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HIGH POINT, N.C. — Communities in Schools of High Point believes in building successful students and positive neighborhoods. And thanks to a large High Point Community Foundation grant, their work will continue. 

Tommy Walls is the executive director of Communities in Schools of High Point. Walls described the principle the group follows in order to make a lasting impact on the community.

“We have a motto, ‘abc plus p.’ Attendance, making sure they come to school. Making sure they are good with their behavior. And course work, making sure they are getting the necessary academics to succeed and the tutoring support,” Walls continued as he explained the last part of the motto. “Parent involvement, making sure they understand the needed facets to succeed in school and making sure the parents understand what we are doing to provide that support.”

That added support is now in the form of a $100,000 Strategic Leadership Grant from the High Point Community Foundation. Communities in Schools will use the grant to train their volunteer mentors, staff, school administrators, and agency partners that make up the Crisis Mentoring program. 

“The Crisis Mentoring program is divided into two parts,” Walls said. “Number one, it provides you the opportunity to learn about nonviolence and drugs and alcohol and how to stay away from those instances and how those things are not good.”

The second part of the program involves teaching people how to respond to stressful events like COVID-19.

“We want to give training to say, ‘hey, it’s OK, we understand COVID is prevalent’, let us provide you with the tools in order to navigate that instance,” said Walls.

Crisis mentoring is something the community wants.

“Right now our students are operating on survival mode,” said Walls. “Because of that, we want to make sure we give them the necessary components in order to navigate those systems the best way possible.”

To volunteer or learn more about communities in schools of High Point, check out their website https://www.cisofhp.org/ or call 336-883-6434 extension 5.