state.

But the First Lady hopes to see the program in all 55 counties.

When you go in the schools you see this need and it doesn't matter if you're in the southern part, northern part of where you are in the state children are the same, you know, their needs are the same.

You know, they want to be loved they want to be cared for.

The Communities in Schools Program has four focus areas, academics, attendance, behavior, and family engagement.

The energy and commitment of school based coordinators are key to the program's success.

Susan Schieffer is coordinator at Sutton Elementary School in Sutton, West Virginia, she responds to a range of needs from making sure a student is getting enough to eat to ensuring a student has the appropriate school supplies.

The object for me is to just be sure that all the students know anytime they need anything, they can tell their teacher I need to see Mrs. Schaefer, or I need to go see that lady in that room.

Even the younger students, they know if they need something, anything, if it's at school, or if it's at home, if there's something if they don't have a back Box of Crayons at home, I can get them a box of crayons.

And all the students know that when she first saw that fifth grader hazely Williams was falling behind in math, she immediately took action and twos 14 Because simple sevens 14, I love the way that you're using.

Now let me show you something.

So when I didn't do this program, I wasn't good because I couldn't learn my multiplication that well.

But the Schiefer kept me practicing and practicing and helped me a lot.

What's so cool about it is like, she doesn't include type of a fun way.

So like if you pass your evens and like multiplication or division, she gives you a surprise.

KS Lee is proud to report she not only has mastered her multiplication tables, but she also helped her class win a mathematics competition.

Right here.

It says math, because we finished maps first in our school, and like third, fourth, fifth and fourth grade, and at the time, I was in fourth grade, and has all these cool designs and we get to keep it into another class when one day a class here at our school had earned a pajama party.

And the teacher sent me a little note that said all of my students have on pajamas, but one little boy, and he doesn't own pajamas.

He said.

So I ran out to a local store bought him a pair of pajamas came back.

He put them on and his face lit up.

And he thanked me and thanked me.

I was telling a teacher that I used to work with her at this school, that story.

And she told her daughter and the two of them went out and purchased that student and his brother, lots of pajamas and other clothing so that he would always have pajamas.

Community partners make ongoing donations of goods and services.

They include department stores, grocery stores, art supplies, shops, medical providers, banks and other private and nonprofit businesses and organizations.

The donations the working with the community that helped we've been able to provide for our students.

Yes, teachers.

We've always done it as teachers we've if we see a kid with a student without a coat, we bought him a coat.

But communities in school help help lessen that burden from the teachers.

West Virginia's first lady kicked off her all in for kids Communities in Schools road trip in the summer of 2021.

She visited several active sites that were providing fun summer learning activities.

So they went ahead and they put that in now they're making the dough.

We're doing the reverse side here.

We want to make sure they get the keys.

Right now they're going to be making the dough and they're going to go ahead and group on early.

This is your first day in here.

Do you all like this?

Oh, I love it.

I'd love to be here.

hear like?

This is so good.

Okay.

It looks real.

Just select from the top.

Yeah.

Okay.

Would y'all want to go into cosmetology Is that something you're thinking about?

Maybe, right, it's good to try everything and just say you've got so many opportunities.

I want to go into school, whether it's a grade school, middle school, or high school.

And I want to go in there and have the feeling that these children feel good about themselves.

I want I want them to have pride pride in themselves, pride in what they do, and not be ashamed of anything.

Because I want them to know that they can get all the help that they can do to achieve anything they want to do.

And that's hard for a lot of children to accept, because they may be have been defeatist a lot part of their lives.

So we just want them to feel great about themselves, encourage them, and just know that they can be the very, very best they can be you to stand up, give a demonstration on how the red tape measure, they're gonna measure across the floor forever, one, measure 10 foot so everybody was 12 foot looks like the First Lady visited multiple classrooms at multiple sites, encouraging students and supporting teachers and parents, little spark inside of you.

And I know each and every one of you wants to do something.

So make that drug and be that when you graduate from high school, that you have to come to school.

That's the very first sight.

And so you can do anything in life that you want, you can do a lot of different things, okay?

If you just stick with that dream and have that dream, and know that you can do it, okay.

Tragically, West Virginia is among the states whose children experience the highest rates of what are known as adverse childhood experiences.

These are traumatic events that can be devastating to a child's physical, intellectual, and emotional development events like divorce, exposure to drug abuse, domestic violence, sexual abuse and other crimes.

