10 thoughts on “Open thread”

  1. Just wanted to let everyone know that as a result of the Sustainable Development conference May 1, Counseling & Family Services is pursuing the idea of graduation coaches in area high schools. It’s being done in Georgia, and we have been in contact with one of the coaches there.

    Their job is to identify at-risk students, make a graduation plan with them, and help them stay on the plan and graduate. If we can increase graduation rates throughout the Tri-County area, a lot of other things–including crime–will be impacted positively.

    The coach we are working with saw a 2.5% increase in the graduation rate at his school in the first year of the graduation coach plan and to encourage the community to participate in helping program. That kind of increase every year would be significant. Georgia pays for their coaches through the state, and the program will be expanded to middle schools in the fall.

    Look for an announcement soon about a community forum to announce the students stay in school and graduate.

  2. Greg: Enjoying the MAST book received from the Sustainable Development Conference.

  3. Thanks, Karrie. The author is on our board, so we have a real advocate not only for sustainable communities but also planning and and inter-relationships.

  4. Yes, the MAST book is outstanding. Great reconciliation of seemingly conflicting, independent points of view. Sort of a “How to make sense of the world (and beyond)” piece.

  5. Thanks Karrie and SA for your comments on MAST. I’m really glad you’re enjoying it.

  6. Happy to hear about the Sust Dev results, and the potential of graduating coaches. I know it has worked well in other places, and I believe that these at risk students stand the most to gain from this sort of counseling. The students that are “rescued” from the cycle they are stuck in, are also the ones that support and give back to the future generations of the program. At JV, we are also trying to put together programs to support the identified demographic. FAmily Counseling, as well as other organizations, deserve much praise and applause for their efforts Great job Greg and Kevin. I know we are meeting soon and I look forward to it.

  8. Huge fire this morning on the West Bluff (1100 Underhill) as reported in PJS. I’d be curious to see what the response times were given the recent debate I had regarding the quality of our fire department and its current capacity. I know Station #3 is right around the corner from this address, but since it seemed fully involved, other companies likely had to come, too. How did they do? Though we civilians wouldn’t know accurately (never stopped us before …), how would a fully staffed #11 changed things?

  9. Thanks, Alexis. I’m looking forward to getting together again, too. You’re a real change agent for Peoria. Peoria needs young entrepreneurs like you to help drive positive change. Sometimes we get the sense that things will just go on being the same way they’ve been in the past and that there’s nothing we can do about it. I don’t believe that about Peoria. We can fix some of the problems if we have the will to do it.

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