Disciple: What Do You Have? What Do You Need?
Two questions lead to a truly unique answer
By Christine McTaggart
In Fall 2013, the Rev. Nancy Cox and other leaders of All Saints’, Concord, attended a conference that had been 10 years in the planning. The gathering brought together nonprofits and faith-based organizations from across Cabarrus County to look for collaboration opportunities.
During the conference, one of the exercises in which attendees participated asked each person to write on Post-It® notes the answers to two questions: What do you have? What do you need?
The asking proved to be pivotal.
“The conference came at a critical time for us,” said Cox, rector at All Saints’. “We had just made the decision to suspend operation of our part-day preschool because we just weren’t able to reach the communities we were trying to serve, and so we were stepping back to examine what barriers we were facing and not able to cross.”
Ann Benfield, executive director of the Cabarrus Partnership for Children, an organization that looks at early education across Cabarrus County and advocates for children, was also at the conference. During the “what do you have, what do you need?” exercise, she saw the responses posted by All Saints’: “I have a preschool space, and I need kids to fill it.” She was intrigued and, after conversation with Cox, she scheduled a visit to the former preschool, surprised and happy to find the space well-kept and well-appointed. She agreed the space should not sit empty and promptly connected All Saints’ with Thompson Child & Family Focus.
In the course of conversation, it became clear that there was a strong desire to focus on the early education of children in high-poverty situations. Thompson had quite a bit of guidance to offer from the work they do, but they also identified the first major obstacle All Saints’ would have to address: $500,000 a year would be needed to run the kind of school being discussed.
“To the credit of our task force involved in the conversations,” said Cox, “that number did not daunt them. They simply turned the conversation to how it could be achieved.”
On that task force was Jackie Whitfield, an All Saints’ parishioner who spent 35 years in public education in Cabarrus, Nash and Robeson counties as a teacher, an elementary and high school principal, and Director for Elementary Education. She worked on the challenge of how to fund a preschool that served children from high-poverty families and eventually hit on a unique solution.
“What would you think,” she asked Cox, “of a public school on our property?”
MAKING IT HAPPEN
“I wasn’t sure it was even possible,” said Cox, “but we were willing to think outside the box.” Whitfield and Benfield got to work, estimating it would take about three years to navigate the red tape and obstacles that stood between the idea and the opening of the school. They began by inviting the Cabarrus County Schools System Director for Elementary Education to visit the space.
“She told us later she came only as a courtesy to Ann,” said Cox, “but after seeing the space and talking to us, she was really excited.” That was February 2014. By March, a proposal was presented to the Cabarrus County Schools System Board of Education as well as to the All Saints’ vestry. Against all odds, approval was gained from both almost simultaneously.
There was still a long way to go. The facilities at All Saints’ were in good shape from years of care, but requirements for a public school are more stringent than those for a private preschool. To start, the security and sprinkler systems both had to be upgraded at a cost of $200,000. All Saints’ committed all of its reserve resources to the project, and local foundations provided grants to assist.
“What was amazing was that as we went through the process throughout 2014, we kept finding open doors,” said Cox. “It happened over and over again.”
“It was incredible,” said Whitfield. “This church was incredible. Hundreds of hours of volunteering went into getting the work done. It was wonderful energy, and it was like the Holy Spirit took its wind and blew the church doors open and pushed us out into the community.”
As the work continued, the red tape was negotiated, plans were developed, and only ten months after the project began, the doors of the Lockhart Early Learning Center opened in November 2014.
IT MATTERS
Each year, the Lockhart Early Learning Center admits 36 four-year-old children to its one-year program, and each enrollment is a life-changing opportunity. Cabarrus County has a preschool waiting list of approximately 400 children at any given time, and each child at Lockhart was on that waiting list.
The preschool intentionally focuses on children living in households where the family income is identified as falling below the state’s median income. The poverty levels often mean families must struggle to maintain basic necessities such as food and shelter, often at the expense of being able to spend time doing what other households take for granted: reading to children and focusing on education basics to prepare them for the school days ahead.
In North Carolina, students who qualify as living in a high-poverty situation are eligible to receive teaching and support services. While that sounds encouraging, what is not available are funds to build facilities where that can happen.