All right, well, I'll try to take care of her stuff.

And if we can get figured out maybe she'll call you back.

Okay.

Tyler Cunningham is Braxton County High School's site coordinator.

We do interventions for at risk students, you know, those who go through poverty, you know, specific circumstances within their family things that make it difficult for them to go through the learning process.

And we just intervene where we can we provide different supports for them.

Cunningham, while respecting confidentiality, describes a successful intervention he once had with a student who was high risk for suicide.

We made all the interventions we could form came back out of recovery was doing well.

And me just making the contact with him on a regular basis.

I spoke to him at least weekly just to check in on his health.

And you just saw such a huge change over time.

And he's done so well.

He's actually graduated this past year, and I couldn't be more proud of him.

in Wayne County.

Melissa Maynard, principal of Wayne Elementary, says the counseling offered through the Communities and Schools program to students and families, dealing with these toughest issues has made a world of difference in her community.

I've just seen the amazing things that it has done for our students here within the building as well as their parents just in the community all together.

And that's what we want.

We want people we want these parents to not be afraid of schools.

We want them to know that we are here not only for their babies, their kids, but for them as well.

We're just one big support system because ultimately, in the end, if we have those families that are supportive of the school, it's just going to bleed over to their students or their their children and these they're just academically going to be successful all the way through.

This is our governor why their first lady Kathy justice.

She has a god how are you all?

Oh, thank you all.

And we thank you for coming and visiting us.

Welcome to wine elementary school all this was great.

What's been the best mess fun you've had this summer coming to school?

Bought now?

Lemonade saying Yeah.

The first lady's visit to Wayne Elementary is Communities in Schools program was an opportunity for local partners to visit the school as well.

Chris rockin Steen is the market manager for Walmart's in southern West Virginia, which donates paper pens, pencils, snacks and other items to 11 schools in the southern part of the state.

Growing up in West Virginia.

Coming through the West Virginia Public School System, I understand how important good education is.

I see some of the struggles that these kids have in the community and making sure that every kid has what they need to get a good day.

Education get through school and not have to worry about how they're going to get supplies or how they're going to get a snack or how they're going to get a drink to go to a school visit.

See the kids see the innocence, see the fun.

And just look around and observe what the need is.

And just jump in and help out whether it's it's a small amount of some notebooks and crayons or whether it's a sponsoring school and taking it under your wing.

You're not going to go wrong with it, you'll sleep better at night, you'll feel good.

You're giving back to the kids in the state.

And again, it's going to help us further the education system and been helped us out in the future.

Absolutely okay.

But we want to stress coming to school every day.

In the end after they graduate from high school.

They don't want to go to college.

There's wonderful technical schools, and we want them to do bakers, culinary.

You know, cosmetologist, anything they want to do, so we're trying to expose him to all that as well.

Y'all had fun this summer.

So what's been what's been all of your all's best thing to do this summer, we're so proud of you.

That's the thing.

We're proud of you.

I want you all to be proud of your sale.

Now that you all can do anything that you want to do be anyone or any occupation you want to be.

The West Virginia Department of Education has oversight of the Communities and Schools Program.

Officials here also want to see its expansion, you know, to put your finger on what makes it so different.

I think it's the absolute simplicity, that we're not asking you as a school to go out and do 100 things.

We're asking you to do one simple thing.

Who needs assistance?

Can you build relationships with children.

So one of the most important things we've seen is the ability to hire a full time community in schools coordinator, somebody who can really help that teacher in school, identify and connect the assistance families and students need.

And then what you see as it begins to just domino effect.

And I think that's one of the neat things about Communities in Schools is that it's not even though it has a framework, even though it has a system that we're putting in place, the ability for it to grow to what that individual community and families need.

It's amazing.

I mean, dropout prevention, we've always talked about the ABCs of dropout.

So it's attendance, behavior, and course failures.

And that's the things that have always been the measurables that, that we look at.

What's a little different about this program is that each school works with their site coordinator and with our staff, to develop what the goal measurable goals are for their school.

So you may not have an attendance problem.

So let's focus on the academics or let's focus on the course failures.

Is there another piece of data or something that you're struggling with parent engagement, you know, all these different things that so that it's the, the customized measurables that we look at, we do have all of our schools report.

And we're able to do that from the state level, on the attendance behaviors and course failures because when you're working to secure money from the legislature, and from often, you know, other businesses and things they do want to see consistent data across.

