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Success Center offers resources to Richmond County students

Augusta Chronicle - 8/16/2019

Aug. 16--Natalie Bacey grew up in the Richmond County school system. Now she's giving back to students who need support.

Bacey is the wraparound support specialist at the new Success Center, housed in Butler High School's former Career, Technical and Agricultural Education building. The center offers resources and supplies to students to remove barriers to learning.

The center includes a food and clothes pantry, mental health and tutoring services, school supplies, a washer and dryer for students' laundry, and a computer lab. Parents can also receive tutoring services to help their children with their homework at the Geneva Stallings Parent Resource Center, named after Richmond County's former Title I director.

The school system pays utilities for the building, but services and furnishings have been provided by community partners such as Golden Harvest Food Bank, United Way of the CSRA, Weinberger's Furniture and Henry Scheer, owner of TBonz Steakhouse. The center did not receive any federal funding.

Superintendent Angela Pringle said the idea for the center began about two years ago when school officials visited Marietta High School's Student Success Center.

"Children need a little more than great teachers," she said. "They need clothing; sometimes they need tutoring. We have lots of children who need mental health services."

The center opened Aug. 6 and is available from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. for all students and parents in the system. Bacey said there are three full-time staffers, but representatives from the Juvenile Justice Department, the Department of Health and the Division of Family and Children Services are available if needed.

"This center is here for the community because we know that if a child is not doing well at home, he's not going to do well at school," she said. "If we can help students emotionally by making sure that they have enough food to eat, making sure that they have clothing and a place to live, we're going to definitely see an increase in achievement and attendance in school."

In the future, Bacey hopes students will be able to ride a bus to the center, but until then they will have to provide their own transportation. She also hopes that the center will be able to offer services to students with behavioral issues.

"We want to expand it where we're having alternative discipline and attendance recovery where students when they're suspended from school can come here instead of being at home," she said. "(They can) work with mental health counselors so that they can get the social and emotional learning that they need so we can get rid of that recidivism and make sure that the students aren't continuously getting suspended for the same thing."

The center is only open on weekdays, but Bacey wants to expand the hours to the weekend.

Golden Harvest Executive Director Travis McNeal said the food bank has donated at least $500 worth of food and plans to continuously donate each month when the need arises.

"It's a dream come true just to be a part of anything that's going to provide more food directly to families and kids in need," he said.

He hopes that eventually Golden Harvest's healthy nutrition manager will give cooking classes to parents and students at the center.

"It's more than just opening a pantry. It's placed into a whole belief that this is an educational process, and so for us to be aligned with that is important," McNeal said.

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