Impact Your Neighborhood

 

This past year I had the amazing opportunity to work with Jumpstart. It’s a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping children build lifetime literacy, social and emotional skills.  

In order to accomplish this, college students are paired up with preschool children coming from low-income communities.

While working this part time job with Jumpstart, I ended up committing around 400 hours of service to Americorps, which is a larger network that Jumpstart is a part of.  Not only did I have the chance to affect a child’s life positively, but I was able to serve our community. In return for my services, I received a $1,000 scholarship.  

I was able to experience the “one person can make a difference” adage.

My Jumpstart child was very quiet, shy and didn’t want to participate in class. She was rather aggressive to her peers when it came to sharing her toys. Within four months, she was singing her ABC’s, socializing and helping her peers learn poems . She also gained the ability to problem solve. Spending a couple of hours with her each week really made a difference. Here are pictures from some events Jumpstart Corps members were involved in.

  

Oakman Elementary School in Dearborn. We went there early one morning to help fix the gardening landscape at the side of the school. This is an after picture. There wasn't much to see before.

 

 

Read for the Record. We went to University of Michigan's Early Childhood Education Center on Rotunda Drive to read Corduroy to young children who went to school there. My coworkers and I had to dance on stage singing a song involving oranges and bananas in hopes of entertaining the children. Nope, we don't have pictures of that!

  

These pictures were taken during the Blue Ribbon Child's Hope Walk at Heritage Park in Taylor, Michigan. The Dearborn police force came to show us a demonstration of how their K-9's respond to certain emergency situations.

Unfortunately Jumpstart could not continue its program this year. However, another program called IMPACT will begin in the fall.  IMPACT will pair college students with preschool children to help mentor them and gain the skills they need to be successful in school and in life. Hopefully this year I'll have pictures of IMPACT and the many events they will be a part of.

*Smile and Stay Positive*

          xoxo Shae xoxo