On The Move

South Salt Lake is fortunate to have two of United Way of Salt Lake’s 2016 United for Change award honorees serving our community. Mayor Cherie Wood and Principal Jadee Talbot of Woodrow Wilson Elementary were recognized as “Changemakers” at an awards luncheon in May.

Principal Talbot is credited with grasping and quick- ly putting the community school model into play at Woodrow Wilson Elementary. He saw potential in community collaboration and partnerships with non- profits to enable successful outcomes for his stu- dents. In recognition of his success Jadee Talbot is now serving as the Associate Director of Community Center Programs for Granite School District.

Mayor Wood was honored for being the first civic leader to identify and implement collective impact ideas to better her community in the United Way Salt Lake area. These include joining forces with Granite School District, a variety of nonprofits, private donors and United Way to offer “cradle to career” services at no cost, to change the future for the entire community. Under her leadership the Promise South Salt Lake initiative has become a local institution and a national model for results.

Promise South Salt Lake

The South Salt Lake Mayor’s Office, United Way of Salt Lake, Granite Schools and more than 100 nonprofit and education partners be- gan working together in 2012 toward some very special goals. The success of this work requires innovation, ingenuity, and adoption of best practices and evidence-based pro- grams and services. Relevant high-achieving models in other communities around the country have served as inspiration and exam- ples. Solitary, isolated efforts have attempted to address problems in the community, but none have achieved a large enough or lasting impact to actually solve the problems. This is comprehensive, large-scale, community lev- el change work that must utilize partnerships and activate assets that have never been at- tempted in South Salt Lake before.

In order to meet our goals, we provide inten- sive, highly specialized community and out- of-school-time (afterschool) programming with an academic and prevention focus at eight school-based and six neighborhood-based locations throughout the city, currently serv- ing 2,458 youth and adults. Children, youth and families are purposefully engaged at 14 neighborhood centers across the city.

Each site offers varied programming to meet the identified needs of its resident patrons, but all are united by a common vision consist-ing of three desired outcomes or promises:

1. Every child has the opportunity to attend and to graduate from college,
2. Every resident has a safe, clean home and neighborhood, and
3. Everyone has the opportunity to be healthy and to prosper.

The work at each center is guided by a common agenda—objectives that support our overarching goals, but specifically focused on the needs of the children, families, and residents in that center’s particular neighborhood.

Immediate priorities across all programs include: providing individual and/or small group tutoring to help our children perform at or above grade level in language arts and math, delivering interest-based programming with elements of service learning and civic engagement, increasing protective factors and decreasing risk factors, supporting fami- ly engagement and community involvement, and nurturing the partnerships that accom- plish all of the above. Expansion of pre-school initiatives and college readiness and career planning services for high-school aged youth, as well as increasing the number of program slots and intensity/effectiveness of our programs are a priority for the future. For more information about Promise South Salt Lake visit sslneighbors.com.

Four New South Salt Lake Neighborhood Centers Opening Fall 2016!

We are excited to announce that four new Promise SSL Neighborhood Center sites are opening this fall. The new sites are: Cot- tonwood High School Afterschool Program, Kearns-St. Ann K-8 Afterschool Program, Moss Elementary School Afterschool Program and the Commonwealth Performing Arts and Youth Entrepreneurial Center. The grant-funded centers will offer youth and family services including homework help and small group tutoring, mentoring, field trips, recreation, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) activities, college and career coaching and planning (including elementary programs) and nightly dinner (via Utah Food Bank Kids Café). We will also offer English classes taught by the English Skills Learning Center (ESLC). All Promise SSL afterschool programs and activities are free, and school-based. To apply for regis- tration, contact Emily Mead at [email protected] or 801-483-6057.

To apply for an afterschool program, English, Citizenship Class, or other program:

1. Find the South Salt Lake Neighborhood Center program that you or your child would like to attend from the sidebar.
2. Call the center phone number listed or call Emily Mead, Promise SSL Business Manager at 801-483-6057.
3. Request program application forms, com- plete and return to the site you want to attend.

Note: Available slots in youth and adult pro- grams are filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Completing an application does not guarantee acceptance into a program.