Sunday, April 8, 2018

External Coaching Experience at Highland Park Community Development Corporation

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Originally written by Carol Frame and reposted with permission | Visit our website for more info



A little boy with serious eyes said, “I do have a part.  I say ‘Gobble, Gobble’ whenever I want.”   I smiled.  Of course he had a part in the play at the Highland Park Community Development Corporation (CDC), a place where everybody belongs.  The participants, aged 5 to 15, were practicing their Thanksgiving play for their performance at Highland Park Missionary Baptist Church.  The script was challenging as it was fast paced, funny and involved a lot of memorization.  The kids’ practice mostly involved stumbling through the reading of the script.  However, on performance night, every actor remembered every line, and the audience was thoroughly entertained, laughing at all the right places.

As a BLOCStar External Coach for Highland Park CDC, I am not surprised that the children were able to accomplish such a challenging task.  This out of school time program is all about meeting and exceeding challenges to develop leaders. My task is to support the program in quality improvement.  In the process, I have learned how they are making a difference in the lives of many high-risk children and youth in the Cane Run/Shagbark Community. 

I admire the way Mrs. Sandra Fay Miller directs Highland Park CDC.  With her leadership, the staff works hard to help students make real academic progress, even with children who have a history of serious academic struggles.  How do they do it? There is a strong sense of community.  Though the participants vary widely in age, they beautifully connect with one another and the staff.  The participants feel safe, supported, and that they belong, all solid youth development principles.

Thankfully for my first coaching assignment I have had the pleasure to work with this quality program.  However, there is always room for improvement and the staff is eager to strive for higher quality.  In our last session, we worked together to create a method for students to reflect and provide feedback, two important youth development skills.  We needed to be creative to engage participants so we decided to use emojis.  The students were immediately drawn towards the emojis, laughing and excitedly choosing the one that reflected their experience.

Mother Theresa was wise in saying, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”  With their focus on positive youth development, Highland Park CDC is working towards peace one student, one program, and one community at a time.