Bridge-to-Employment Program Beats the Odds with City High
School Students -- 65% of Students Who Started in the
Program in 8th Grade Will Graduate This Year

ere’s a statistic many people may not know: less than 10% of eighth-graders from Wilmington's Southbridge and Eastside neighborhoods are likely to graduate from high school. This year, however, 13 out of 20 students who began in the Bridge-to-Employment Program as eighth-graders five years ago have graduated from Newark and Christiana High Schools this year—a remarkable 65%.  Some have already been accepted into post-secondary training programs or college. 

Bridge-to-Employment (BTE) is a successful community partnership between the Christina School District and the Noramco Neighbors project, a community outreach organization of Noramco, Inc.  Noramco, Inc. is a subsidiary company of Johnson & Johnson with a manufacturing facility located at 500 Swedes Landing Road in the Southbridge section of Wilmington.  Noramco has presented the Bridge-To-Employment program with annual grants of $10,000 or more to continue its successful work with Christina students.

The Class of 2009 included 9 Newark High School students, 1 Christiana High School student, and 3 summer students from the BTE program. The Newark and Christiana students received their diplomas at on June 1 and June 2, respectively, at each school’s graduation ceremonies held at the University of Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.  BTE’s Program Manager, Joanne Parker-Henry, also received an honorary diploma from Newark High School in honor of her efforts on behalf of the BTE students.  The students also participated in a special Bridge-to-Employment graduation celebration on Saturday, June 6 at The Neighborhood House in Wilmington.

Bridge-to Employment will begin a new BTE group at Bayard Middle School in 2009-2010.

Bridge-to-Employment is an innovative program that helps young people build solid futures by providing after school support, service learning, mentoring, and career exploration in healthcare fields.  Successful students must adhere to rigorous standards regarding academics, behavior, discipline, attendance, punctuality, attire, and no tolerance policies for drug, tobacco and alcohol use.

The primary focus of Wilmington's BTE is to improve the academic success, and thus the graduation rate, of participants.  The participating group of students has seen marked improvements in grade promotion, attendance, test scores, grade point averages, and drop out rates compared to students who are not in the program.  The program provides a comprehensive approach to tackling learning barriers, improving teacher and student interactions, and facilitating parent and family involvement.

For more information about the BTE program, please contact Joanne Parker-Henry, BTE Program Manager, (302) 378-7251.

 

 

June 2009