School Partnerships: Richmond Fairview Elementary

Sometimes life can be really hard to understand… even as adults. Tough times come and they are just that… TOUGH. What happens when children experience really tough times and there isn’t someone there to wipe their tears? As unfair as it may seem, children experience some of the toughest times. One morning in particular at Fairview, a group of elementary children had been experiencing a few really tough challenges. One student’s dog had just died and more seriously another little boy had just lost his father. To some degree, all of the students were grieving, which resulted in a room full of crying elementary children; all of them feeling pretty blue. Feeling that the sadness somehow needed to be lifted, for at least a moment, the CIS Site Coordinator went to her office and collected hats and gloves that were donated by community members and handed them out to the children. The school counselor joined her in the classroom and read a book to the children about coping with death. Sadly these students were forced to deal with some big problems. Thankfully they had lots of support from the school and CIS to brighten their spirits on a pretty tough day.

After exhausting what I felt were all of our resources, we turned to Jackie to work with a difficult student. She was able to uncover some of the root causes of the student's poor behavior. Thanks to Jackie, the family and student now receive mental health services. I am happy to say the student is no longer a major behavior issue and her hygiene, grades and attendance have all improved.