Events
Guiding principles & strategies
Geographic area
Structure
HISPANIC
EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
CONECCIONES
is designed to enhance Latino students’ academic success and enable them to
achieve their full potential as students, role models, mentors, and community
leaders.
Hispanic
children are the fastest growing population group in the United States. This
phenomenon has significant implications for the future workforce for our state
and community. The goal of CONECCIONES is to increase the number of Hispanic
students who successfully graduate from high school, enter and graduate from
college, and become productive members of the workforce. CONECCIONES represents
a critical piece of an expanding community effort to advance successful
educational outcomes for Hispanic students in the Tulsa area.
CONECCIONES
is intended to create a strong alliance of partners--students, parents, schools,
higher education, community leaders, businesses, and community organizations--to
provide a structure of supports and opportunities assuring student success at
all educational levels, from pre-school to higher education, and on to
successful workforce engagement.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES AND
STRATEGIES
Academic oriented:
Establish and support programs and opportunities for students to
academically achieve their goals.
Family focused:
Provide assistance to families, connecting them to needed community
resources, and addressing barriers that could potentially impede the
student’s academic success.
Community linked:
Build a strong alliance within the community to expand and enhance
educational programs and transition services leading to academic
achievement.
Student based:
Provide a variety of services, opportunities, and programs to increase
school retention and academic success.
KEY STRATEGIES
Focus on Critical Components
and Transition Points
Birth and early childhood
development to elementary school
Elementary school to
middle school
Middle school to high
school
High school to
college/other post secondary education
Higher education to
employment
Enhance Community and Family
Outreach
Media outreach in Spanish
and English with emphasis on the Hispanic community
Peer family support
personnel (“Promotoras” or community-based workers) located in the schools
and working in the targeted neighborhoods for systemic change and
sustainability of impact
Programs for parents
(life skills, leadership, involvement in their child’s school)
Promote Leadership Development
Career development
programs such as Gear Up, Oklahoma Scholars, Inroads, Upward Bound, and
Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Programs (OHLAP)
Mentoring and tutoring
programs
Workshops on financial
aid and college information
Leadership opportunities
and training for Latino students and their parents
Professional development
and cultural competency in educational institutions
TARGETED
GEOGRAPHIC AREA
The
specific feeder pattern area served by Tulsa Public Schools’ Will Rogers High
School was chosen as the targeted area for CONECCIONES due to the high
concentration of Hispanic student enrollees (see chart below).
Pre-K through 12th
Grade – Conecciones Area Hispanic Enrollment
OVERALL STRUCTURE
Work on
developing Conecciones began in 2005. Staffing support is being provided by the
Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa.
The
planning and implementation of CONECCIONES is overseen by a Steering Committee
representative of corporate, government, education, child care, social service,
and health sectors. Dr. Dean VanTrease, a long time community leader in
higher education, serves as the Chair for the Steering Committee.
Workgroups
are being established to develop and guide implementation strategies and
progress for each of the critical transition points: Early
Childhood/Elementary, Elementary/Middle School, Middle School/High School, High
School/Post Secondary and Higher Education, and Post Secondary/Employment.
LINK TO TULSA AREA COMMUNITY SCHOOLS INITIATIVE (TACSI)
CONECCIONES
will be implemented in close coordination with the
Tulsa Area Community Schools Initiative (TACSI)
being organized through the Metropolitan Human Services Commission (MHSC).
TACSI provides a structure to foster effective collaboration between schools and
community resources (e.g., school health clinics, out-of-school time programs)
helpful to removing conditions that are barriers to learning. It is currently
focused on 11 elementary schools in Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) and 6 elementary
schools in Union Public Schools (UPS). The overall approach and strategies of
TACSI and CONECCIONES are similar. Four of the community school sites in TPS
are participating in CONECCIONES.
EVENTS
Conecciones Community Partners Recognition Lunch! May 15, 2008
The Conecciones Steering Committee will recognize the many community partners
who have supported the Conecciones initiative from its planning stages to its
first year of implementation. A special recognition will be given to CITGO
Petroleum and the Williams Companies for their support of Conecciones and their
commitment to Tulsa’s Hispanic youth. The lunch will be held on Thursday, May
15th at 12 p.m. at the Circle Cinema. For more information please
contact Talia Shaull,
tshaull@csctulsa.org.
CSC, Mayor, CITGO announce
Conecciones Program launch - March 19, 2007
Mayor Kathy Taylor and CITGO President and
CEO Felix Rodriquez announced a joint initiative, the Conecciones
Hispanic Education and Workforce Program, at a press conference on March
19 at the Will Rogers High School library. The Conecciones
Program, funded by a $500,000 CITGO grant paid out over five years, will be administered through the
Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa in the Will Rogers High
School feeder pattern area.
CSC Executive Director Phil Dessauer made these comments:
On behalf of the Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa
and all the organizations and individuals participating in the planning
process for Conecciones over the past 18 months, I want to express
appreciation to Mayor Taylor for her leadership in obtaining CITGO’s
commitment to support Conecciones, making it possible to leverage other
resources as we launch this promising initiative. We are grateful to CITGO
for investing in a vision we all share: a growing population of young
Hispanic Tulsans who are educated, engaged, and prepared to contribute to a
strong economy and a high overall quality of life.
Thanks, too, to Dr. Dean VanTrease for his steadfast
volunteer leadership and perseverance as chair of the planning process, and
to Maria Palacios, former long-time Council staff member who provided the
professional work to launch this effort.
The rapid growth of our Hispanic population is a demographic
change of historic significance. Several years ago the Community Service
Council conducted a study which identified several important issues and
opportunities. One key goal was for Tulsa’s dramatically-increasing number
of Hispanic students to achieve success in education—critically important
for their own future as well as the future of our entire community. Council
staff explored how other communities around the country are addressing this
goal effectively. We discovered ENLACE, which means “Link” in Spanish.
ENLACE is an initiative of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. It
seeks to increase the number of Latino and Hispanic graduates from high
school and college. ENLACE includes a network of several state and
community partnerships focused on Hispanic students’ success.
The ENLACE approach is to assure effective transitions for
Hispanic students throughout the school years from Kindergarten through 12th
Grade, and then to link them to higher education. Tulsa’s new Conecciones
model extends the scope of this support to include both the beginning and
the end of a student’s public school years…starting before school begins,
and continuing on all the way to employment.
Much of Conecciones’ work will address practical concerns
that have been identified as barriers to education success. Although most
of these affect many students regardless of race or ethnicity, Conecciones
will work primarily on enhancing opportunities for Hispanic youth.
Conecciones strategies will focus on parents, students, and
schools. We will help more Hispanic children participate in quality early
childhood experiences that can lay the foundation for arriving at school
well-prepared to learn. We will provide greater access to tutors and
mentors. We will help raise Hispanic parents’ expectations that their
children will succeed academically. We will help parents become more
involved in improving their students’ performance in school, and be active,
informed education “consumers.” We will also improve teachers’ preparation
and knowledge for working most effectively with Hispanic students and
families.
Over time we envision that we will learn valuable lessons,
strengthen Conecciones’ approach and results, and expand its impact to
additional areas in Tulsa. Working closely with Conecciones, and sharing
its philosophy, strategies, and lessons learned, will be another exciting
initiative now emerging through the Metropolitan Human Services
Commission—the Tulsa Area Community Schools
Initiative. This is indeed a time of progress and promise for student
success in Tulsa.
Again, our thanks to Mayor Taylor and to CITGO. With their
support, Conecciones is underway!
For more information, please contact
Talia Shaull, Community Service
Council's Program Director for Conecciones - 585-5551.