But being able to customize to the needs of the students, and set those goals at the school level, I think has made a huge difference in the success of the program.

It was former state superintendent of schools, Steve Payne, who first lady Kathy justice first approached about the Communities and Schools program for West Virginia.

There isn't any other program that I'm aware of in education, that can boast of the kinds of successes that communities and schools can take claim for.

For the sake of the children who are underserved, who come from the other side of the neighborhoods that aren't as fortunate as others.

For those children that just don't have a chance.

All children need help.

But they in particular, need the support of a community that wraps around them to provide for all of their academic needs, but their social emotional needs, their physical needs.

We've heard stories of kids that didn't have shoes, literally, that Communities in Schools took care of kids that would be too embarrassed to come forth on their own, to express their needs like that.

But through the mentorship of personnel within communities and schools and the schools.

caring about each of these children, learning who they are and where they come from and what their specific needs are.

That's why you do this program so that all kids can have those same opportunities as the kids that come from a little bit more fortunate backgrounds.

Were seeing better attendance rates were children that wouldn't come to school.

They're in sin, incentivized to come to school.

We're seeing graduation rates going really well.

We're seeing Students that when they're graduating from high school, we're seeing them knowing a little bit of what they want to do, because we're introducing them to things, jobs that they may want to have like technical school, because not everyone is cut out to go to college or you know, but we need workers now.

We need plumbers, electricians, we need that service type people.

And so we're seeing people becoming more interested in that.

The First Lady is also seeing increased interest and generosity from local businesses as word gets out about the program.

In September 2021.

She in the governor accepted a check from truist bank in West Virginia for additional support of the Communities and Schools program.

So it's my pleasure to present you a check for $15,000 from the truest West Virginia Foundation.

And we want to continue to support you many years to come and the great work that you're doing so proud of what you do to to improve our state.

This is wonderful, we will accept this and I promise you will be used in a great way.

You get the peace of mind that you're doing something to improve lives and make the world a better place.

That's a noble goal.

That's a noble mission.

But it's it's actually it's seeing our mission alive.

And that's priceless.

sounds cliche and I don't mean it to be but it truly gives you a peace and a satisfaction that sure we're here for our stakeholders we're here for our shareholders, we're here to make a profit we are not a nonprofit organization.

But our our mission, and it can coexist with helping the world be a better place is not always a take society.

It's it's to give back.

And when our society when our communities thrive.

When our communities succeed, we succeed as an organization, just because kids come from a more economically challenged background does not mean that they should not have every opportunity to pursue educational hopes and dreams and colleges and universities in our state colleges and universities in our country.

I think my vision would be that we could expand Communities in Schools and get other companies, other corporations to support it, to continue to get behind it because it's absolutely it does make a difference in the schools.

It makes a difference in the lives and ultimately makes a difference in our community to put a coordinator in every school it takes money to do that.

Back in Huntington.

Joe Sloane is enjoying college life at Marshall University, and continues to stay in touch with a school based coordinator Carlos Snell seen Joe smile now is amazing.

Even once they poured his teeth, he had a lot of a healing process to go to.

And I think he had even mentioned that he didn't really want to come to school.

I think depression has started to hit in because when you're 18 years old, and they just pulled every tooth out in your head.

That's hard to deal with mentally.

And it also took a toll on his academics.

But we got him back we got him going.

Um, he has a lot of friends that are a lot of support.

They're good support system.

And his parents also, they were always willing to help me to push him out the door.

Even if I had to pick him up in the morning to bring the school I was knocking on his door picketing.

Joe says he feels more confident now thanks to the help he received from communities and schools.

And he hopes more kids reach out for help.

But you can call someone to talk to you, you can talk to them.

And if you do have a problem, they can help you and the person they're in through at the time can't help you.

So reach out to find someone that can to one person can do everything in their communities and schools worked well with everyone else a part of it to get what can be done done.

Like with the Pete, they talk to me there, they figured out a way for me to get my teeth without paying an arm and a leg for it.

As for the First Lady, the program continues to be one that is near and dear to her.

She plans to continue to promote its expansion across the state.

I've seen the compassion that all the site coordinators have and so I've just seen this work and I'm just proud to be a part of it.

And it's a national program, a proven program and we just want to keep it on in West Virginia and make the children in the students and just let them be proud of who they are in their heritage.

From the first lady okay, you're ready to change longer than three younger oh and 5353 Hey what's mountain Ma Ma J O?

This has been a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting