News Stories

 

Truancy means kids not showing up for school.

Project Arrive means kids getting to school with a smile.

Truancy better set its alarm clock this year, because we have a group of mentors who are ready to make sure kids are getting to school!  These mentors are part of Project Arrive, a program devoted to decreasing truancy, particularly when students are transitioning from middle school to high school.  This is a key time, because while ninth graders only take up 10 percent of the total SFUSD population, they make up over 20 percent of all truancies.  The stakes are high: studies show that 75 percent of chronically truant students drop out, and in San Francisco, 94 percent of all homicide victims under the age of twenty-five are high school dropouts.  So Project Arrive is not just helping kids make it for that fifth period history test, it is making sure they have a future. 

Project Arrive uses group mentoring to help vulnerable students make a successful transition into high school, and to connect them with the resources and support they need to stay on track in school.   Similar to one-to-one mentoring, group mentoring is a structured, consistent, and purposeful relationship between a small group of young people, and one or more caring adults. 

Curtiss Sarikey, the founder of SFUSD’s mentoring program, explains the importance of group mentoring: 

“Teens like hanging out with their friends more than they like hanging out with adults. Most ninth graders arrive on day one not knowing a whole lot of people, so this will be a place for them to meet other students and adults they can connect with…we hope it will become one of the main reasons they want to show up.”

Project Arrive is working at Mission, John O’Connell and Thurgood Marshall high schools this year, where we have recruited incoming ninth graders who had ten or more unexcused absences during eighth grade.  Each school site trained a team of mentors, who will each be matched with a group of four to six students.   Project Arrive sessions are integrated into the academic schedules of participants, allowing for regular meetings with all the students.   A main goal of these meetings is to connect the often overwhelmed freshman with peers and adults to make them feel at home in school.  They also discuss their assets and strengths, and how they can leverage them to succeed in school.  Finally, they work together on a plan to graduate from high school!

The implementation of our high school truancy program is well supported by a federal grant we received from the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention.   We are proud that Mentoring for Success’ proven record of success has helped us to receive this competitive grant.  Stay tuned to hear more about how our mentors are changing the lives of countless mentees throughout SFUSD.