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"Safe Schools/Healthy Students"
Newport, Rhode Island
| Partners: | Newport Public Schools Rhode Island Department for Children, Youth & Families Newport Police Department | |
Newport, Rhode Island, is a small city contained in a tightly concentrated land area of 7.3 square miles with a population of 28,000. Newport is one of the most densely-populated cities in the nation, with a mix of single, double, triple, and multiple housing units. The school district serves 2,967 students. Sixty-eight percent of the student population is white; 21% is African American; 8% is Hispanic; and 3% includes Asian/Pacific Islander and other groups. Of the student population, 2% receive "English as a Second Language" and/or bilingual education, and 20% receive some level of special education. Newport is one of five "core communities" in the state in which 20.3% of the children live in poverty. Fifty-five percent of low-income Newport public school students participate in the School Breakfast Program. The teen suicide and pregnancy rates are significantly higher than the state averages. Provision of mental health and prevention services to at-risk children and families has been fragmented and not well coordinated.
The three lead agencies will work with the Newport Partnership for Families (representing more than 30 agencies), as well as other local social service agencies, parents, teachers, and youth to create a comprehensive network of activities.
The Newport Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative brings together a comprehensive, integrated framework to support and enhance the collaborative efforts of education, justice, social service, and mental health systems that target pre-school and school-age children, as well as adolescents and their families who are at risk of being involved in violent incidents as perpetrators, victims, or witnesses. Six teams will provide a coordinated set of prevention, education, intervention, and support services. New and existing nurse home visitation services will link with early intervention programs, emergency family services, Head Start, Even Start, and others, to strengthen supports to high-risk families with young children, as well as high-risk mothers prior to the birth of a child. In addition to expanded school-based family service coordination, reading skills support will be increased, and intensive transition services for children between pre-school and grade school - and elementary and middle school - will be provided. A community-wide mediation program, classroom-based educational programs aimed at decreasing youth violence and substance abuse, a teen hotline, recreational after-school programs, and parent seminars to parallel what students are learning, are just a few drug and violence programming efforts that will take place. The Initiative will also formalize a stakeholder group to review policies and ensure cultural, language, age, gender, and disability sensitive "messages."
Simmons College School of Social Work's Dr. David S. Robinson will be the evaluator for this Initiative. He will use a program logic model designed to link rapid response and quality improvement on a monthly basis, as well as produce measurable outcomes for families, children, and youth in the community.
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[Anderson, South Carolina]