According to Angela Herbert, Outreach Executive Director, “With a rigorous school day that may run from 8:30 AM to after 5PM, it is important for students to have healthy habits, without them it is much more difficult to succeed.”

She added, “Healthy Habits are much more than just nutrition, they are more than healthy eating, they are a lifestyle.”

Working with its partner schools and creating programming to fit the schools’ individual requirements, proper nutrition, healthy eating, cooking classes, and exercise are all part of the Outreach Healthy Habits curriculum. Based on our experience, enrichment classes centered on those topics are very popular with students, and along with physical activities, serve as a “tipping point” as students progress from healthy eating habits to healthy school and lifestyle habits. Enrichment teachers and volunteers serve as positive, reinforcing role models and the lessons are much more effective and often brought home to the dinner table when older students prepare meals or snacks for younger siblings or when they start and care for a vegetable garden. Sports offer participating students the opportunity for physical activity, a chance to compete, to learn about teamwork and responsibility.

Recently Outreach partnered with Zespri Kiwifruit, a New Zealand based multi-national food corporation and Rouse’s Supermarket to raise awareness of the epidemic of childhood obesity. Among the highlights was an event at a Rouse’s store that included staff from the New Orleans Health Department and cooking demonstrations for students.

Another Healthy Habits highlight has been the swimming class for Sci high students that Loyola University is hosting at the behest of Outreach. Students are learning to swim for safety and for exercise.

WWL-TV aired a story about the program:

Donate now to support programs like this and others.

The video clip below, originally aired on WGNO, shows Ashe students getting hands-on training by the professionals at Tipitina’s Music Office Co-Op. The students shadowed their hosts for half of the day, while their hosts showed them how the work habits they develop in school help them in the career they will pursue. The importance of setting goals and the value of becoming an active New Orleans citizen was also emphasized. “Besides teaching job search skills, the program aims to strengthen the relationship between students and their community,” said Claudia Barker, Executive Director of New Orleans Outreach.

The event is one of the culminating components of a semester-long visionary program called New Orleans Outreach Power Ties, a career awareness program developed by New Orleans Outreach that links professionals from various occupations with New Orleans middle school students through a series of career oriented workshops. The workshops, taught by volunteers from the Junior League of New Orleans, allow students to learn about basic job skills such as resume building and interview techniques.

The Career Day consisted of four mini-workshops. Three of the workshops included important career skills, such as writing thank you notes, basic office skills, and business etiquette. Students also get to participate in mock interviews with the volunteers, who give them feedback on their presentation, preparing them for future interviews with real employers.

The New Orleans Outreach Power Ties volunteers were members of the Junior League of New Orleans, many of whom had also taught the previous on-campus Power Ties workshops. The Junior League is a prominent supporter of the New Orleans Outreach Power Ties program by providing funding and volunteers. Now celebrating its 85th anniversary, The Junior League is an organization that encourages women to utilize their potential through volunteering in the community.

The Career Day ended with a “Power Lunch” hosted by Zea Rotisserie and Grill. The meal included a motivational presentation by former NFL player and local attorney Christian Rhodes.

Christian Rhodes received his law degree from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law and is currently an attorney with Roedel Parsons. Rhodes explained to the students that the path you choose doesn’t always bring you to the career you expected, as demonstrated by an injury during his first few weeks as a professional football player, which led him to decide to pursue a career in law.

“It’s important for students to understand that there are many paths to success,” said Claudia Barker, executive director of New Orleans Outreach. “There may be obstacles that they face,but these young people are capable of doing anything they want as long as they work hard and believe in themselves.”

New Orleans Outreach will also offer Power Ties at two other New Orleans public schools, McDonogh City Park Academy and Arthur Ashe Charter School, this spring.

This means that Sci Academy students…

• More than doubled the average scores of students in the Recovery School District.
• Outperformed both the state and Orleans Parish.
• Ranked 3rd in citywide scores, behind the two most selective public high schools in the city–Ben Franklin and Lusher.
• As a non-selective school, outperformed over 60% of selective admissions magnet schools in the city.

These students are making this progress in part because of Outreach’s strong Data-Driven Tutoring Program, which was funded by the Booth-Bricker Fund.

Full implementation of the Data-Driven Tutoring Program began in the late summer and early fall at four schools: Sci Academy, Samuel J. Green Charter School, Arthur Ashe Charter School, and the New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School (Sci High). The first half of this year of full implementation has yielded positive results for students, as well as more information about best practices in creating a successful program model.

Outreach hired a full-time tutor coordinator who works with school leadership and faculty to determine the scope and logistics of the program; to hire, train, and support lead tutors and to create and implement training for the volunteer tutors. The tutor coordinator also tracks and reports qualitative and quantitative findings to adjust each program, determines best practices and program success, and creates a model that will be replicated in subsequent years. Outreach hires and pays a lead tutor for each school site and recruits and trains both volunteers and paid tutors to serve as the program’s frontline staff, working with students with the most pressing needs. Tutoring is either done on a one-to-one basis or in very small groups of two or three students per tutor. All tutors receive training from the tutor program coordinator, Outreach’s site-based program managers, and partner school faculty. Ongoing professional development, covering curriculum, school culture, behavior policy, etc. continues throughout the year.

Students who participated in Outreach’s Data-Driven Tutoring Program averaged a 9.6% gain on academic assessments across all tutored subjects. Some even surpassed the academic gains of their peers who were not identified as needing extra help. Outreach is still in need of a few tutors at various schools. If you are interested in being a volunteer tutor, please email our volunteer coordinator, Josh Fertitta, at volunteer@nooutreach.org. If you are interested in being a paid tutor, please send a cover letter and resume to jobs@nooutreach.org.