Elevate: Uplifting Coweta, One Student at a Time
By KATIE ANDERSON, Out and About
Helping students to be successful in our community helps our community to be successful. While schools have great challenges in 2024, the good news is that Coweta has a local nonprofit to help provide extra support.
Their name is ELEVATE Coweta Students. Starting in 1993 as Communities in School, the mission has always been to empower students to stay in school and achieve success in life. In January 2020, the name changed to ELEVATE Coweta Students.
Executive Director Kevin Barbee sees different needs for each unique student, but for many students, the needs are mental/emotional, as well as physical needs like food, clothing, hygiene products, and school supplies. ELEVATE has staff on campus at Ruth Hill Elementary, Welch Elementary, Smokey Road Middle School, East Coweta High School, and Newnan High School, which helps them identify and respond to needs immediately.
“Our [on-campus] rooms provide a safe, quiet, and welcoming environment to provide much needed services. Our rooms are a place that students can come to make up assignments, catch up on homework, or a place to decompress. We have many group programs as well. Our grade-level transition program works with 5th and 8th grade students to help them transition to middle and high school,” said Barbee.
Presently, they have seven site coordinators at five schools, and serve over 2,000 students. In 2017, they took over the school system’s mentoring program with 40 volunteers in 14 schools. Today, there are around 200 mentors in 28 schools. Full disclosure – I am one of them. Serving in this capacity has given me great joy and purpose. I always look forward to my weekly, 30-minute sessions with my fourth grade mentee.
Coweta schools always need mentors, especially male mentors, and the experience truly benefits all parties involved.
Ruth Hill Site Coordinator Cristal Malinofski and school counselor Laura Orozco-Perry work closely with mentors and their student mentees. “Mentors ensure that their mentees have someone in their corner supporting them as they navigate through life. In an environment where stability is not common, our mentors are providing consistency week after week, year after year,” Malinofski and Orozco-Perry said in a joint statement.
Jessika Allen, counselor at Atkinson Elementary School, also commented on her experience with ELEVATE mentors: “One of our new students that came from another school in the county had a mentor. She moved schools and didn’t know if she would ever have her mentor again. Through working together with the ELEVATE program, we were able to make sure we reconnected the mentees that moved with their previous mentor that they already had a connection with.
“When the student saw her mentor at her new school, she bolted to the door as soon as she saw her, let out the happiest squeal, and gave her mentor the biggest hug! The two were so excited to see each other after the summer break and after moving to a new school. This showed me how strong the connections are between mentors and mentees through this program.”
If you would like to volunteer with ELEVATE or donate to their mission, please visit their website at elevatecowetastudents.org. If you know of a student in need of help, please contact the organization via their website, or through a school counselor, teacher, or administrator.
