The theme of our annual Walk the Road event this year is “Bridges to Educational Achievement.” On Sunday, September 25, 2016 from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m., participants from Atlanta and beyond will have the opportunity to contribute time, talent, and treasure to our local D. H. Stanton Elementary School.

The afternoon will include three activities: 1) volunteer service projects at D. H. Stanton; 2) STE(A)M projects (see below); and 3) a fellowship dinner.

Many bridges lead to educational achievement in Peoplestown, including the soon to be built Sheltering Arms Early Education and Family Center; Emmaus House programs for children and families, schools in the Jackson cluster, The Study Hall, and community offerings.

Emmaus House partners with D. H. Stanton to improve educational opportunities for children and youth. For instance, this fall the Emmaus House program, Homework Relief Boot Camp for Parents, will take place at the school.

In September, Emmaus House’s Saturday Arts program will evolve to become Saturday STE(A)M. In partnership with Community Guilds and the award-winning STE(A)M Truck, we will supplement our traditional arts programing with science, technology, engineering, and math projects. During Walk the Road, youth and community members will engage in interactive STE(A)M projects focused on building bridges.

Our longtime partner and friends at Church of the Annunciation, Marietta will provide the fellowship dinner.  This ministry provides a festive cookout for all the participants and neighbors that drop in.

We suggest a donation of $10.00 and five cans of food for our food pantry. Those who donate will receive a free Walk the Road t-shirt.

A few months ago, we introduced you to one of our latest innovations – the addition of mindfulness training to our A Great Start for Parents and Children program.  This addition came as a response to parents telling us that they needed help dealing with stress. We already knew that parents and children who live in low socioeconomic status neighborhoods like Peoplestown are particularly susceptible to financial and economic stressors and we felt compelled to take action. Read more about the background and details of this program and our partners here.

This past spring, our first cohort of parents participated in A Great Start, including the mindfulness component. Using detailed pre and post-testing, a graduate student from Georgia State University came to the following conclusion:

“As reported by participants, partaking in the integrated mindfulness-parenting education program lead to an increased level of mindfulness. Program participants also demonstrated a decrease in self-reported anxiety and depression” (Josephine Ojo, Evaluation of an Integrated Mindfulness Parenting Program for Parents in a Low SES Neighborhood).

Based on a pre and post survey, all of the parents and caregivers in the class reported an increase in knowledge of how to handle stress in their lives.

One of the keys to success for this program is the peer support developed between parents. As one parent reported: “I learned more than what I thought I would. It was good to know other people had the same things happening.”

We’re excited by these initial very positive results and plan to incorporate mindfulness training into some of our other offerings, such as our CDF Freedom Schools® summer program.

Our mission at Emmaus House is to use a two-generation approach to help families achieve economic self-sufficiency and children to increase academic success. By helping parents and children to respond to stress in positive ways, we are helping both generations to meet these goals.

Students of Atlanta Public Schools return next Wednesday, August 3rd and Emmaus House has set an ambitious goal: to provide backpacks and school supplies for 1,000 area students.

We need your donations by August 2nd to make this happen.

Please help us equip these students with tools they need for success, by dropping off your donation at Emmaus House M–F, between 9–3pm. A list of school supplies needed can be found here.

If you need to arrange a drop off after-hours or if you have any questions, please contact Rakia Reeves at (404) 524-0229 or at rakiareeves@emmaushouse.org.

Our program’s purpose is to close the achievement gap by improving literacy and learning for children who face poverty and lack access to the educational resources they need to succeed. The Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools® program at Emmaus House is a summer program serving students from kindergarten through 8th grade. It’s aim is to motivate young scholars to read, generate positive attitudes towards learning, and empower students to make a difference in themselves, their families, their communities and their world.

Last summer, we enriched the lives of 70 scholars. This summer we hope to make an even bigger difference by enrolling 100 scholars thanks to the support of our donors and Peoplestown Partners.

During an average summer, students may lose up to two month’s worth of learning. This is known as the “summer slide” and it accounts for more than half of the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income students.

