Letter from our director

For the Southside Educational Center for Youth, 2007 was a year of challenges, accomplishments and growth.  SECY’s Board of Directors revised our existing strategic plan; underwent an extensive board development retreat and set new goals for the program which include increasing our community involvement impact by 50% over the next 5 to 7 years.

We made great gains and accomplished many of the goals we set for 2007.  The greatest progress was shown in the area of academic achievement and personal development.  We have evaluated and enhanced our Literacy Education Program to include individualized tutoring plans designed for children with IEP’s from their schools.  Past assessments showed six month to one year gains in reading and math for our at-risk children performing two or more years below grade level.  We combined our commitment to work with the parents of these children by providing effective parenting and trainings on how to effectively tutor these children.

We also continued to develop mentoring and character development training through our Boys to Men and Girls to Ladies Clubs.  We provided counseling, behavior modification, prevention training and one-on-one group mentoring for youth in our community with strong emphasis placed on foster children and children from single parent homes.  We included a parenting coach component to our mentoring program which includes ongoing parenting counseling and training.  SECY’s goal for 2008 is to enhance our mentoring program and to increase one-on-one mentoring by 50%. 

Our unique approach to provide service to both children and their family was highlighted on ABC 7 News, with Harry Porterfield’s “Someone You Should Know” segment.  SECY was also a part of a 10th Annual Documentary on the Springboard Foundation where our program was highlighted as one of their success stories.  Our successes in 2007 reflect a strong commitment, both to our mission – to help children and youth by finding and implementing solutions to the issues that are destroying the youth of this country – and by continuing our Parent Child Connection Program to ensure ongoing parent involvement and to an organizational strategy that calls for expansion, and establishing successful partnerships and collaborations that will enhance our expansion.