Dine In for UrbanFUTURE

In 2009, more students dropped out of high school than graduated from the St. Louis Public Schools! UrbanFUTURE is working to change that, and YOU can help, and it's as simple as bringing your lunch to work for one day.

On October 27th, UrbanFUTURE is hosting, Dine In for UrbanFUTURE, a virtual event in which participants bring their lunch to work/school and donate the money they would’ve spent going out to lunch to UrbanFUTURE. You can make your donation online or mail it to:

UrbanFUTURE
3145 S. Grand Blvd.
Ste. A
St. Louis, MO 63118

The suggested donation is $10, the cost for a student to enroll in UrbanFUTURE for a single day. Your lunch donation will go a long way to making sure more urban youth will have opportunities to succeed in high school and beyond.

But this event is meant to be more than a fundraiser. We want people to use the lunch period on October 27th discussing and debating the academic achievement gap that persists in urban (and rural) districts across the country. Hopefully this will become a part of a larger conversation you can have with family, friends, classmates and co-workers. It is an issue that affects every single one of our lives now and in the future, but every single one of us can do something about it.

Please help us spread the word about this event and UrbanFUTURE. Together we can help close the achievement gap and help urban youth see and believe in their possibilities!

Fanning Falcons are Flying

UrbanFUTURE at Fanning Middle School is in full swing!  With 62 students fully enrolled in Restoration, afternoons are filled with a buzz that starts off with grade specific homework help.  Students are already taking charge of completing missed assignments, as well as staying on top of current assignments, and are eager to improve or maintain the grades that they received on their progress reports at the end of last week.  

Following homework help, students are engaged in great enrichment classes through the EXPLORE! program.  They are cooking with St. Louis University nutrition students, sculpting with COCA, rooting for the football team through cheerleading, battling in a game of wits during Chess Club, and establishing a student government among other activities. WOW! Enrichment programming runs Monday through Friday so that our students have engaging alternatives to going home every day of the week.  As the EXPLORE! program manager, Jocelyn Peters has gone above and beyond to engage our students in a fun and meaningful way.

The fun doesn't stop there!  Students are also excited about the tutors and mentors that they have the opportunity to work with during the last hour of programming through the IMPACT and INSPIRE programs.  Tutors have begun delving into the curriculum with students in both math and communication arts and already the students are soaring!  Though the academic component can be difficult, students and tutors have been working hard to improve in basic skills and in challenging reading materials.  Keep up the good work!

Keshun Rhodes, a seventh grader pictured above, asks about her mentor every day. Through the INSPIRE program, run by Domnick Hadley, she has found someone that she can talk to about reading, classes, teachers, and just life in general.  Though they have only met with each other once, Keshun is bubbling with excitement to work with Doreen again.  Already, Doreen has met with Keshun's language arts teacher and her mom to talk about Keshun's reading levels and how she can help to improve her grades in language arts!  

In addition to great programming after-school, UrbanFUTURE is also involved with the students during the school day!  On the 8th grade field trip to the Magic House last week, UrbanFUTURE staff helped to facilitate the trip with the 8th grade teachers and had a lot of fun in the process.  Check out some of the great fun the students (and staff!) had in the pictures below!

Ms. Berry, the IMPACT team leader, on the electric ball!  Hair flew everywhere as both teachers and students took their turn!

Ms. Krominga (science teacher) with two UrbanFUTURE students, Porcia and Darrion,  in the Mark Twain exhibit about Tom Sawyer!  Students got the opportunity to dress up like the characters they'd read about in class.

LAUNCH-ing to New Levels

UrbanFUTURE recently formed LAUNCH, a friends-of group that is working to take UrbanFUTURE to the next level. The primary objective of LAUNCH is to help UrbanFUTURE grow its support base by engaging current supporters more deeply in grassroots efforts and reaching new supporters through peer-to-peer interaction. Currently, LAUNCH is comprised of current tutors and mentors who have expressed an interest in taking their volunteer participation to another level.

LAUNCH will plan and execute quarterly fundraising/friendraising events as a way to introduce new people to UrbanFUTURE. These events will provide individuals an opportunity to learn more about the work of UrbanFUTURE and how they can support our work of eliminating the achievement gap in St. Louis.

LAUNCH will also be leading a volunteer-driven campaign this fall to raise money and new donor and volunteer referrals. The campaign will culminate with the "Dine In For UrbanFUTURE" event on Wednesday, October 27th. Stay tuned for more details on how you can participate in "Dine In For UrbanFUTURE."

If you are interested in joining LAUNCH, please contact Tim Weiss at (314)776-3434 or tim@urbanfuturestl.org. Help us LAUNCH UrbanFUTURE to new levels!