Shauna Bradley gathered her class in a circle to share their favorite memories from the RISE Summer Program.
Bradley teaches in RISE, the Real, Interactive, Summer-Learning Experience, a six-week summer program focused on retaining education and healthy lifestyles in economically disadvantaged children.
“We all got together and shared our favorite RISE memories,” said Bradley from the blacktop driveway at Fair Street International Academy, which hosts the summer program along with the Gainesville Housing Authority Melrose Place Community Center. “And then we used chalk to draw or write those memories and show them to each other.”
The RISE program from its inception involved community partners in Gainesville and Hall County, including the housing authority, Brenau University, Gainesville City Schools and United Way of Hall County. More than 120 students benefited from this year’s program, scheduled to run from June 5 to July 14.
Brenau research that tracked previous student progress shows that RISE – with its innovative and interactive programming as well as its emphasis on health, nutrition and cultural awareness – has been effective in reducing summer learning loss among children. Pre- and post-testing for participants demonstrate significant improvement – often in the 90th percentile – in math and reading.
With the goal of exposing the children to educational and active field trips, they travel each Friday to a different destination, according to Maria Calkins from the housing authority.
“Destinations include Elachee Nature Center, Chattahoochee River Keeper’s Chota Princess – a floating classroom/Lake Lanier boat – Skate Country, Gainesville Bowling Center and Truelove Dairy Farm,” Calkins said. “After each field trip, the students continue to Frances Meadows Aquatic Center for swimming activities. By having this program in their own community, participants learn to use resources immediately available to develop their minds and bodies.”
In addition to benefiting the target group of elementary school children, it has also has some pleasant unintended consequences. Local high school students enlisted as camp counselors and teachers in the program, who might otherwise fall into the category of being at risk of becoming dropout statistics, become more engaged in finishing their own school careers, and several have gone on to college.
The RISE dream began as a question tossed out to a focus group of Brenau University students by William Lightfoot, then dean of the School of Business & Mass Communications at Brenau. Lightfoot asked what could be done to help local, lower-income kids with education and hunger. His students at the time – a mix of occupational therapy, business and education students – developed the idea for a turnkey, community-run program involving several social nonprofit government and nongovernment service organizations and educational institutions to combat summer learning loss in elementary school students.
The students presented their idea in a national competition for social entrepreneurship at an Appalachian Ideas Network conference in Kentucky and won the competition. With the help of the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation, which supports the Appalachian Ideas Network, they came back to Gainesville and got to work implementing it.
Although RISE still involves Brenau participation through the College of Education, its administration now has been handed off to an executive committee – comprising representatives from the university and the Gainesville Housing Authority – working in concert with a community-wide advisory board.
It has operated primarily on small grants, mostly from local sources, like the most recent $500 grant from the Rotary Club of Braselton. The purpose of the gift was to positively impact children in the Gainesville community.
“We believe this is a summer learning model that can be used in any community or school system,” said Brenau President Ed Schrader. “We are grateful for Rotary’s contribution to the continuation of this great program.”
At 10 a.m. Friday, July 14, RISE students will participate in a commencement ceremony marking the end of the 2017 program. The commencement will be held in the Fair Street gym.
