Serving Our Schools

Bless The Staff!

It’s a season of thankfulness and giving – a great time to bless the staff at your partnership school!

Several of our partnership churches find ways to regularly bless the teachers and staff. This blessing can be as simple as coffee, tea, donuts and fruit. Gestures like this can brighten a teacher’s busy morning in amazing ways.

Carol YoungBless The Staff!
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Play: What Is It?

I have been working on a blog about Play for some time now.  However, I hadn’t been able to narrow my focus well enough to share some of the things I have come to know about play in a concise and effective way. That being said, my intent is to simply share bits and pieces of the things that I have come to know about play. I’ll begin with an attempt to answer this question: “What is play exactly, anyway?”.

Brian SemsemPlay: What Is It?
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Community Supporting School

Every Neighborhood Partnership constantly works to build support for our local elementary schools.  When launched in 2008, our primary goal was to partner a church with every elementary school in Fresno and Clovis. We knew that churches had the capacity to truly make a difference with our kids, school staffs and families. This has proven true.

Yet, we soon realized that there were other stakeholders in our community that could add even more support to both our schools and neighborhoods.

Artie PadillaCommunity Supporting School
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Hope Does: Transforming Local Schools In Ways No One Else Can

This post first appeared on CareLeader.org, October 11, 2017, here.

We interviewed Mike Tenbusch, author of The Jonathan Effect: Helping Kids and Schools Win the Battle Against PovertyHe shares from his experiences how churches can partner with their local schools and become a positive, proactive influence for change.

andrewfeilHope Does: Transforming Local Schools In Ways No One Else Can
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5 Fun Saturday Sports Activities! (Oct 2017)

Hey Saturday Sports Leaders & Volunteers!

At our last 20/Twenty event, I committed to trying to send out five new game ideas each month. Some of these activities you may already be familiar with and some may be new ones!

My hope is that we are sharing new game and activities ideas with each other so that we can Build A Saturday Sports Learning Community! In this community, we continue to develop and grow each of our Saturday Sports ministries.

Brian Semsem5 Fun Saturday Sports Activities! (Oct 2017)
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The Answer to Literacy… You!

It was a bit disheartening to see a recent article in the Fresno Bee sharing the Nation’s Report card putting Fresno Unified “near rock bottom”. We can talk for days about the problems, the issues, the reasons, and it’s easy to point fingers and cast blame.  But you know what they say: “When you point a finger at others, four fingers are pointing back at you.” Actually, I believe they are pointing back at ALL of us, because we all have the opportunity to be part of the solution. So let’s talk about what you can do to help increase literacy, and the fulfillment that can be found in helping a child learn to read.

Carol YoungThe Answer to Literacy… You!
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Free Little Libraries – A Good Way to Neighbor

The Little Free Library network in Shafter (15 miles northwest of Bakersfield, CA) has blossomed to include 22 libraries scattered around town. These libraries are an intentional effort on the part of both public and private entities. These entities want to increase book access and literacy rates in their community. Read our previous blog about them here.

About a year ago, my family made the decision to place a Little Free Library in our front yard. As stewards, we fill our box with books and watch with joy as they leave in the hands of our neighbors.

We leave sidewalk chalk in our box and regularly find pictures and thank you notes from those who visit. These messages always brighten our day!

A few months after we installed our library one of our 3rd-grade neighbor boys ran to our house after realizing he was locked out of his. He had no way to get in and was very concerned.

andrewfeilFree Little Libraries – A Good Way to Neighbor
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Free Little Libraries – Spreading Literacy

ENP has made a significant investment in addressing literacy in our city. Literacy Mentoring has taken off at several schools, with both one on one and group literacy support. As we continue in this work we know we have to address literacy from several fronts so we are excited about this new literacy initiative.

Free Little Libraries.

One of the biggest challenges for low-income families with regard to literacy is the lack of access to books in the household.

Sixty-one percent of low-income families have no books at all in their homes for their children. That includes children and adult books! What we know is that the only measure that correlates significantly with reading scores is the number of books in the home. An analysis of a national dataset of nearly 100,000 United States school children found that access to printed materials—not poverty—is the “critical variable affecting reading acquisition.” This is not just a home issue, but a neighborhood issue. One study found that in middle-income neighborhoods the ratio is 13 books per child; in low-income neighborhoods, the ratio is one book for every 300 children. (1)

andrewfeilFree Little Libraries – Spreading Literacy
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Opportunity Ignites On The Soccer Field

Love, hard work, dedication and service sums up the story of Saturday Sports participant, Chris Rosas. With stated goals to become a pediatrician, help provide for his family and raise the Saturday Sports attendance, Rosas makes it a priority to invest positively into the lives of others.

Rosas graduated last May from Fresno Pacific University and returned to the Saturday Sports program after taking some time away to finish school. He commented on the young talent and hinted at his goal to raise the level of competition on the field at Susan B. Anthony, where he presides over the soccer games.

Leah BighamOpportunity Ignites On The Soccer Field
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