And the statistics portray a sober reality:

• Children who can’t read by 3rd grade are 4x times more likely to drop out of school.
• In 2013, only 21% of 4th grade children from low-income families in Georgia could read at or above grade level.

Students who do not complete high school are significantly more likely than high-school graduates to become incarcerated, become teen parents, be subjected to violence as either an aggressor or a victim, be unemployed, and be recipients of Medicaid and welfare.

The good news is that studies have found that educational summer programs for children, like the CDF Freedom Schools® program at Emmaus House, can help reduce or eliminate the gaps. Plus, the effects of these summer programs last over time. We believe in solving problems instead of treating symptoms. The CDF Freedom Schools® program at Emmaus House is a perfect example of this.

Our 2015 Program Had Great Results!

Pre and post evaluations conducted with a sample of scholars, using procedures recommended by the Freedom Schools® program, indicated the following:

• 100% of scholars who were evaluated maintained or gained in their instructional reading level over the six-week program as measured by pre and post standardized testing.
• Of those, 79% of students tested improved their instructional level in reading.
• Students who maintained their reading level all showed gains in either accuracy, comprehension or fluency within that reading level.
• Children in grades 4-7 saw the greatest gains.

Support our scholars in their fight against the summer slide and the achievement gap by donating today. 

The Road Episcopal Service Corps is a paid urban fellowship year for young adults (21-32) who want to put their faith into action, make the connection between faith and social change, and work alongside others in community. Road Fellows serve 32 hours a week with agencies and people committed to social justice, advocacy, and compassionate care for vulnerable people. Fellows live together in an intentional spiritual community at Emmaus House. The Road Fellows also engage a curriculum of social justice education, spiritual and theological reflection, vocational discernment, and leadership development. The Road equips fellows with practical skills and hands-on experience for lives of active hope and leadership. 

The Road seeks Fellows who bring passion, energy, and imagination to the collaborative endeavor of building more just and liberating communities and are ready for challenging, creative, and impactful work. The Road welcomes fellows from all walks of life and many faith perspectives, believing the gift of differences enriches a year of inner and outer growth.

The fellowship year begins August 24, 2016 and ends in mid-July 2017. The Road provides a stipend to cover costs of food, transportation, and personal expenses; housing and utilities; and health insurance.

To Apply Contact: lbryant@theroadatl.org

Visit our Website: www.theroadatl.org

Call: 404-984-3294

Mindfulness, as a means of stress reduction, has been around for many years. Recently, mindfulness practices have entered the mainstream, providing opportunities for implementation in a variety of settings.

One of the goals of our A Great Start for Parents and Children is to provide tools to parents for managing stress in their daily lives. However, through surveys with recent participants we realized that we were not adequately addressing this key goal through our existing program.

In response, Emmaus House has formed a partnership with GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students and Georgia State University’s School of Public Health to develop and integrate mindfulness-related skills and concepts into our existing parenting education program.

Funding for this effort will come from a grant provided by Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.

Dr. Andy Roach at the Georgia State School of Public Health has experience using mindfulness-based interventions in many settings, including with first-year teachers to help manage stress as they learned to work with and support young learners. Based on previous research on the application of mindfulness in parenting interventions, Dr. Roach and Emmaus House are developing and implementing a modified-version of Mindfulness Without Borders’ Mindfulness Ambassador Council Interactive (MAC Interactive) program.

The MAC Interactive program offers participants a forum to meet face-to-face and learn about constructive ways for addressing personal, social and community challenges. Essentially, the program establishes a common language based on sharing, modeling and practicing principles that provide members with tools to strengthen their well-being, think critically and act with thoughtfulness and compassion.

At the heart of the MAC Interactive program are basic mindfulness practices that help individuals access the wisdom within themselves and within the group. Participants are encouraged to speak from the heart, ask questions to discover their fullest potential, and explore possibilities that lead to a culture of mutual respect, collaboration and ethical concern for each other and the world.

This program’s selection was due, in part, to MWB’s success in developing and implementing mindfulness curriculum in diverse contexts and cultures. Our intervention will be unique in that the MAC interactive program will be adapted for use with parents and to be more culturally appropriate for the community Emmaus House serves.

