In the September 2003 issue of O Magazine (p.232), there is an article about women who really make a difference in their communities. Deborah Bial is featured as the "founding partner of the Posse Foundation, which works with universities to send groups of underprivileged high school students to college with full tuition scholarships." Here's a quote from the interview:
"How did you get the idea? I was working at a youth leadership program in New York with a bunch of really smart, talented kids from public schools. We were watching them graduate from high school, go off to college, and then come back six months later, having dropped out. We organized a focus group to ask what happened, and one kid said to us, 'I never would have dropped out if I had my posse with me.' And I thought, What a simple, good idea. Why not send a team of kids to college? That way they could back one another up."
I wonder if this idea can be applied to our New CFG Coach Seminars. I think that one reason that CFG's were initially so successful at my school is that we had a "posse" of coaches that loved the work and held each other accountable. Importantly, that posse included an administrator who helped imbed CFG practices into the school. However, in recent years we've trained many people who would be the only trained coach on that campus. I worry about how successful they can be without a built-in support system.
Posted by Donna at March 3, 2004 02:17 PM