Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a four-part series taking a closer look at the findings of the recent “One Step At a Time” report released by The Greater Clark Foundation and The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation. The series will run each weekend. 

It has been nearly three years since the release of The Harwood Institute report, Waving the Community’s Flag, an in-depth look at how community members view Winchester and Clark County.

At that time, residents talked about their love for Winchester and Clark County, hailing it as a great place to live, filled with a spirit of generosity, small-town atmosphere and rich history. But they also described looming challenges and a great division among its people.

Now, in 2019, The Harwood Institute is back. Last week, it released “One Step At A Time,” a progress report highlighting the many stories of action now taking root and the spreading of new productive ways of working together in the community.

The Sun is highlighting these stories to take a closer look at the Clark Countians behind the progress toward a better community for all. This week, in part three of the series, The Sun looks at how some community members are stepping up to ensure the youth have a chance at a greater future.

Upward 40391

Mike McCormick, the lead pastor at Calvary Christian Church, had race relations on his mind when he attended the Public Innovators lab.

In the wake of widely publicized police shootings nationwide, McCormick’s church and four other churches within the Clark County Association of Churches were praying about how to improve racial tensions in Winchester, according to the report.

McCormick said in the report he was concerned about two other divisions in the community: the fractures within and between congregations, persistent parochialism in churches and the average family breakdown in Clark County causing so much pain and social upheaval.

McCormick thought the best way to knock down barriers in all three of these areas was to focus on youth.

McCormick thought back to how had long been interested in a sports ministry but did not want to compete with the YMCA. He — and other churches — has the gym space for it.

But when the YMCA closed in late 2016, there was a gap in youth sports opportunities, and McCormick was ready to fill it.

During its formation, Upward 40391 received financial support from a variety of community sources, including corporations and The Greater Clark Foundation, which awarded Upward Sports a What’s Your Ambition?! grant.

In its first season, the 2017-2018 basketball season, began, Upward 40391 enrolled 861 students, subsidizing the $55 entry fee for nearly 400 of them.

They attracted twice the number of students who once played basketball at the YMCA, according to the report. The first year was so successful the Upward Sports national office asked McCormick if they could send a crew to Winchester to produce a video about their first-year success, according to the report.

“Upward actually told us (that) a few years ago they discouraged people from partnering, because it just got too complicated,” McCormick said in the report. “It was too complex. Now, having seen us and a few others, they’re actually shifting their recommendation to have churches work together and partner. They’re seeing a different level of impact that’s happening.”

Enrollment jumped from 861 to 940 for the 2018-2019 season. The church partnership expanded from five to eight churches.

However, one of the new partners, Christ Church of Winchester, needed a new floor. The cost climbed to nearly $40,000.

Several pastors went to their congregations and asked them to help pay for Christ Church’s gym floor renovation, and it worked as the new floor was ready in time for the second season.

McCormick previously told The Sun the collaboration among churches in different parts of the community helped to break down that race and class barrier by being in each other’s spaces.

Upward 40391 is now starting its third season. The league’s first practice is on Sunday, and the first games begin Saturday, Dec. 7.

School district addresses gaps

Clark County Public Schools Superintendent Paul Christy knows about the difficulty many cash-strapped families face in Clark County. Standing in line behind a mother at a local discount store one day, he heard her complain about the high cost of school supplies.

According to “One Step At A Time,” the experience led Christy, who attended the Public Innovators Lab in 2017, to ask the school board to add money to the budget for supplies, so parents, guardians and teachers don’t have to pay themselves.

The district then went on to provide breakfast and lunch for all students at every school to ensure hunger is not a barrier for any student.

Christy also discovered another concern when compiling data to present to churches involved in Upward 40391. The number grandparents and other relatives raising students has grown significantly in the past few years

Christy previously told The Sun that at the elementary school level, about 17 percent of students in the district are living with someone other than their biological parents. At the junior high school and intermediate level, that number is about 18 percent, and at the high school level, about 10 percent of students live at home with someone other than their biological parents.

Christy told The Sun there is also a higher percentage of students who live in a single-parent home. The numbers in both categories have increased in recent years and the trend is on track to continue growing.

This realization led to forming a new community support group, which officially kicked off in January. The Relatives as Parents Program (RAPP) now regularly meets at central office. Each meeting begins with an open, general discussion of concerns or questions before addressing a chosen topic of the month.

Attendees have previously discussed self-care, support resources, self-harm or suicidal behaviors with children, cyberbullying, internet safety, homework help, transportation, child care, legal issues and more.

Christy told The Sun if they can’t provide all of the answers, they can point parents to other resources.

Christy said in the report, it had been a challenge to connect the community with the schools.