“Every year, there are 400 kids identified as eligible for services not able to receive them for lack of space,” said Cox. “What that means is if a child is identified as needing services and doesn’t receive them before they go to kindergarten, they have a 70 percent chance of never graduating from high school, becoming involved with the criminal justice system, becoming a teen parent, or getting involved with drugs or alcohol. These children will likely get tracked into Learning Disabled classrooms simply because they haven’t learned things you and I take for granted, things like what are your colors, what are the shapes, what are the letters. These children are five years old and already their future is bleak.”
“I’ve never liked the word ‘poverty,’” said Whitfield, “because I have seen more love in some of these economically challenged homes than in others that are very privileged. It’s very rare to see a family that doesn’t want to bring hope and light and a better future for their children. It’s such a joy to walk beside these families, help them connect resources, be a voice for them and then watch them grow and move into a better life.”
“The involvement of the parents is wonderful,” added Cox. “They really turn out, because they really do want a better future for their children. These are parents who cared enough to be evaluated and have their children deemed eligible, only to go unserved. So when they are served, they respond.”
The children attend school all day, and Lockhart follows the Cabarrus County school calendar. Teachers are fully certified and are employed by the Cabarrus County Schools System.
Upon completion of their year at Lockhart, children continue on to kindergarten within their own district.
To address the ongoing need for funding, the All Saints’ Early Childhood Foundation, a 501(c)3 organization independent of the church, was created to manage the funds, donations and grants needed to run the school. But it does so much more. In addition to providing resources for the school, it also serves parents to help them work with and support education efforts outside of school, as well as food security issues.
“Because our school is a one-year situation,” said Cox, “we don’t have the opportunity for long-term relationship development like you would with a traditional PTA, so the foundation helps provide that continuity, and it also gives the church the opportunity to provide support.”
The foundation also works to build awareness in the community. “These are silent children,” said Whitfield. “They don’t have a voice in our community and are often forgotten about, so we do a lot of education.”
MISSION ENDOWMENT
All Saints’ was awarded a Mission Endowment Grant for the Foundation in early 2016. It has been put to work providing resources for both the Foundation and the preschool it helps support.
“It enables us to have things like literacy nights where parents and tutors and children all come together,” said Whitfield. “This kind of education continues on to the home with things like ‘lap reading’ – these folks have never been exposed to it, and it’s so important to the development of the child.”
The grant has also enabled the school to offer art instruction and exploratory graphic design, as well as implement an Orff approach music program for the children, a developmental method that encourages creativity, rhythm and movement natural to children, all of which assist in brain development and help lay the foundation for phonics and early reading skills. Brian Sapp-Moore, director of music and communications for All Saints’, is Orff-trained and leads the sessions with the children; the grant ensures he has the training and support he needs.
The children are not the only beneficiaries of the grant; it also helps support teachers and provide supplies on site so they don’t have to travel to use simple tools like a laminator. “It may not sound like much,” said Whitfield, “but it allows them to be able to stay and spend more time here instead of having to travel around the school district for things other teachers may take for granted. So it creates a healthier and happier environment for teachers, too.”
WE CAN ALL LEARN
While the leadership behind the Lockhart Early Learning Center understands most churches will never open a public school on their property, they believe their experience offers lessons for everyone.
“There’s a value in seeking collaborative partnerships,” said Cox. “When you find them, one-plus-one is more than two. Find ways to connect and ask ‘what do I have, what do I need’ and ‘what do you have and what do you need’. Look outward – not only will you see, but you’ll be seen. If you’re not looking outward, people can’t see you and learn what a potential partner you might be.”
All Saints’ is proof of that. What began as a conversation about a preschool became a collaboration that includes All Saints’, the Cabarrus Partnership for Children, All Our Children (a national Episcopal network), the Cabarrus Literacy Council and the Cabarrus County Public Schools System.
“Educate yourself on what’s going on in your community,” said Cox. “Learn what’s needed. What’s needed may not be at your site, but you may have volunteers who can work at another site.”
“Circle it all in prayer,” she added. “We thought it was going to take three years to open this school, and it took 10 months. I believe the power of prayer was a big part of that. It was not easy, and it was not without a lot of challenges, but we were included in a lot of prayer chains, and we credit a lot of what we were able to do to that.”
Last but not least, tell your story when you start to do things. “I love hearing the stories of all the ministry and outreach happening because of these grants,” said Whitfield. “They may be very different, but you can always glean an idea that you may be able to tweak and put to work in your own ministry.”
Christine McTaggart is the communications director for the Diocese of North Carolina.
Tags: North Carolina Disciple
