Keith Marion, center, and Selena Bennett, right, display a symbolic check representing a $40,000 grant from the SECU Foundation to Communities Supporting Schools (CSS) of Wayne County. Marion is regional senior vice president of SECU; Bennett is executive director of CSS. Others pictured are: CSS board members; representatives from various Wayne County SECU branches; and, back row, far right, Julie Beck, president of the Mount Olive Area Chamber of Commerce. (Communities Supporting Schools of Wayne County|Courtesy photo)
When describing Communities Supporting Schools (CSS) of Wayne County, executive director Selena Bennett admits that the organization is “complicated.” But, its mission, she insists, is simple: “The goal is to keep kids in school.”
CSS is a nonprofit that is separate from, but partners with, the Wayne County school system.
To accomplish its goal of keeping kids in school, CSS has two very different programs under its umbrella, and that’s where things can get a little complicated. To help unravel it, Bennett talks about the programs in terms of “the school side” and “the restorative justice side.”
On “the school side,” CSS has 11 “success coaches” in 10 Wayne County schools: Carver Elementary, Brogdon Primary, and Carver Heights Elementary (which has two success coaches); Mount Olive, Brogdon, Grantham, and Dillard middle schools; and Southern Wayne, Spring Creek, and Goldsboro high schools.
“The reason that we are in these schools is because those are the schools that Wayne County Public Schools asked us to serve in,” explains Bennett.
Success coaches in the elementary schools oversee reading programs in which volunteers work one-on-one with students. Bennett says there is currently a great need for volunteers at Carver Elementary.
Additionally, success coaches can act as liaisons between schools and civic organizations that may want to do special projects for the schools. “Things can be assigned to our organization that a classroom teacher or others in the building absolutely do not have time to do,” notes Bennett.
In the middle and high schools, the focus is on academics, attendance, and opportunities for post-secondary education — helping students figure out if they’re interested in college or the military, and helping them decide what kind of career they want to pursue.
“All of our programs do not look the same in every school,” says Bennett, “because when we go into a school, what we do is find out from that administrator and that school leadership team: What are the needs? What do you need us to do in this school?
“We work with children that need an additional level of support,” she continues. “Most of our kids do not fit into an exceptional children’s program and they would just kind of fall through the cracks, because they don’t qualify for other special programs. So we serve as an additional layer of support in the schools.”
The “restorative justice side” of CSS, according to Bennett, is a diversion program that “has been designed to provide some opportunities for youth that may already be on the fringes of becoming justice-involved… it offers kids an opportunity to turn things around before they get so deeply involved that they can’t get out of trouble with juvenile justice.” Plans are currently in the works to add another component to this program, a cultural arts program for at-risk youth.
CSS does not have staff from its restorative justice arm stationed in individual schools, and school resource officers from any county school can make referrals for this program.
“The program has been successful enough that we have had lots of visitors from area agencies and from other counties to come by and look at what we are doing,” says Bennett.
As far as funding for CSS is concerned, the organization has a Have a Heart for Kids fundraiser every spring. Apart from that, the group relies on grants from the City of Goldsboro, Wayne County Public Schools, and the County of Wayne. All funding for the restorative justice program comes from the Wayne County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. Individual donations are important, as well.
In April, CSS funding received a shot in the arm in the form of a $40,000 capacity building grant from the SECU Foundation, a charitable organization funded by contributions of State Employee Credit Union members. CSS was one of 20 North Carolina nonprofits to receive a grant in this amount.
As part of the grant award, CSS was assigned a consultant, Michael Lowder, from the Triangle firm moss+ross, to help with re-assessing the group’s fundraising plan and marketing strategy. “What that means,” says Bennett, “is taking an in-depth look at what you are currently doing, how can you do it better, and what strategies have you not tried that might be applicable to your organization.” Social media is an example of one area that is under scrutiny; CSS currently uses Facebook, but is now planning to start incorporating Instagram, as well.
The next step for the organization, she notes, is to produce a video showcasing the programs offered by CSS and the impact being made by both “the school side” and “the restorative justice side.” The video will be showcased at an annual meeting the group hosts each year, plus it will be on the CSS YouTube channel.
“We are the only organization doing exactly what we are doing in Wayne County Public Schools,” Bennett says. “There are other organizations that the school system contracts with — like mental health services and other kinds of things — but as far as having a program like ours, we are pretty unique in what we do.”
For more information about CSS, go online to waynecss.org (where you can also subscribe to the group’s newsletter) or to Communities Supporting Schools on Facebook; email Bennett at sbennett@waynecss.org or call 919-735-1431. Offices are located at 308 N. William St. in Goldsboro.
