Educational Support Program

The Educational Support Program (ESP) provides educational mentoring and tutoring to children and youth to help them maintain classroom attendance, earn passing grades, and behave appropriately at school. The program serves elementary aged children who are exhibiting behaviors associated with failure in school and troubles in their home environments. An educational coordinator works with teachers, counselors and parents to assess each child’s educational needs, factors contributing to the issues at hand and recommended services. After this assessment, a professional, educational mentor is assigned to provide a combination of weekly mentoring and tutoring services.

A basic philosophy of the program is that all children have the internal capacity to learn and succeed with the appropriate support and educational environment. This capacity to learn can be jeopardized and impacted by external factors such as a stressful home environment, a lack of learning support and encouragement, and exposure to repeated violence at home and in the community. ESP attempts to minimize these factors and provide meaningful relationships which encourage academic and social growth and learning.

As a result of participating in this program children and families routinely report a high level of satisfaction in the relationship between mentors and children. Children are often willing to participate because of their buy-in into this mentoring relationship which provides them with an individualized, safe environment for exploration, learning and growth. CCCS is successful in implementing a core belief that children learn best within the context of a positive and caring adult relationship focused on each child’s individual needs.