Contact: Dr. Angela M. Harwood, Professor of Secondary Education, Woodring College of Education; (360) 650-3328 or Angela.Harwood@wwu.edu

BELLINGHAM – The Alcoa Foundation has awarded a $15,000 grant to support a community partnership involving Western Washington University’s Woodring College of Education, Sterling Meadows Mercy Intercommunity Housing and Shuksan Middle and Squalicum High schools.

Through the Strengthening School-Family Connections Project funded by this Alcoa Foundation grant,  school teachers and administrators, university faculty and students, and staff of Sterling Meadows, a low-income housing complex serving migrant Latino workers and their families, are working to help students increase academic achievement and to engage families in school activities.

The two-year project will include conducting workshops for parents of students, creating after-school clubs for at-risk youth and recruiting and training 30 WWU students and 30 community volunteers to work with the schools and serve as mentors for families and students. Partners also will be sought among community businesses and organizations and best practices developed with staff at the schools.  Programming supported by this grant will focus on increasing student engagement with school and on outreach efforts designed to support families and connect them with school activities.

From 2000 to 2006, the Latino population in Whatcom County grew from 8,687 to 11,529; the number of Latino students at Shuksan and Squalicum schools has grown from 5 percent of the student body in 1998 to 24 percent currently.  In addition, fully 10 percent of the families at these schools speak languages other than English at home, and 53 percent qualify for free and reduced lunch.  These families and students, many of whom live at the Sterling Meadows housing complex, comprise some of the most economically and educationally vulnerable in our community.  The grant work will focus on helping these students and families increase their rate of success in school.

Alcoa Intalco Works in Ferndale, through the Alcoa Foundation, recently awarded $66,000 in Whatcom County to projects such as the Strengthening School-Family Connections.

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