The purpose of the Building Bridges program is to increase the number of Washington State students who regularly attend school and ultimately graduate from high school on time, as well as re-engage students who may have already disengaged from school for numerous reasons.
Ready 2 Serve Ministries (R2S) has operated as an informal partner with Spokane Public Schools (SPS) for over a decade, providing space for community events and assistance with recruitment events targeting diverse populations. In addition, R2S has provided mentors to support some of SPS students.
This partnership with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and R2S as a Community Based Organization (CBO) has provided support to formalize the formation of R2S programming support to SPS. R2S has coordinated a lunchtime mentoring program targeting diverse at-risk students. R2S has recruited, trained and deployed mentors with diverse backgrounds to partner with at least two of SPS schools. R2S will also be hosting two resource fairs for families in the community before the end of the school year.
SPS has experienced a higher level of youth being disengaged from schools. SPS needs more individuals from various diverse backgrounds to assist staff, students, and families with exploring and understanding pre-pandemic and current-pandemic barriers that are preventing students from reengaging in their education. The mentors that R2S has recruited are cultural brokers that mentor but also assist families with reengaging in the education system. R2S Cultural Brokers work with SPS’ truancy and BECCA staff to identify the targeted populations of which this program serves.
Given R2S cultural makeup, the goal is to work with 40 students directly, with 20 being of multi-racial decent this academic year.