6881 Beechmont Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45230
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Beyond the Classroom
Project/Program Overview:
Grant Application
Beech Acres Parenting Center
(BAPC) requests support for continuation
and expansion of the Beyond the Classroom program in Dater Montessori ($25,000)
and five Catholic Inner-city Schools Education CISE) schools ($25,000), for a
total of six schools in the 2021-2022 school year.
Grant Evaluation Report
Support from the Dater Foundation has played a crucial role in the growth of the Beyond the Classroom program over the last four years: what started out in 5 schools in the 2018-19 school year has increased into 26 schools in 2021-2022 thanks to your generosity!
The Dater Foundation was instrumental in our ability to expand BtC services at two Catholic Inner-city Schools Education Fund (CISE) schools and expand the program into three new CISE schools. Your investment helped BAPC to provide life-changing services for a total of 1,095 students and families during this 2021-22 school year . In fact, 95% of families at the CISE schools experienced self-sufficiency! Beyond the success described throughout this report, BAPC staff also helped five caregivers get jobs; assisted one parent with applying for the Ohio Attorney General’s Victim Compensation Funding following the death of her child; supported parents/caregivers in completing applications for childcare vouchers including daycare and after-school care; assisted families in applying for Medicaid; and so much more.
One fun example is that during the 2021/2022 school year, a unique program from New Leaf Kitchen was engaged utilizing a grant from the Dater Foundation. Students at Corryville Catholic, St. Francis Seraph, and St. William were engaged in the program where they learned about the cooking education basics such as safe cutting skills, mixing skills, and more. These students also learned about nutrition and prepared meals such as black bean brownies and sweet-and-sour fruit salad. Beech Acres Beyond the Classroom coordinated these service offerings and the results were tremendous.
Beech Acres took an additional step this academic year to fully integrate all programs and services across the agency and to equip team leads with the knowledge and tools to connect parents to other services provided by BAPC. Examples include referring students to ongoing therapeutic intervention services (such as group interventions) and parents to parent coaching through the Parent Connext program. BAPC has already served more parents through coaching services in the past few months than in the entire 2020-2021 school year! BAPC also found that it was necessary at times to refer students to outpatient clinical services from other providers within the community.
The holistic approach has led to powerful success stories such as the following, provided by BAPC Parenting Specialist Robert Johnson:
“This school year I was working with a 5th-grade student who had major physical aggressive tantrums and outbursts at home, which lead to the parents feeling as though they were at a loss for what to do. While in therapy with my client, I connected the parents to Parent Coaching. The parents met with their parent coach while I did individual therapy with the student. After the parents completed their sessions with Parent Coaching, and with the therapy provided to the student, the mother reported less aggressive outbursts and tantrums in the home. She also reported that she felt more comfortable with de-escalating her child, that they were successful at communicating with one another and expressing their feelings, and that there was an overall symptom reduction. The mother reported how ‘she could not have done any of this without my help and that I have been a blessing to their family this school year.’”
By integrating and connecting all of its services, BAPC is ensuring that caregivers in our community have the services they need, no matter the program. For example, a family in the middle of an adoption process was able to take advantage of both the Beyond the Classroom program and the Kinship Connections services:
“Having the support of Beech Acres available has been invaluable this past school year. As my husband and I navigated the process to obtain custody, the therapists were right there giving advice and supporting us. Being able to keep our child’s therapy stable was a blessing. As issues arose at school and home, we were and can connect easily to try to work with those concerns and help him adjust and excel. He now is smiling more than ever.”