The Power of Partnership

GEEARS is working with the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University to drive innovation in the field of early childhood through strategies that build caregiver capacity to promote healthy development and protect children from toxic stress. The partnership between Emmaus House and Georgia State University on the effectiveness of offering mindfulness-related skills in the ways we currently engage families will launch GEEARs’ network of Harvard’s Frontiers of Innovation projects in Georgia. 

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”  -Jon Kabat-Zinn

Please plan to join us for our annual gala where we will celebrate the resilient human spirit that inspires children and families to build better lives for themselves and motivates all of us at Emmaus House to support them.

Something powerful is emerging in the lives of children and families in Peoplestown. It’s an intangible quality – but you know it when you see it.

It shows up in the determination of an 8th grader who, for the first time, identifies with the personal story of a civil rights leader. It shows up in the heroic efforts of a mother going the extra mile to support her child’s success. It bubbles up as long-time community residents organize to have their voices heard.

That something is resilience. When you see it, it’s both inspiring and humbling in the same breath.

Resilience is the ability to persevere in the face of adversity, challenge, insult, or injury. It can’t be manufactured through a program - it exists in the spirit of people.

While we can’t create resilience, we can nurture it. We cultivate it when we come alongside those who have the grit and determination to change the odds for themselves, their families, or their community.

This past year, you and I have had a front row seat to the power of that spirit in action.

We’ve seen the resilience of our local elementary school in the face of significant threats. After years of steep declines in grade-level reading and math, D.H. Stanton Elementary welcomed a new principal with a stellar record of leading high-performing schools. She chose to leave her highly successful school to help D.H. Stanton students change the odds for their futures.

This is resilience in action, and we’re here to help D. H. Stanton students succeed through our educational supports - like our Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools®, Homework Relief Bootcamp, and Saturday Arts programs.

This year, Peoplestown neighbors have joined forces with residents of other stadium neighborhoods to form the Turner Field Community Benefits Coalition. This coalition of concerned citizens seeks to write a new story for these historic neighborhoods - and Emmaus House stands with them. Given the history of displacement that accompanied the construction of the last two stadiums, this work is a testament to the resilience of a community.

Your investment in Emmaus House adds your voice to ours as we advocate alongside residents of Peoplestown through our work with the Coalition.

As an organization, Emmaus House has a new clarity of purpose and a renewed resolve to promote academic achievement and family economic success in Peoplestown. This year, with your support, we’ve launched a successful CDF Freedom Schools® program and focused our resources to implement a two-generation strategy to support families. These are the signs of a resilient team embracing change to move forward.

While communities and organizations can all exhibit resilience, there is nothing more powerful than the overcoming spirit of children and families. Candida and her son D.C. have been residents of Peoplestown for the past four years. In 2013, Candida had heart surgery, which left her on disability. They’ve been burglarized three times and quite literally lost everything that they owned.

Despite these odds, Candida and D.C. continue to exhibit tremendous resilience.

Thanks to your support, D.C. was a Freedom Schools® scholar at Emmaus House. He recounted some of his memories.

“I was in Miss Callie's class. One time we formed a human knot. We had to work together to get untangled. It was a lot of fun. We wrote about it afterwards - about working together. ”

Inspired by her son’s experiences, Candida signed up this fall for our brand new Homework Relief Bootcamp for Parents, offered in partnership with Literacy Action. When asked about her experience, she says:

“I think it's a great program. It's helped motivate me to listen to D.C. and read with him. I used to read with him when he was younger, but not as much in recent years. It's pulled us closer together. I've learned to be more patient when he brings homework to me.”

Candida and D.C. are resilient. They continue to persevere in the face of adversity and challenges.

D.C. learned the power of working together this past summer. In the same way, when you and I work together we can activate the resilient spirit of children and families in Peoplestown as they seek the best for themselves and their community.

Your donation will help to shape stories of resilience, strength, and triumph that will be told for months and years to come.

With warm holiday wishes,

Joseph Mole, LMSW

Executive Director