Volunteers from Tucson Unified School District, the City of Tucson and other partner organizations will be going on the third Steps to Success walk on Friday, July 31, to reach out to children who have given up on education.
The teams will visit the homes of about 400 children. In the two previous walks combined, Steps to Success has brought more than 230 children back to school, and 31 have graduated so far. The first Steps to Success walk was in July 2014, and the second was in January.
Volunteers will be paired with a dropout prevention specialist and a Tucson Unified employee. They will visit students who are close to having enough credits as well as some who have more work to do.
After each walk, the district’s Dropout Prevention department follows up with the families that are contacted. This year, not only will each student be contacted again, all students who return to school will get a mentor to help them through.
John Kramkowski, a member of TUSD’s dropout prevention team, said the Steps to Success program has been a valuable initiative for all involved. “We have had immense success with volunteers and have had immense success especially with students and parents,” he said.