LEWISTON — Programs to turn students into young community leaders will be expanded, thanks to a grant given to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine Lewiston/Auburn Clubhouse.

The boys and girls club has been awarded a $34,000 grant from the Safe Schools Healthy Students initiative of Lewiston-Auburn, a federally funded project to improve student performance and make schools safer.

The grant will allow the Auburn boys and girls club to hire a coordinator to expand service learning through existing programs, including the Torch Club, for ages 11-13, and the Keystone Club, ages 14-18.

In those clubs, students do all kinds of community service, ranging from Special Olympics to helping with day care programs, tutoring younger students, and fundraising to allow youngsters to attend summer camp.

Kids who participate “get a sense of satisfaction. They’ve done something,” said Andie Hannon of the boys and girls club.
The boys and girls club was chosen for the grant because it demonstrated how it achieves results, said Rosemary Kooy, director of Safe Schools Healthy Students.

The club programs sound like they’re about exercise and socialize, but they do more, Kooy told the Lewiston School Committee on Monday night. The programs are scientifically-based to develop character, leadership development and social skills, she said.

Expanding service learning is one action taken by the Safe Schools Healthy Students since it formed one year ago.

In its building year, Safe Schools Healthy Students began working with about every organization that has anything to do with children, from local police to hospitals to recreation programs to mental health organizations. It is now partnering with more than 40 organizations, Kooy said.

For instance:

• Working with Lewiston-Auburn police and Safe Havens International, all of L-A’s 19 schools were surveyed in late September to see how safe and secure the buildings are, how prepared staff is in case of a crisis. Full results will be released soon, “but Safe Haven was impressed” with local schools, Kooy said. “Compared to other states they said we were ahead.”

• Partnering with mental health networks, guidance counselors and school administrators, “teen screens” are surveying students to ensure they don’t need mental health services. Two tragedies may have already been avoided, Kooy said. “Two stories that touched my heart was identifying two students” who were having chronic thoughts of suicide. They are getting help, Kooy said.

• Middle and high school students will be surveyed to find out about school climates. Students will be asked about school safety, bullying, victimization and substance abuse. Survey results will be used to identify ways to improve safety.

• More families are being served through a Nurturing Parenting Program, which teaches good parenting skills as an alternative to abuse and neglectful child rearing. Also more teams of literacy coaches are visiting needy families. The goal is to improve family literacy skills so those parents can be better first teachers to their children.

• Two schools, Farwell in Lewiston and Fairview in Auburn, will participate in a pilot program to prevent bullying.

• Working with local pharmacies, hospitals, police and housing programs, several efforts to prevent alcohol, tobacco and drug use have begun, including a “take back” prescription program last May that collected old prescriptions.

Safe Schools Healthy Students is a $1.2 million annual program for Lewiston and Auburn for four years. With the first year down, “we’re ahead of schedule,” Kooy said. “What I’m most proud of is the number of partnerships we’ve been able to develop, the number of people coming together to make a difference for families in Lewiston-Auburn.”