Sacramento ACT

RESULTS

ACT gets things done. While the work to improve the quality of life for Sacramento's families is never complete, ACT may boast of meaningful progress in each issue catagory listed on the side bar. The ACT community leaders that tirelessly fight for issue victories, big and small, can be proud of substantive accomplishments that bring positive change to the city.

To learn more about the ways in which ACT shapes government policy and improves communities, follow the sidebar links. These acomplishments are updated regualrly.

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good tidings to the afflicted;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison
to those who are bound"

(Isaiah 61:1)

STAND TOGETHER represents a series of strategies designed to increase the health and success of young people in our community, and to “open the doors of the prison for those who are bound”. The following is a progress report on our key areas:

ACT has set the goal of increasing high school graduation rates in Sacramento and currently is working on the following interrelated strategies:

Outreach to At-Risk Students: In the summer of 2006, ACT and the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project worked with teams of educators at Hiram Johnson and Luther Burbank High Schools to reach out to students at risk of not graduating . These committed educators carried out 340 home visits to the families of sophomores who had failed the high school exit exam for the first time. Through these visits, educators, students and parents came together to develop a mutual strategy to get the student back on track.

Students and parents are more aware of what it takes to graduate from high school.
Enrollment in the exit exam tutoring classes has increased.
Parental involvement in their child's education has increased.

For the summer of 2007, we are working to expand this effort to incoming 9th graders whose test scores and attendance suggest they are at risk of not graduating. ACT is working with the Parent/Teacher Home Visit Project, the California Teacher's Organization and its sister organizations throughout the state to spread this model throughout the state and recently won a $15 million allocation in the state budget to support parent/teacher home visits in California schools.

Improving School Attendance: Research shows that students who miss school frequently and who have fallen behind in their studies have a high likelihood of dropping out. ACT's Hmong parents have found that students who are frequently truant are more likely to be recruited by gangs.

For these reasons, in early 2006, ACT developed a collaborative effort with Vice Mayor's Rob Fong's Office, the Sac Unified School District, Police Chief Najera, the Department of Human Assistance, and various community-based organizations to create “school attendance centers” throughout the region. In this approach, police pick up truant students and bring them to the center, where school district staff and social workers work with the student and family to facilitate positive interventions, such as school counseling and mentoring.

Our first center opened in October of 2006 at Luther Burbank High. As of February of 2007, of the 250 students who have gone through the Burbank center, 91% are now attending school regularly. In the neighborhoods surrounding Luther Burbank, grand theft has decreased by 31% and vandalism is down 16%. In December 2007, two other Student Attendance Centers were opened to reach out to chronically truant students in the north and central areas of Sacramento.

Support for Small High Schools and Learning Communities: Students are more likely to be successful in school and life when they have supportive relationships with teachers and their peers. One deterrent to such relationships is the large size of our many of our high schools. Since 2005, ACT has been an active supporter of the high school reform effort in the Sac City District that seeks to create new small high schools and to redesign large high schools into small learning communities. In November of 2005, ACT organized a meeting of 450 youth leaders and parents to demonstrate to school board members support for this critical reform effort and continues to engage youth and parents to ensure that this reform survives and grows.

Middle School Outreach: By middle school, many youth have begun going down a path that eventually leads to dropping out of high school and/or gang affiliation. In partnership with Councilmember Kevin McCarty, Will C Wood Middle School and Big Brothers Big Sisters, ACT is working on a pilot project focused on those middle school students whose attendance and test scores suggest they could be headed down the wrong path. This strategy includes pairing at-risk youth with mentors, alerting parents of truancy concerns early, and home visits.

Solution #2: Youth Jobs
Rev. Greg Boyle, a nationally recognized leader in reducing gang violence, believes that "Nothing stops a bullet like a job." In the fall of 2006, a group of ACT congregations formed a new task force dedicated to increasing summer jobs and internships for youth. Working with the elected officials such as Mayor Fargo and Assemblyman Dave Jones, the Sacramento Employment Training Agency, the Employment Development Department and the City, faith leaders have set the goal of 150 new jobs for youth from the Oak Park, North Sacramento, and Meadowview communities for the summer of 2007. Congregations are preparing to host "job bootcamps" in April in which faith leaders will help provide youth with basic job skills.

Solution #3: Youth Leadership
ACT is helping raise up a new generation of community leaders through engaging young people in our organizing efforts in congregations and schools. In the fall of 2006, ACT hired ten youth organizers to carry out a listening campaign with youth ages 10 to 15 in the Meadowview community. With support from the Sierra Health Foundation, these youth leaders are currently developing new initiatives to support youth in Meadowview over the next three years. In May 2007, ACT will be co-hosting the Meadowview "Youth Leadership Conference" with the goal of raising up the next generation of civic leaders in South Sacramento.

Solution #4: Mentoring
Studies show that young people need healthy relationships with adults besides their parents in order to live successful and fruitful lives. Over the last six months, ACT spearheaded an effort to promote mentoring across the region by reestablishing the Greater Sacramento Mentoring Coalition. With support from City Councilman Kevin McCarty, we have gathered thirty mentoring agencies to strategize around mentor recruitment, mentor training, and resource sharing between agencies. The Sacramento City Council recently approved our proposal for a new city policy that will give release time to city employees who serve as mentors to local youth. This program is starting in 2008.

Solution #5: Strengthening Youth Ministry
Sacramento's faith community plays an essential role in supporting young people and their families. During the last two years, ACT and the Youth Service Provider Network have been convening youth ministers and youth workers from throughout the region to strengthen youth ministry and faith-based youth programs. The Sacramento News and Review, the Sierra Health Foundation and ACT have joined forces to create a new website (www.sacyouth.com) to help congregations promote their youth programs to the larger community.

In addition to the above strategies, ACT is also working to improve the overall health of children through our campaign in support of universal children’s health coverage:

Health coverage for all children has long been a top priority for ACT and its umbrella organization, PICO California. in 2000, ACT's sister organization in San Jose led the organizing campaign that created the first county level universal children's health plan. ACT has been an active supporter of the Sacramento county children's health plan, Cover the Kids by 2006, and has helped congregations sign up hundreds of children for affordable health insurance. ACT is currently working with Governor Schwarzenegger, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senator Darrell Steinberg to advance state policy on children's health.