BCS Pirate Partners

The goal of Full-Service Community Schools is to provide comprehensive services to its students, and wellness is an important part of that. Three community partners have helped FSCS-Berea offer programs that focus on creating healthy students with food and exercise choices: the Berea College Forestry Outreach Center, Berea Kids Eat and Berea Parks & Recreation.

The Forestry Outreach Center has partnered with the middle school beginning with the Outdoor Adventures afterschool program in spring 2019. Their programs have increased curiosity about the natural world in Berea, whether at the Pinnacles or at the city park next to the school. Students have explored creek biodiversity, the subtleties of snails, the importance of the watershed and pollinators, bird migration, cloud types, and so much more.

In addition to middle school afterschool programs, the Forestry Outreach Center staff has provided enrichment during summer school, presented for the careers classes about opportunities in forestry and related fields, and been a engaged representative on the partnership council.

During the pandemic, we learned it was important to provide families flexibility. From that came the Cook Together program in the fall of 2021. With the support of Berea Kids Eat, each participating family received a kit with all the materials needed to prepare a recipe. Berea Kids Eat developed the recipe for each month’s theme and connected with farms to provide locally sourced ingredients. Monthly themes have included dips and spreads, pasta, pies, salads, stir fry, soups and waffles. As April 2023, 10 different kits have been offered, reaching a total of 106 families.

Berea Parks and Recreation was an established partner with BCS before the start of the FSCS grant and has continued to be one of the most consistent and reliable community partners. A key contribution has been offering middle school afterschool programs that engage students with interactive team-building games, helping keep both their bodies and minds active.

A huge thank you to these community partners for helping improve the health of our students!

Full-Service Community Schools Berea improves student lives in many, and this includes connecting community partners to programming that might continue after the FSCS grant ends. Two community partners that have stepped up to help make that a possibility are the Berea College Child Development Lab (CDL) and the Madison County Public Library.

The CDL, which serves as a learning laboratory for students, staff, and faculty in the Child and Family Studies Program, has supported the FSCS Berea Builds Brains program from the beginning. In Phase I (2022), eight educational learning kits were given to CDL families to help with children’s brain development and strengthen positive relationships with their parents. In February 2023, eight families were invited to a Parent Café for Phase II. Not only have those children enjoyed the activities at home and at school, but the kits have also been used with other students from other classrooms as learning tools. Each phase of Berea Builds Brains ends with FSCS Elementary Site Coordinator Vanda Rhodes asking for input from families about how to improve the initiative.

The Berea branch of the Madison County Public Library has partnered with FSCS to take part in BCS Family Night events, provide free books, invite families to sign up for library cards, and offer annual Summer Reading Clubs. The library offers a wide array of activities, such as crafts, Lego Club, preschool activities and online libraries for all ages, which are free. FSCS has made it a priority to share information about upcoming library events and opportunities for our BCES student families. The connections made will allow families to continue learning about the many ways the Madison County Public Library can help students and families.

FSCS appreciates the partnerships made and the efforts to continue improving the lives of BCS students.

Full-Service Community Schools Berea offers a range of programs students at Berea Community School, including many that focus on life skills. Two community partners have been a big part of helping FSCS Berea offer students skills that will last their lifetime: Miller's Tire & Auto Care (Tim Miller) and Park Community Credit Union.

Since returning to in-person events in 2021, the automotive repair shop based in Richmond has provided three car maintenance workshops for Berea Community students and their families. More than 30 students and family members had the opportunity to learn how to care for their vehicle, and many students said they learned something they didn’t know about car maintenance before the workshops.

The Park Community Credit Union in Berea has offered several learning opportunities for BCHS students. In addition to financial literacy workshops on popular topics like “the car buying process” and “credit/credit cards and budgeting,” Park Community has provided staffing for a reality fair, which challenges students to balance their monthly budget. Through their programs, the credit union has served every current student at Berea Community High School.

FSCS Berea appreciates the efforts of these partners and the real-world knowledge they have provided our students.

Full-Service Community Schools Berea could not do the work it has done for the last 4.5 years without the support and contributions of its many community partners, including the Center for Excellence in Learning through Service (CELTS) at Berea College, which offers college students service-learning and volunteer opportunities in the community. Two CELTS programs in particular have boosted the FSCS afterschool programming at Berea Community Middle School: the Bonner Scholars Program and the Hispanic Outreach Program at Berea College.

Since 2019, the Bonner Scholars Program has gone from supporting a single program with the Forestry Outreach Center to planning and leading multiple original afterschool programs on its own, beginning with programs created during the pandemic before returning to in-person programming in the fall of 2021.

Over the past four years, the Bonners have led 17 different original afterschool programs at BCMS and 110 middle schoolers have spent more than 1,000 total hours in their programs.

The first foreign language afterschool program to be offered at BCMS was Spanish, piloted by the Hispanic Outreach Program (HOP) as a virtual program called “Lingo con Mingo” (“con mingo” being a twist on the Spanish conmigo meaning with me) in January 2021. As all programs were still virtual, the college volunteers had to develop and implement their program without having ever set foot in the school building.

That fall, HOP transitioned the program to an in-person format, expanding sessions from 30 minutes to one hour and have continued teaching basic Spanish language using a games-based approach that integrates culture from Spanish-speaking countries.

More than 50 middle schoolers have spent nearly 250 cumulative hours in the Spanish afterschool program. HOP volunteers have not only increased an interest in learning Spanish but also paved the way for middle schoolers to learn other languages.

FSCS Berea is grateful for the opportunities offered to students through these partnerships.

As the Berea Community Volunteer Coordinator it has come to my attention that people are wanting to volunteer and seem to feel they get little response. I always try to respond very quickly if I am contacted. If you are wanting to volunteer it goes directly through me. If you go to the school webpage you will also see my information. It is a very easy process. Please remember in order to get the volunteer process started it has to come to me. If you ask someone else, that information may not always get relayed to me. Please reach out as I am located in the MS/HS office and would be happy to get you started. You may also email me at Malikca. [email protected]
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Come experience the Power of Family with us on the 18th from 5-8 p.m. We will have elementary student led conferences from 5-6. Kindergarten Registration 6-8 and inflatable fun, food trucks, and a DJ for all ages from 6-8.

Come celebrate with us! You won’t want to miss this one! Lots of fun to be had by all!

We hope to see you there! Don’t forget to sign up for dinner!

The elementary compass team are looking for volunteers for their fall festival from 5-7 tomorrow. If you have signed up for volunteering, I know they would be happy for you to help!

Our Family Night, which was scheduled for October 25th, has been postponed. We apologize for the late notice and hope you will join us when it is rescheduled!