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Health & Fitness

Hope for Children on the Cusp at Oxbow

The reason for this blog is to share how "Project Hope" came about and to ask readers to suggest other communities where a similar mentors program can be developed to help youths "on the cusp."

The recently hosted an open forum at the local with businesses to identify potential business partners to become community mentors for local high school student participants.

The forum was advertised and a member from the Oxbow Farms Apartment local affordable housing community attended. Why would a member of Oxbow attend this session? When asked, they responded, ‘we want mentors for our kids too!’

A subsequent meeting was conducted at Oxbow and it was determined that is a population where some students need direction and can go one way or the other. They are "on the cusp."

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A branch of the Boys and Girls Club within the community was also willing to participate.

Where did we go next with this?

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A casual conversation with retired police officer Rick Lombardi yielded the existence of a role model program in Newport developed by Lt. William Fitzgerald. A meeting was set up with members of the Oxbow community, Chief Anthony Pesare and Lt. Fitzgerald. The lieutenant described his program in Newport, a national award winner, which combined college students, the local police force and at-risk children.

Next, a member of the existing Newport County Mentor/Co-Op Group from Salve Regina University caught wind for our need for positive student role models and provided a community coordinator contact at Salve.

Fast-forward to today—monthly meetings are ongoing, approximately six meetings have been conducted between representatives of Salve Regina, the Middletown Police Department and the director of the Boys and Girls Club site at the Oxbow Farms Apartment community.

We’ve called the program “Project Hope.”

With the help of the Boys & Girls Club, two students have been identified as candidates at Salve, along with two youths from Oxbow. They have had meetings to start a supportive relationship or mentorship between the youths and the Salve students. In our program, the police department interviews the youths’ parents or guardians while also conducting background checks on the Salve students.

When children and parents learned of the program, they wanted to know when it would start. They were very enthusiastic!

The reason for this blog is to share this story and to ask the audience to think about other communities where a similar program can be developed to help other children “on the cusp.”

A member of the Tiverton High School has attended a meeting to observe and perhaps develop a “hope group” in Tiverton. 

Today, members of Program Hope are looking for a junior at Middletown High School, who might be on the cusp, to recruit for the program to mold for one of the full-time Salve scholarships available.

Imagine this potential achievement from the casual attendee of a Chamber of Commerce meeting to the potential offering of a full scholarship to a child on the cusp.

A description of the Positive Role Model program that's serving as the basis for Project Hope is available to view or print in the image gallery at upper right.

To contact Chris, email him at ChrisSemo@aol.com.

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