On the Front Lines at an Urban School

 

How you can help

To answer David Braun's call to help keep WriterCoach Connection (WCC) at Media Academy in Oakland, click on the gold Give Now > button above.

Media was our first Oakland school site, and now that we've gained that fooothold, we're determined to stay. Your donation will help keep our writer coaches in Media's classrooms.  

For more about how WCC serves Oakland students and teachers, read the brief descriptions below.

What we do

For ten years in the Bay Area, we've been recruiting and training community volunteers as writer coaches in public schools, to help students develop crucial writing and critical thinking skills. More than 400 WCC volunteers do this in six schools, with more schools waiting and more volunteers lining up.

Why we do it

In Oakland in particular, the need for this kind of school support is splashed daily across newspaper headlines and video screens that scream poverty and violence. We work in the middle of it all, at Media Academy, a high school in the diverse and challenging Fruitvale District.  

Who we do it for

That's the Media principal, Ben Schmookler, up there on the left in the green shirt, with English teachers Sonja Totten-Harris (center), and Candace Valenzuela. It's their students we've been helping. They want us back this year. Why?

Our successful Media track record 

Principal Schmookler says, “WriterCoach Connection has become an indispensable part of our school wide writing program. It provides crucial one-on-one coaching in support of that initiative and has become so important to us that we have asked Community Alliance for Learning to expand the program to give all twelfth-graders individual support throughout the school year on their Senior Projects.”

Teacher Sonja Totten-Harris wrote to our writer coaches this past school year, "Thank you for your hard work and dedication to my (our!) students. Bringing the outside world to the classrooms allows students to consider their thoughts, voice, and writing as part of that outside world. This is so validating for the students and is the first step towards them becoming confident, competent writers who believe they have something to say. YOU HAVE DONE VERY VALUABLE WORK THIS YEAR!"

Challenge

In late spring this year, Mr. Schmookler gave me the bad news: no funding for WriterCoach Connection at Media from a cash-strapped district for the 2010-11 school year. Expanding WCC to other Oakland schools depends on keeping the program intact at Media. We are determined to return, no matter what it takes.

Solution

What it will take is money: for recruiting and training volunteers and coordinating and overseeing the program. We've raised a portion of the budget with foundation funds, and $10,000 more in individual donations will return us to Principal Schmookler's classrooms this year, which will fuel expansion to other Oakland schools. 

Clicking any of the gold Give Now > buttons on this page is simple and secure. Or you can mail a check, payable to:

Community Alliance for Learning
PO Box 6098
Albany, CA 94706

All donations are tax deductible.  You'll get a thank-you letter from me so affirming. The CAFL tax I.D. is 91-2144555. Full information about WCC is at writercoachconnection.org. 

Why you matter

These students deserve a break. Research shows it makes all the difference when students get one-on-one attention. You give it to them when you support WriterCoach Connection.

THANK YOU!

 

Robert Menzimer

Executive Director

Community Alliance for Learning