Cindy Ramirez works every day to build relationships with Walla Walla students and families, supporting them in any way she can with whatever problems they face.
Ramirez is one ofseveral Communities in Schools of the Blue Mountain Region advocates who work to make sure students and families in Walla Walla have what they need to succeed.
Communities in Schools isa national organization currently operating in 25 states. It came to the Blue Mountain Region in 2021 in response to the pandemic. As of this year, Communities in Schools has an advocate in every school in the Walla Walla School District.
“By building relationships with students and families, we are able to connect and support them as best as we can,” Ramirez said. “This may look different for many students and families.”
As the advocate at the Walla Walla Center for Children and Families, Ramirez connects families with local resources, leads family events, coordinates volunteering opportunities, helps families with things such as dental referrals, WIC Nutrition Program referrals and much more. From basic needs to resolving urgent health care needs to academic performance, Ramirez is there to help.
Ramirez started her position this school year after working in the district for 11 years.
“Being an advocate not only helps support students and families, it also allows them to learn and grow,” Ramirez said. “They become advocates for themselves and their families. I enjoy connecting families with their child’s school and community partners. I strongly believe each one of us needs those connections and support from our schools and community.”
CISBM Program Manager Addison Fairbank said the purpose of everything the advocates do is to eliminate barriers that might hinder a child’s education and success.
“This involves weaving together a network of local nonprofits, volunteers, programs and community initiatives to address any challenges students may face both in and out of school,” Fairbank said. “Communities in Schools site staff provide individualized support through case management, customizing community resources and interventions for each student on their caseload.”
Advocates might help students with tutoring or mentoring, physical or mental health care, growing life skills, obtaining basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter or even college and career preparation. Some of the local organizations that CISBM partners with include Blue Mountain Action Council, Children's Home Society, Walla Walla Valley Disability Network, Comprehensive Healthcare, the Christian Aid Center and the YWCA. The full list of partnerships is available attinyurl.com/4tn4ds64.
Ruben Alvarado, the executive director of CISBM, said the main goal in the beginning was to re-engage families and reconnect them with resources that might have gone away during the pandemic. When Communities in Schools connects a student or family with a local resource, they keep track and regularly report how many services were able to help how many students.
“Support teams identify specific students that would most benefit from either our case management framework or basic needs — food, shelter,” Alvarado said. “Anything that students may need, we'll try to broker those relationships into the school so that they would have access to that.”
One of the most pressing issues CISBM is working on is attendance. Since students came back to school in person, attendance has dropped significantly. Statistics were shared during a recent school board meeting and is available at tinyurl.com/c7m965p7. During the 2019-2020 school year, about 91% of WWPS students had two or fewer absences each month. That number dropped to 76% the next year, and 63% the year after that.
During the 2022-2023 year, with the help of Communities in Schools, it rose back up to 67%. Since CISBM started working in Walla Walla Public Schools, it has been able to decrease chronic absenteeism by 8.9%. In the upcoming school year, advocates plan to improve attendance even more. Communities in Schools will have a lead attendance staff member and will use attendance incentives and interventions for the three different tier levels of absenteeism.
“Essentially, school absences have exploded everywhere,” Alvarado said. “Not just because of the pandemic, but I think the pandemic really made it worse and we see locally the number is about 30% of students who could be classified chronically absent.”
He said that before the Becca Bill, which was passed in 1995, students could eventually be put in juvenile detention for not going to school for an extended period of time. The Becca Law requires schools to notify guardians of absences and meet with them to discuss it if it continues. Today, there are community engagement boards that allow for restorative justice practices, Alvarado said.
“I think it’s mainly the storytelling and being able to hear from families about the hardships that they're facing,” Alvarado said. “And then bringing in volunteers like us and convening meetings where we're able to talk about these challenges families have to prevent them from going through the judicial process of truancy court.”
Currently, CISBM is in the process of trying to establish itself as an independent 501(c)(3). It is a fiscally-sponsored nonprofit, meaning it is sponsored by a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) so it can apply for grants and receive tax-deductible donations.
“It allows us to really do the program well and not have to worry about a lot of the operational bookkeeping and a lot of those things,” Alvarado said. “We can just focus on doing the program, and then as we build that capacity, then we can start thinking about the next phase of our growth.”
With advocates now in every public school in Walla Walla and one school in Milton-Freewater, CISBM hopes eventually to expand, covering schools from Burbank to the Idaho border. But for now, the organization and its 15 staff are focused on succeeding in the Walla Walla area.
“We want to invite the community — if you're a business or if you're an individual wanting to volunteer, or just someone who wants to be in support of students who may need that extra support, there are ways that you can reach out to us and there are ways that we can connect you to meet those needs,” Alvarado said. “It could be a physical need, or if they want to be mentors or tutors, there's a big need for trusted adults and that's what we want to foster.”
Loryn Kykendall reports on health care and education. She can be reached at lkykendall@wwub.com.
