This new program will assist low income City of Seattle residents and residents of White Center (zip codes 98106, 98126, 98146) enroll in an employment and training program at Seattle Central community college. Currently, there are openings for Summer Quarter beginning June 28th.

What are your priorities for school? What programs do you want for next year?

Share your opinions and ideas about education in Highline.

Parents, students, families, and community members are invited to participate in a Highline Public School Budget Community Meeting.
Participate in an interactive e-polling activity and discussion about education in your school.

Meeting Information:

When: Thursday, May 19, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Location: Cedarhurst Elementary School
Address: 611 South 132nd Street
Burien, WA 98168

Hope to see you there. Come and share your voice and improve education in Highline.

For more information:
http://www.hsd401.org/ehighlights/2011/05/04/PublicWorkshopsToDiscussBudgetCuts.aspx

Courtesy of the Seattle-Pi.com: Health Sciences & Human Services High School (at Evergreen HS) student Meseret “Missy” Alemu is profiled with her family in an article about going to college. Read the article here. Photo by Joshua Trujillo for Seattle-Pi.com.

StartZone’s Networking Night comes to White Center this Wednesday! Join StartZone on May 4th, from 6-7:30pm at StartZone members Michael and Elizabeth Gordon’s restaurant Uncle Mike’s BBQ (9640A 16th Ave SW Seattle, WA  98106).

Michael Gordon completed the Small Business Entrepreneurship Certificate of Completion Program, here at Highline Community College. Michael and his wife, Elizabeth, then joined the StartZone program and received help in finalizing a business plan and working out the details for the launch of their new BBQ restaurant.

Uncle Mike’s opened in August 2010 and has introduced the finest in barbecue flavor to the people of the Pacific Northwest. A Family friendly environment, with a menu of mouthwatering, down home cooking, and superlicious smoked goodness for meat-eaters, vegetarians & vegans - all while serving you with a smile!

Visit the website to see all the mouth-watering dishes on their menu, www.unclemikesbbq.com

Wednesday May 4

6:00pm - 7:30pm

9640A 16th Ave SW Seattle, WA  98106

Have the opportunity to hear The Gordon’s story, try some YUMMY BBQ food, and meet, mix and mingle with StartZone members who are starting or growing small businesses in Southwest King County and others in the local business community. This event is open to the public and is a FREE event. Please encourage anyone else you know to attend.

To sign up please call (206) 878-3710 X3388 Or Email: startzone@highline.edu

The White Center CDA presents the beginning of the 2011 Resident Leadership Pathway, a series of 4 workshops this year specifically for residents of White Center to empower them in their community and to provide more access to resources. The first workshop is a resume workshop designed to creatively pull personal experiences and translate them onto existing resumes in order to stand out from the rest. Please see the flyer for more information. Click on image to enlarge.

SPACE IS VERY LIMITED FOR THIS WORKSHOP. IT IS IN A COMPUTER LAB THAT HAS 20 STATIONS. RSVP AND REGISTER TO THIS WORKSHOP BY CONTACTING IAN@WCCDA.ORG OR CALL (206) 694-1082 x 175. REGISTRATION WILL BE CLOSED WHEN WORKSHOP CAPACITY IS MET.

Photo: Family Connections Learning through Cooking Event at White Center Heights Elementary, March 2011.

We are proud to share with you the accomplishments from last year and give a preview of our 2011 work. First up is Family Development. We will report out on our Neighborhood Revitalization and Community Building work soon!

Family Development: Our “People” based two -generation work (parent and child)

Our Goal:  Families are economically stable, connected, and access culturally competent and effective services.

