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Chapter 2: How Can I Help You?

Guiding Principle
Volunteer involvement must always precede funding.

September 1999 - August 2000

Those who participated in the summer school program met at Betsy Carr’s home in early September and determined that our mentors should enter Woodville with a “How can I help you?” attitude. That fall, 12 volunteers began going to Woodville each week. At Mrs. Person’s invitation, St. Paul’s began a relationship with the Woodville P.T.A. and its president (see challenges).

Formal meetings of Micah participants began in October. Virginia Ritchie stressed how important this year would be in building a relationship of trust with Woodville staff and the community. The Vestry mandated that volunteer involvement would always precede funding, which has been a guiding principle ever since. That January, Ruby Martin initiated the first Martin Luther King Memorial Celebration Worship Service for the St. Paul’s/Woodville communities. Students played the harp, sang and recited Dr. King’s I Have a Dream speech.

Micah advocates continued to work to introduce the Micah Initiative to the community and to solicit help and advice. Ruby Martin and Betsy Carr met with the school board chair, school board representatives and city council members. Ruby Martin and Larry French formed the Woodville Advocates’ Council, including Freemasons, Micah representatives, the YMCA, the Woodville P.T.A., parents, teachers and staff.

Betsy Carr met regularly with Mrs. Person to further our relationship with her and the staff. In March, when the number of St. Paul volunteers had grown to 40, with 20 mentors, Mrs. Person assigned curriculum specialist Jannie Laursen to coordinate volunteers within the school. Parishioner Nan Ellen Ritsch worked to recruit St. Paul’s volunteers.

Mrs. Person asked Buford Scott to facilitate a group of faculty, staff and parents to update the Woodville mission statement and Betsy Carr was asked to attend and assist these efforts—part of the school’s three-year improvement plan. In April, a group representing the school, including Betsy Carr, attended an Excellent Beginnings conference in Texas. Woodville had been an Excellent Beginnings site for several years. Mrs. Person wanted to familiarize Betsy with the Excellent Beginnings model because of the potential model that our school/faith partnership might eventually provide to other sites. Thus, the seeds of city-wide Micah were sewn.

At a Micah celebration in May, frank discussions were held with Woodville faculty and staff and Micah volunteers. Buford Scott suggested the partnership needed to evaluate the year and make plans for how the Micah Initiative could help Woodville achieve its goals. Plans were made for summer strategic planning meetings, which have been conducted following the end of each school year, with teachers, staff and volunteers attending.

SUMMER, 2000

Twenty-seven kindergarteners who had not achieved mastery to advance to the first grade attended the second St. Paul’s Early Learners’ Academy. Naomi Dilligard served as on-site coordinator and Nan Ellen Ritsch recruited 19 mentors. Field trips were also included. The program proved successful for the students and a positive experience for volunteers, many of whom returned to mentor at Woodville in the fall.

Buford Scott held strategic planning meetings with representatives from Woodville and St. Paul’s over the summer. Goals set included:

  1. recruit and train volunteers and expand volunteer opportunities
  2. support Woodville parents
  3. expend the relationship between youth at Woodville and St. Paul’s
  4. create more opportunities to celebrate what God is doing in the partnership
  5. expand cultural experiences and fund Mrs. Person’s activity fund to allow all students to attend
  6. follow progress of summer academy students
  7. develop a plan to deal with students with behavioral challenges
  8. measure progress and impact of Micah Initiative

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

  • St. Paul’s volunteers provided turkeys for Thanksgiving baskets, transported students and families to P.T.A. meetings, created school beautification projects, and chaperoned students to an art exhibit and to a program on Booker T. Washington at St. Paul’s.
  • Thirty volunteers participated in three mentor training sessions, let by Virginia One-to-One Mentoring Partnership.
  • Volunteers attended Woodville Dads’ Breakfast, Volunteer Christmas Breakfast, Faculty and Staff Soul Food Lunch, and a teacher/tutor lunch at St. Paul’s.
  • Erica Anderson featured the Micah Initiative (seven people involved from Woodville and St. Paul’s) on her radio show (WVNC 1320).
  • Volunteers read to classes as part of Read Across America Day, the national celebration of reading and Dr. Seuss’s birthday.
  • The Micah Initiative brought three new members to the church.
  • The youth kept their pen-pals from Mrs. Dodd’s class.
  • Barbara Grey arranged for Minds in Motion, a program of the Richmond Ballet, to come to Woodville.

OTHER CHALLENGES:

  •  While we had planned to focus on early childhood, only fifth-grade teachers (probably because of S.O.L. pressures) requested mentors for the classroom. So, we began our mentoring efforts in the fourth and fifth-grade classes.
  • A challenging P.T.A. president felt threatened by our efforts and undermined some initial computer literacy and landscaping efforts.
  • Other commissions within the church were not open to incorporating Micah as part of their already busy agendas. Particular tension surfaced with the Service to Others Commission, which feared another active out-reach ministry and needed paid staff would detract from current programs and budgets.
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