Camden School District Partners With Salvation Army on Community Resource Centers
By Steve Tawa
CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) -- The Camden School District and the Salvation Army are teaming up to give parents more resources to help their children succeed in school.
Today, at the Salvation Army's Kroc Community Center, Camden schools superintendent Paymon Rouhanifard (at lectern in photo) said the idea is to engage the uninvolved.
"We all know that when parents, grandparents, and guardians are more involved in their child's education, student achievement goes up and behavioral problems go down," he noted.
The resources being made available will include tips on health and wellness, career readiness, and family bonding.
Rouhanifard recalls that when he came on board 18 months ago, he set out to locate comprehensive skill-building programs in the neighborhoods of the Camden.
"Almost a third of our kids attend charter schools," he said, "so if you put that resource (only) inside a district school, then you don't have that shared resource or that community conversation."
The Camden Parent Partnership, to be based at the Kroc Center, in the Cramer Hill section of the city, is the second of four planned Parent Partnership sites rolling out this year. The first was located in Camden's Lanning Square neighborhood, and the others will be spread out geographically across the city.