NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — School starts back for students in Metro Nashville Public Schools this week, but it's not always easy for families and students to get the resources they need to have a productive year.
One organization is stepping in to help, not only for back-to-school but for the entire new school year. Community Achieves say they know firsthand some of the hardships families may go through, so they want to ease the burden as much as possible.
"I'm thinking about myself when I was a child with all of the resources, people and help that I needed, especially coming from a single-parent home, I would not have been able to do it without that help," said MNPS Director of Student Success Makeda Watson.
Watson served as a Community Achieves Manager at Antioch Middle School for nearly 5 years. She's worked to help many families across MNPS. She says community achieves do home visits, regular phone calls or other personalized communication, social services, adult development and more to provide families with whatever help they need.
Over the summer they've worked with local groups to put on block parties, and back-to-school drives, and even went deeper by finding ways to provide clothing to those who need it. They've done these services not only over this past summer but over the years through family resource centers, teacher appreciation events, beautification of classrooms and more.
They say the main goal is to remove any barriers to learning.
"It means different things to each family, so we provide not only the resources but the wrap-around support, programming and exposing them to a variety of opportunities like academic enrichment and teaching them college and career skills," said Watson.
One of their more popular resources are family resource centers: places families can go to get those services. Eight of their community achieves schools are school-bases family resource centers:
- Antioch High School
- Cole Elementary
- Fall-Hamilton Elementary
- Glencliff High School
- Hattie Cotton Elementary
- Maplewood High School
- Pearl-Cohn High School
- Tusculum Elementary
They say any student or family can get these helpful services to make learning the best experience. They also have opportunities for you to be a partner or volunteer. You can help with after-school programs, be a lunch buddy, or help children get things like school supplies or food and clothing. You can find it hereon MNPS's website.