In February, to try and bridge that connection, Campbell Junior High School invited district teachers and principals to a pilot showcase highlighting the school’s vision of “producing a whole child education.”

Following its success, Campbell Principal Dustin Howard planned another showcase for the community. Other schools in the district prepared showcases of their own, with guidance from Campbell. Middle school staffers from surrounding counties also came to see what Campbell was doing.

Howard said in the report, the showcases were about establishing different norms for how educators relate to the community. Now, the showcases are becoming a regular event; the first one for this school year was in October.

Turning outward at ‘the Table’

In learning to turn outward during the Public Innovators Lab, the district also partnered with the Clark County Community Foundation to host conversations as part of the “On the Table” program.

Campbell also took note of what was said in the conversations. One step Campbell took following the conversations took, according to “One Step At A Time,” was to place wooden mailboxes around the school for students to leave comments and questions.

A school administrator now meets with students monthly to address their concerns.

Throughout the On the Table conversations and the conversations in the months that followed, students spoke at length about their concerns with “safety.”

According to the report, school administrators considered adding hard security measures in schools, like metal detectors and additional police officers, but additional conversations unearthed a different understanding of what students meant by the call for “safety.”

Much of it, in truth, concerned bullying, according to the report.

As a direct response, the district increased the number of school resource officers in schools. As of this year, every school has at least one SRO, which Christy has previously said is not only there as a safety measure but to also engage with students in the hopes of building meaningful relationships.

CCPS also doubled its mental health staff and signed up for a statewide anti-bullying program called S.T.O.P.  S.T.O.P is an anonymous tip line which goes directly to the Kentucky Center for School Safety, which communicates incidents back to schools and follows up to make sure they are discussed and resolved, according to the report.

The Amazing Shake

Before the 2018-19 school year began, Christy, Campbell Principal Dustin Howard, Mike McCormick and Linda Barrett with The Greater Clark Foundation met with Harwood Institute coaches to see if there was a way to pilot more year-round community support for Campbell students.

At the meeting, Howard talked about the Amazing Shake, a national student-development program operating in Mason County.

The Amazing Shake teaches students soft skills, including how to do a proper handshake, exposes them to community-service projects and puts them on the spot in simulated high-pressure situations during a final Gauntlet round, according to the report.

Howard and his team decided they wanted it for Campbell.

In the first year, the program exceeded all expectations, according to the report. Under the direction of social studies teacher Leah Adams and language arts teacher Amber Murphy, their seventh-grade students learned about professionalism, manners, problem-solving and public speaking. These skills were skills business leaders had identified as lacking in Clark County youth, according to the report.

Three Campbell students even advanced to the 2019 national Amazing Shake competition in Atlanta. The school board funded their travel.

Campbell then held an internal competition, hosting an in-house Gauntlet featuring members of the community. Other rounds included a speech competition and an interview with Ale-8-One.

This year, the program expanded to include students in all advanced classes. Eventually, the goal is to expand the program to the entire school.

This year’s Gauntlet competition is Monday, and more rounds will continue to narrow the pool to see who will attend the next national competition in 2020.

The Be Project

Clark County Preschool Principal Kara Davies rallied other community members to join her on a project to improve the lives of students.

In 2017, Davies, who is also a mindfulness coach, approached three friends and fellow mindfulness coaches with her idea. One of them was a public innovator and yoga studio owner, Erin Smith.

The four women set out to design a curriculum for all ages to pilot at the high school and elementary school levels. They took their proposal to The Greater Clark Foundation and received a $10,000 What’s Your Ambition?! grant.

Around 100 teachers went through the first training, including a group of “model teachers” who serve as resources for others.

Many teachers discovered the practices were helping them with classroom management and their students with emotional meltdowns, according to the report.

Davies surveyed teachers three months after the program and learned more about the Be Project’s impact: 49 percent of those who responded reported they found the program either “very” or “extremely” beneficial in their classrooms, while another 38 percent found the practice “somewhat beneficial.”

By a wide margin, teachers reported they wanted more instruction, and the program sparked an increase in their mindfulness practice.

With these successes in mind, The Greater Clark Foundation awarded the Be Project a second $10,000 grant to spread the training district-wide.

The Be Project gained substantial institutional support when the Board of Education took notice and contributed an additional $23,000. The team then spread the training to another seven schools.

Almost one-third of the district’s 1,000 staff members are now skilled in mindfulness instruction.

Other Kentucky school districts are reaching out to the Be Project program, and the team is presenting their work and results at conferences in the state.

For more information on The Be Project and to learn more about its impact, pick up a copy of the latest Winchester Living magazine.