Communities In Schools of the Gulf South, Inc.

Communities In Schools of Greater New Orleans recently became Communities In Schools of the Gulf South. We help over 7,000 public school students in Greater New Orleans each year. The mission of Communities In Schools is to surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life. We do this by placing licensed counselors and social workers directly into low-income public schools where they are needed most. Last year our staff delivered 35,357 individual services to students and families in need. We connect the most vulnerable people in our community to basic needs (food, clothing, shelter), health care, mental health services, and MORE. 87% of the families we serve live in poverty, and last year we served 539 children coping with the effects of trauma.

Everyday our staff are in schools to help kids like Timothy stay in school. Timothy was only making it to school 1 day a week. At 18 years old and still in the 9th grade, school wasn’t his priority because it couldn’t be. Timothy joined a gang at just 11 years old because his family needed money, and he was too young to get any type of legal employment. Timothy witnessed more violent crimes at a young age than most adults will in their lifetime.

Things started to change for Timothy when he met Christine, the Communities In Schools (CIS) Site Coordinator at his high school. It took over 6 months for Christine to gain Timothy’s trust, but once she did, she was able to counsel him and help him make sense of the chaos around him. Timothy is trying to “get out of the game,” and is looking for lawful work. He has also progressed in school. “One of the reasons that I come to school more often now is because I know my Site Coordinator will be looking for me. I know she really cares about me,” said Timothy.

Communities In Schools of the Gulf South provides Integrated Student Supports (ISS) to children and families in need across Orleans and Jefferson Parishes. 82% of our annual budget goes directly to programs and services for public school students. Only YOU can keep caring adults in schools to help students succeed. CIS serves 17 schools with 22 staff members and we need to raise $30,000 per school each year to maintain our services.

We need your help NOW. Over 7,000 students are counting on you. Communities In Schools of the Gulf South needs to raise $125,000 by 11:59 p.m. on November 27th - Giving Tuesday! This is an official fundraising campaign for Communities In Schools of the Gulf South and funds will be sent directly to the organization.