metro » After- School Tutoring Stacy Gittleman | Contributing Writer I f you attended elementary school in Detroit’s Northwest neighborhood, the school bell is still ringing for you, but this time, to return as a volunteer. Three years after launching a success- ful afterschool tutoring and mentoring program at the Schulze Elementary Middle School at 10700 Santa Maria St., Project Healthy Community (PHC) will duplicate its efforts by starting a pilot program at Bagley Elementary School in January. The organization is now seeking Bagley alumni to come back to the old neighbor- hood and help improve reading and math literacy skills for the school’s most academi- cally challenged children by becoming men- tors and volunteers. The program will begin as a pilot with 12-15 students and will run four days a week from 3:45-6 p.m. PHC will host an open house for interested volunteers on Wednesday, Dec. 14, at Bagley. Project Healthy Community, an inter- community, interracial and interfaith-based nonprofit, was formed in 2012 to benefit the Northwest Detroit area. It is housed in the Northwest Activities Center (NWAC) in Detroit (a former Jewish Community Center). PHC was launched through a collabora- tion between Temple Israel’s Rabbi Josh Bennett and Dr. Melvyn Rubenfire, a former chairman of medicine at Sinai Hospital of Detroit. Each felt Temple Israel and others in the Jewish community could help Detroit by partnering with the NWAC to develop pro- grams that would improve food availability, nutrition, education and health. Bennett and Rubenfire formed part- nerships with already-existing charitable organizations in the neighborhood, such as 14 December 8 • 2016 Rudy Thomas Project Healthy Community seeks alumni volunteers for program at Bagley Elementary. Karen Rubenfire brings in the harvest at the Project Healthy Community garden this fall. have come to work with the children. So far, the PHC tutoring initiatives have attracted the attention of several notable alumni such as recently retired WDIV-TV newscaster Carmen Harlan. It costs PHC $1,200 per student NEW PHC DIRECTOR to run the program, said Karen PHC recently hired Amina Iqbal Rubenfire, LMSW, director of pro- as executive director. As the orga- gramming and community outreach nization grows, Iqbal is looking to for PHC. Funding comes from indi- hire a director to oversee the two vidual private donations. Families afterschool centers. When seeking are also charged $5 per week for volunteers, she says consistency is their child to participate. key. “Getting some financial buy-in Amina Iqbal “It is important we find com- from the parents helps ensure par- mitted volunteers to come out and ents are committed to the program mentor these children,” said Iqbal, who holds and their child’s success,” Rubenfire said. degrees in child development and education. “For many of these kids, the worst time “They need to know that each week they can of the day is when that dismissal bell rings. see the same familiar faces at the afterschool There are no afterschool activities for them center. When trust builds between the stu- and little to no structure at home. In the dent and the volunteer, that is when we see three years since the afterschool program at the child progress and succeed.” Schulze has been in place, teachers and par- In 2013, the Rubenfire family began to ents have seen a change for the better in the concentrate their efforts in creating after- children’s behavior and work ethic. Parents school tutoring programs at the elementary say their kids are getting their homework school level. For the past three years, PHC done We hope to duplicate this success at has run a program at Schulze where 30 Bagley.” students in grades K-5 designated by their teachers to be the most academically vulner- NEED IS GREAT Of the total student body of 387 children at able meet with volunteer tutors four after- Bagley, 253 are recognized as economically noons a week. disadvantaged and 51 have learning dis- Volunteers — some with backgrounds in abilities, according to a 2015-2016 profile education, social work or therapy — work closely with teachers to instill in the children report from Detroit Public Schools. In some good study habits and improve their reading areas of testing, none of the students met state standards of performance in English and math skills. After finishing their home- language arts, math or social studies, accord- work, children are provided with dinner ing to Michigan Student Test of Educational before heading home. Progress assessment results. PHC has also developed a close partner- But good things are under way, according ship with Marygrove College, where students the NWAC and Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, to create initiatives such as coat and school uniform drives, the Foundations for Understanding Nutrition (FUN) pantry and the Blessings in a Backpack program. to alumni. Classrooms are stocked with new books that challenge the children at various reading levels. Its classrooms have been reno- vated, and it has a staff of dedicated teachers and administrators. The school has a new principal who recognizes the positive impact an afterschool program can provide to the school’s most vulnerable students. Gary Alpert, 71, of West Bloomfield, who has been tutoring at Bagley over the last few years, vividly recalls his elementary school days when he was a student there in the 1950s. “I have a lot of tranquil memories of my years at Bagley,” he said. “It was like the TV show Leave it to Beaver. No one was afraid to walk in the neighborhood, and everyone walked home for lunch. I had attentive teach- ers and this resulted in many successful alumni.” Alpert went on to teach business at McKenzie High School from 1967 to 1998. In 2013, he reconnected with other Bagley alumni at their 50th Mumford High School reunion. They raised some money and volunteered sporadically with children at Bagley, but a formal tutoring or mentor- ing afterschool program never got off the ground. “The kids attending this school today deserve to have the same learning environ- ment we had,” Alpert said. “We are getting a little older now, and it would be great if younger alumni could come back and men- tor these children.” * The Project Healthy Community volunteer open house will be from 3-4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 14, at Bagley School, 8100 Curtis St., Detroit. For details, visit www. projecthealthycommunity.org/volunteer or call (248) 892-4585.