GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE ARK PROGRAMS AT LONESTAR
GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE ARK PROGRAMS AT LONESTAR College, University Park, Houston, Texas
The ARKFamily has really been fortunate to be located at LoneStar College, University Park and to have wonderful opportunities to interact with students and personnel at the College during the second quarter of 2013. We continue to receive many kind e-mails and words of encouragement and support over the last ten months and are having many wonderful students and parents attend our sessions at University Park.
Our Thanks to Lone Star College and all the staff at University Park for your care and help. You have helped us to strengthen our opportunities which have made these endorsements for our programs so heart- warming. Glenn, Peggy, Jan, Martha, Quintina, and I greatly appreciate you and keep you in our thoughts.
ARK for Parents to 26 Elementary schools in Spring ISD and 17 Intermediate schools in Spring and Aldine ISDs has continued for the third year of a 6 year Dropout Prevention project with 2013 9th Grade Teacher FALL trainings scheduled for August through October. The Intermediate Initiative is a six-year project beginning with ARK for Teachers in the 7th, 8th and 9th grades through 12 grade teachers over a six-year project. Sam Houston State University College of Education is continuing research on the project and is providing assistance and analysis for the Research Study for the project. In the Fall of 2013, we are adding Cy Fair Independent School District to our programs. Additionally, we have six Juvenile Justice Courts using ARK for Parents and ARK for Teens programs in the 2nd quarter of the year.
EDUCATIONAL HI-LITES – Lone Star University Park Campus:
2013 ARK programs for Teachers and Parents impacting the lives of kids.
ARK has offered 34 sessions both in the University Conference Center and our offices through 6 months of 2013. The classes have included courses for Divorcing Parents, ARK for Parents, and facilitator training for community center groups,
The ARK for College Students programs Facilitator training has been completed for the Lone Star Victor Center, Harris County, Tomball and University Park campuses with the new program curriculum developed for the freshmen and sophomore classes. A revised ARK for College Students Manual was published and the new lessons on video have been developed. We are continuing with our Head Start Parenting and Teacher programs at Avance (15 schools) with training sessions completed in January and a celebration luncheon in May. Additionally, Teacher programs are under way in Houston ISD, Aldine ISD, Spring ISD, and Klein ISD. Additionally, we have continue to roll out refinements to our new delivery methodologies using Moodle with Aldine and Spring ISD with a grant from the Rockwell Fund to implement a 6 year project at 17 Middle Schools for Teachers. This dropout prevention project is addressing graduation rate improvements and will also track college applications including those to Lone Star’s system. We have a lot of challenges to resolve with this project, but both of us love challenges and these kinds of project are what we love to do.
JUVENILE JUSTICE and TEXAS STATE JAIL PROGRAMS:
Our volunteers are offering ARK for Parents at nine State Jails. The young men and women who complete the Program will begin seeing their lives outside of the parenting practices they have received from generation to generation within their families of origin. We know they will return to their homes with new insights, which will open a world of hope, faith and contribution.
We now have ten Juvenile Justice Programs, and Judge Kent Adams’ court has sent us some 400 families for sessions of ARK for Parents and ARK for Teens through June.
We are on-track to impact over 1200 new families with children passing through the Juvenile Justice systems and some 500+ women and men in our State Jails during 2013.
The volunteers for these programs meet regularly at the Lone Star University Campus for planning and discussion.
If you are interested in volunteering to become intentional in the lives of KIDS. Call us at 281-537-1301 or check us out on our website at theargroup.org.
ARKprogram 
LoneStar – A great place to get started on the road to a truly great education.