The School District of University City and Wyman Center are entering a new partnership funded by a $500,000, three-year grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health. The grant supports the launch of Wyman’s second Youth Impact Partnership in the region and will start providing support to our 2,800 students and community during the 2018-19 school year.
Wyman Center, a St. Louis-based youth development nonprofit dedicated to serving youth from disadvantaged circumstances, also operates the TOP program at Brittany Woods Middle School. This new program, however, is quite different. It offers an innovative, multi-front approach that empowers students in prekindergarten through twelfth grade from all walks of life, equips adults who work with those students every day, and strengthens District resources and ability to provide the needed support. That support will come in the form of financial, human and material resources that help support program goals and emerging initiatives.
Wyman staff will immediately begin to work directly with our Board members, District leaders and service providers to review detailed information shared by parents and community during our recent Community Engagement process. They will identify needs within the District and create a customized plan that – as an added plus – aligns perfectly with the three pillars of our Learning Reimagined program:
Personalize:
- Identify student and parent needs, root causes of challenges and school goals.
Humanize:
- Equip adults serving students and their families with research-based tools, support and training to help youth build their strengths, create a culture that is sensitive to trauma and remove barriers to success.
Problematize:
- Coordinate, align and fill gaps in services and programs to provide wraparound solutions.
- Leverage the strengths of existing research and evidence-based programs and practices that are already achieving results with youth.
- Integrate quality and accountability measures for partners to ensure all programs and services are delivered effectively and reach a critical mass of youth in the district before, during and after school.
- Build the District’s capacity to sustain improved results over time through leadership, accountability and infrastructure.
Across the nation, schools continue to struggle with gaps in educational achievement and social-emotional needs. The School District of University City is eager to remove all barriers to learning and teaching and to unlock the potential of all of our students. Together with Wyman, we are on the frontlines of changing the future of our district and our region.
For more information, click here to visit Wyman's website.
Click here to download Wyman's Jan. 2018 Press Release (3-page PDF)
