The Need
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Approximately 80 percent of Renzi's students are considered at-risk because they are from low-income households, struggle academically, have behavioral problems and/or learning disabilities, or some or all these factors combined. The Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows founded the Renzi Education and Art Center for children growing up in poverty, whose families could not afford to enroll them in after-school programs and activities. Although we accept children from all socioeconomic backgrounds, we continue to recruit
K-12 students from Renzi's neighborhood and adjacent areas, which have among the highest rates of children living in poverty in Shreveport. |
Percentage of Children Living Below the Poverty Level in and near Renzi Center's neighborhood,
Poverty's Cruel Impact on Children
The Renzi Center is located in Highland, bordering on the Stoner Hill area. Most Renzi students come from these neighborhoods, where poverty is acute. The map to the right shows the percentage of children living below the poverty line, based on 2010 US Census data. The area in which the Renzi Center is located, outlined in yellow, has 35.3% of children -- more than 1 in 3 children -- living below the poverty line. Ten blocks west, the rate rises to 54.5% or more than half of all children living there. Ten blocks east of the Renzi Center, the dark blue area of the map, a staggering 67.5%, of children live below the poverty line.
Research funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation finds that one in three children who have spent half their lives in poverty will not graduate from high school. Many will fall behind their higher-income peers and struggle in school. There are numerous, complex reasons for why this happens. Poor children often lack basic necessities, such as adequate nutrition, heat, secure, safe housing, and mentally stable caregivers, which all negatively impact their cognitive abilities and emotional well-being.
Poverty has also been found to be connected indirectly to juvenile violent crime rates. Researchers have found "that poverty exerts much influence on family disruption (e.g., marital separation, divorce), which in turn has a direct influence on juvenile violent crime rates." There is evidence as well that children growing up in poverty are also more likely to become victims of crime than are their higher-income peers.
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High-Quality After-School Programs Help At-Risk Kids
Research on high-quality after-school programs shows that children, especially those growing up in poverty, greatly benefit from them. The After School Alliance, a national non-profit organization that advocates for high-quality after-school programs for all children, reports: -Students participating in a high quality after-school program, as compared to non-participating students
To learn more about the benefits of high-quality after-school programs, please go to After School Alliance’s website: http://www.afterschoolalliance.org How Renzi’s Programs Help At-Risk Kids
Here are the ways in which Renzi’s high-quality After School Program and Summer Multidisciplinary Arts Camp help its students, especially at-risk kids: 1) Renzi provides a safe, stable, nurturing place for at-risk kids to go to after school. The maxim that school is the safest place for children is true. The peak hours of juvenile crime -- especially when children are most likely to be victims of crime -- occur during the after-school hours, 3:00-8:00 PM. Since 1997, the Renzi Center has provided a safe haven for children whose parents are not at home because they are working or can't, for a variety of reasons, ensure their children are safe. 
Renzi kids get to learn about and pet Brinkley, a bloodhound who works for the Shreveport Fire Department's K-9 Search & Rescue, in their Pet Education class.
Renzi does more, though, than keep children off unsafe streets. It also provides a warm, welcoming environment, a structured routine, and positive adult role modes, all of which tend to be missing from our students' lives. The Center's two buildings, the Academic House and the Art House, are beautiful renovated houses, with hardwood floors, lots of light, and walls hung with works of past and current students. We also have a predictable, structured routine, which helps students whose lives outside of school are chaotic. (Poor urban families tend to move frequently and suddenly.) Each student gets a free snack after they arrive at Renzi, they play until classes begin, their classes start at 3:45PM and end at 5:30PM, and students go to their scheduled classes every week for seven weeks. When a new session begins, students can select new classes, which they will attend every week for seven weeks. Finally, Renzi has staff, teachers, and volunteers who really care about our students. Some of our students do not have many positive role models in their lives or hear much praise, especially if they start struggling in school. |
 Renzi kids are college-bound in Centenary College's T-shirts!
2) Renzi helps at-risk kids keep up with and improve in school. At Renzi, students take two 25-minute academic classes daily, which
are taught by certified, experienced teachers. We usually keep the
number of students to just six per class and even fewer in the core
academic subjects (Language Arts, Math, Homework, and Reading), so
they receive one-on-one, close attention from the teachers. They gain additional knowledge and skills in classes such as
Environmental Science, Vocabulary, Computers, and Spanish. In the Homework class, students are required to bring
homework to do, so they get it finished before going home to their families.
3) Renzi's art classes make our kids feel proud and self-confident. Renzi students also take a 50-minute art class every afternoon. We hire local, professional artists to teach their techniques, skills, and approaches to their art and we ensure they have the space and materials they need. Under the artists' guidance, Renzi students develop their own unique approaches to and expression of the art medium they are engaging in. Renzi offers a wide range of art classes – Wire Sculpture, Cartooning, Painting, Poetry, Theater, Clay & Pottery, Photography, Quilting, and so much more. 
Our students, like all of us, want friends and people they can trust. Letting our kids know we care and are there for them goes a long way.It is hard to put into words what Renzi students gain from their art classes. We have seen time and time again children who start out at Renzi timid, anxious, and sad and are outgoing, more self-confident, and smiling after going to Renzi’s classes for just one week – sometimes after just one day! This transformation often happens after they have made their first work of art. They see immediately that they have created a painting, a cartoon character, a poem that is wholly theirs, something that brings happiness and value to their families, communities, and most importantly, themselves.
4) Renzi helps kids get enough to eat. Most of Renzi’s students participate in the Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana’s Backpack program, which was established for children who are in danger of being chronically hungry. Every Thursday evening, students enrolled in the Backpack program take home a 7-10 lb pack of nutritious, shelf-stable food, including items such as granola bars, fruit juice and pop- top canned food. For some of our students, having these food packs means they won't go hungry over the weekend. |
Renzi Has Made a Positive Difference in Many At-Risk Children's Lives
Children growing up in poverty face tough obstacles and complex challenges. We don't have all the answers, but we do know that if kids have a safe place to go to after school, if they keep up and excel in school, if they have ways to discover their creativity, talents, and value as people, and if they have a chance to have meet and be around positive adults, they can overcome many of the obstacles and meet the challenges poverty presents. Since its founding in 1997, the Renzi Center’s After School Program has made a positive difference in hundreds of at-risk youth’s lives.
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