United Way of Greater New Haven and New Haven Public Schools announced the expansion of Boost! at the March 26th New Haven Board of Education meeting. Boost!, a partnership between United Way of Greater New Haven, the City of New Haven and the New Haven Public Schools, is a community and family-focused strategy within New Haven's nationally recognized School Change Initiative.
Submitted by Sarah Dunn on February 27, 2012 - 12:01pm
Recently, the New Haven Public Schools marked their 100th day of school for this academic year. This year, one of the Boost! schools, Clinton Avenue School, decided to celerate in style. Students from Kindergaten to 5th grade participated in fun arts and crafts projects in order to recognize the achievement of reaching their 100th day of school. I was able to take a peek inside the classrooms to see what the students had created.
A senior student tells me, “I am losing all the weight now that I gained by not participating in anything physical. The exercise I get in boxing - cardio, push-ups, sit-ups and foot work - has helped me to lose it. I feel great! Not to mention, it is a lot of fun!"
Submitted by Oscar Guerra on October 25, 2011 - 2:10pm
With the support of Boost!, Clinton Avenue School started their “Every Minute Counts” program where the goal is to lower the tardiness rate. I believe it is essentially important for every student to get to school on time. Each classroom will receive an award for every 12 tardy-free days. The rewards will be age appropriate. The students like the program because it helps them be motivated and to motivate their classmates to be on time every day.
Submitted by Oscar Guerra on August 31, 2011 - 11:14pm
When I immigrated to New York, the first thing I saw the huge sign entering the borough, “Welcome to the Bronx.” My eyes were filled with tears knowing that I was leaving my family and my home country of Peru.
Submitted by J.R. Logan on July 29, 2011 - 12:10am
In addition to my job as Director of New Media Strategies at United Way, I spend a lot of time volunteering as the Board Chair of the New Haven Land Trust. In this role I get to see another side of the community as I work with environmentalists, gardeners and community organizers. Recently I have found myself working on a project to connect gardens to schools.
You might be asking yourself why do school gardens matter? In my view they matter because school gardens can function as an outdoor classroom, creating opportunities for hands on learning and student engagement across all subject areas and grades. Studies have shown that school gardening programs boost students’ scores on science achievement tests.(1) Educators are seeing that activity, healthy eating and learning are linked. In addition to anecdotal evidence, a growing body of research-based literature supports the use of school gardens as a teaching tool. Research has found that participation in youth gardening programs can have the following impacts on students:(2)
“When parents are engaged in their children’s education, students have better school attendance, lower rates of suspension, and higher grades, test scores, and graduation rates,” said Jack Healy, president and CEO of United Way of Greater New Haven.
Published in the New Haven Register, Saturday, June 04, 2011 By Steve Higgins, Special to the Register
In this podcast Jennifer speaks about the Boost! partnership and how parents/community members can get involved. United Way of Greater New Haven, New Haven Public Schools and The City of New Haven created Boost! to ensure that every young person has the support and services he or she needs to succeed.
