Youth Guidance and Wells Academy Chart New Course for 2015

CHICAGO - Jan. 5, 2015 - PRLog -- Wells Community Academy is moving in new directions.  Located in the East Village neighborhood in West Town, the predominately Hispanic high school is changing its image by bringing new learning and enrichment opportunities to students and families in the community.

Youth Guidance, a 90-year-old school-based nonprofit agency, has been a strategic partner of Wells Community Academy for the past three years.  The agency’s Community and After-School Program (CAP) has introduced new art, sport and academic options that keep students learning and safe at the end of the traditional school day.

Daniel Brumbach has been the Youth Guidance Resource Coordinator at Wells since 2012 and says that CAP is positively impacting attendance, behavior, and grades.  Last year, he and other Youth Guidance staff converted an underutilized, basement room into a totally unique recreational space for student skateboarding and mural design classes.  “When you enter the room, there is music playing and students having a great time,” says Brumbach.  “The whole environment says creative freedom.”

Youth Guidance also introduced Freshman Connection at Wells – a six week, summer program designed to help 8th graders become acclimated to high school life prior to the start of their freshman year.  Students receive academic support from the same teachers they will have when they officially enter Wells in the fall.  They also attend field trips and make connections with other incoming freshmen.

CAP is sponsored in part by the 21st Century grant program which offers support to educational services that emphasize easily accessible after-school options and increased parental involvement in schools.  The grant helps support and scale programs like the Freshman Connection, and will allow Youth Guidance to also offer meals, tutoring, ACT test preparation, and assistance with the college application and financial aid process.

Brumbach says that the activities also help drive school attendance.  “These programs are an incentive so we don’t lose students who might become disengaged,” he says.  “We had one student with fourteen unexcused absences. He would miss regular classes, but show up for CAP because he loves art.  We emphasized that going to class was required to participate and his overall school attendance dramatically improved.”

Despite extremely low incidents of crime or gang activity and solid academic achievement, Brumbach says that Wells still struggles to be considered a school of choice.  The school has capacity for more than 1200 students, but an enrollment of less than 600.   Notably, the surrounding area has undergone a great deal of gentrification in recent years.  Demographics have shifted from a predominately Hispanic working-class to a more affluent middle-class that leans towards private or charter schools.

Brumbach and school administrators believe that improving school/community relations will help increase enrollment and change perceptions.  When Reach Gym opened in the neighborhood, Youth Guidance approached them about teaming up for opportunities for Wells students.  Reach responded by offering space free of charge so that students can learn the art of boxing.  Youth Guidance also began offering English as a Second Language (ESL) programs to parents in the community, even if their children did not attend Wells Academy.

Plans for 2015 include more CAP programming, specially-coordinated parent events, computer literacy offerings, increased collaboration with other groups such as After School Matters and GearUP, and of course, new artistic activities for students.

Brumbach believes that local businesses can also prove to be allies by offering support, internships and job opportunities.  “There’s so much possibility,” he said.  “I see good things ahead.  Youth Guidance is committed to Wells.  We’re also aiming to put the ‘community’ back in ‘Community Academy.”