AmeriCorps: Education

The Community School offers relational learning programs that transform the nature of a high school education by providing students with the skills and experience necessary to discover their strengths, connect with their families, practice personal responsibility, and contribute to their communities. Each year, sixteen students come together to live at campuses in Camden and New Gloucester, ME. Over the year, the schools become “home” to the students, who live, learn, and work together; share new adventures and form long-lasting relationships.

The Community School is a Host Site of Goodwill AmeriCorps’ Great Strides Rural Education Corps, which places Members in rural schools in ME, NH, and VT in order to increase student educational attainment through: 1) Mentoring programs and increased mentor relationships, 2) Academic Support, 3) Service Learning opportunities, and 4) Outreach to the community.

Youth attending The Community School have been transformed by their experience. One participant in the Community School’s Residential Program, Karen Johnson, had the opportunity to serve as an intern at the school after graduation, and then was accepted as an AmeriCorps Member and is currently serving a 1700 hour term at The Community School. Karen has come full circle in her experience, now having the opportunity to truly give back to other students as they earn their High School Diploma. She serves as a mentor to residential students, has led Experiential Learning Expeditions to NY City, and provided critical support to residential students and staff.

Having chosen a former student to serve as an AmeriCorps Member, The Community School sees the many potential impacts upon both the participants who hear Karen’s story and Karen herself as she continues to learn from her experiences with the students. Recently, Karen and her supervisor organized an earth day event, bringing together AmeriCorps Members, Alums, and community members, local agencies, and businesses. This large event served as both a learning experience for Karen in regards to managing collaborations, while also serving as an excellent service project for the students that she serves.

The Community School continues to make innovative choices for their students. In partnership with Goodwill AmeriCorps, The Community School is looking to expand their partnership with AmeriCorps into a new Veterans initiative: Goodwill AmeriCorps’ Stateside Service Corps, a proposed 2012-2015 AmeriCorps program placing Members in nonprofit agencies in ME, NH, and VT in order to improve the transition from military to civilian life, providing service in focus areas such as employment, transportation, education, health care, housing, and navigation of benefits. The Member position at The Community School will match Veterans serving as Mentors with students attending the school and will outreach to Veterans to provide leadership training opportunities to the students throughout the school year. Both a unique opportunity to the student as a learner and to the Veteran as they transition into civilian lifestyle and looking to give back, this collaboration will transform lives through the process.

Attached are pictures of Karen at The Community School and a video of another Community School graduate.