In 2011, our work includes our Family Connections program- a social network that advances literacy, health and economic opportunities for multi-lingual families at our three elementary schools through data-driven assessments, targeted referrals and resident leadership. Our Mount View Healthy Learners is a comprehensive, evidenced based effort to implement a set of targeted strategies for the purpose of improving third grade reading abilities for the students at highest academic risk. And we are embarking upon a “cradle through college to career” education reform plan called the White Center Promise Neighborhoods to help families achieve educational success in a targeted geographic zone in White Center. Lastly, our Family Economic Success workgroup promotes best practices and partnership for job seekers and family advancement, this year especially focused on pre-apprenticeships, construction trades and the Got Green program.

2010 Successes:

Family Connections served 117 families (514 individuals, 96% people of color, 77% spoke languages other than English at home) and increased early learning involvement, reading at home, attendance and academic data as a result of our program.

Mount View Healthy Learners helped 81 students with direct reading interventions and over 500 students received comprehensive academic and development assessments. For this school year, 70% of all third graders tested at benchmark for reading proficiency (up from 58% the previous year) and 100% of students were assessed for academic and developmental concerns.

With our core partners, SW Youth and Family Services, Highline Public Schools and many others, CDA raised funds to complete the Promise Neighborhoods business plan with funding from local private foundations and corporations.

Got Green successfully trained 15 low income, young adults of color in weatherization installation, with 10 gaining employment. Over 600 residents and 70 volunteers were educated on the green economy.

Through partnerships with Airport Jobs, Basic Food Employment Training and others, 1,090 residents were placed in jobs of which 47% included health benefits.

Basic Food Employment Training/DSHS: Advocated for $19.25m of new funding to strengthen the neighborhood jobs pipeline, serving 17,000 individuals including 2,700 residents in White Center.

Courtesy of Katy at the Pacific Science Center, who contacted us today about this great new program:

With the support of JPMorgan Chase Foundation, we will be offering FREE engaging, hands-on science workshops to Seattle youth (grades 3-8) in Rainier Valley, White Center and the International District this summer.

Each Summer Science Program consists of five 1-hour workshops, offered once a week for five weeks at your site.  Workshop activities may include: experimenting with electricity and circuits, constructing bridges, cracking codes, and exploring the stars in our portable planetarium.  At the end of the summer, participants and their families will be invited to visit Pacific Science Center free of charge for a special Family Science Day.

Check out the attached FAQ sheet for program details.  If you have additional questions, feel free to contact me by phone at (206) 443-6607 or by email.

Interested?  Applying is easy!  Just fill out the attached application form and email it to kmccown@pacsci.org or fax it to (206) 443-6600.  Applications submitted by April 30 will be given priority scheduling.

(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

Interpretation in Cambodian/Khmer, Vietnamese and other languages will be available, according to Mike Graham-Squire, Drug Free Communities coordinator.

Family Connections, a program of the White Center CDA, always puts on great events to help bridge school to home learning opportunities.

Learning Through Cooking is just one of the many family centered social networking gatherings central to Family Connections.  Always planned by teachers and parents together, our literacy and math events bring new ideas about health and learning to White Center families.

The most recent school based activity helped to build stronger relationships between teachers and families through pasta salad and yogurt parfaits. The activities reinforced early numeracy through fractions and measurement, and further embedded literacy skills with reading, reporting and listening components. And it was delicious!

There are two more Learning Through Cooking nights scheduled for this school year, along with other important Early Learning and Parent Engagement events. Hope to see you out there in the community!

Read the rest of this entry »

White Center Heights Elementary School’s Food and Fitness project is a school wide effort to get our kids moving more and eating well. Always on the lookout for local opportunities to walk that talk, Wellness Coordinator Rob Frisholz put together a team of runners who blasted through the rain. On March 13, several students took part in Burien’s Cove to Clover fun run. Event sponsors not only waived the race fee for our students, but also bought each of our runners a new pair of shoes.

Special thanks to Wellness Coordinator Mr. Frisholz and ELL Coordinator Mr. Huppe for organizing the day for WCH students. The White Center CDA was able to help provide transportation, documentation and cheerleading  for our awesome runners. Great job, Dolphins.