Maya McFadden Photo
Inside Donnelly Smallwood's community building circle.
Justin Pijuan listened to a fellow middle-schooler talk about conflicts he has with his siblings at home. Justin spoke up with a suggestion.
“I get them to come outside with me to search for little critters and bugs together,” Justin said. That helps his family to ease the tension.
That exchange took place in a student “circle” Tuesday in a citywide program taking place at Fair Haven’s Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration (FAME) school.
The six kids participating weren’t in summer school. Instead they were participating in the final week of an inaugural year of a voluntary form of a four-week summer camp aimed at helping 93 middle-schoolers who in recent years struggled with attendance and/or behavior in school.
The focus is on sharing feelings and connecting with their peers while having fun, and preparing to come consistently in school come fall.
Donnelly Smallwood, a public school drop-out prevention specialist, said that first requires for kids to feel a sense of belonging and community at their school. Smallwood led the conversation with Justin and his fellow rising 6th-9th graders, part of a broader effort to guide them toward building support communities with their peers.
The summer camp at FAME is hosted by New Haven Public Schools’ (NHPS) Youth, Family and Community Engagement office (for which Smallwood works) in partnership with the city’s Youth and Recreation Department (YARD). The office has designated its team of drop-out prevention specialists and restorative practice leads to run the camp programs.
The NHPS crew sees the summer program as part of its broader mission to tackle chronic absenteeism by supporting families and building community among middle-schoolers and preparing them to continue showing up in school buildings in the fall. That mission succeeded in cutting chronic absenteeism in city schools by 16 percent this past year, though the rate remains 31.4 percent.
Youth, Family and Community Engagement chief Gemma Joseph Lumpkin proposed to the superintendent earlier this year to focus this year’s summer break on middle schoolers and rising freshmen because of recent upticks in those students’ absenteeism and behavioral disruptions. By Friday Joseph Lumpkin’s drop-out prevention staff will be assigned to each of the program’s students to continue working with them at their schools this coming academic year, with the goal of having a supportive staff stay on top of what the families need.
“It builds strength in students’ voices,” she said of the summer program’s focus on journaling and communal discussion.
City YARD Director Gwendolyn Busch Williams said her department allocated its remaining $39,000 of Covid pandemic-relief grant money to support the FAME pilot program after Joseph Lumpkin’s team pitched the need to help support not just high-schoolers but 10- to 13-year-olds with higher needs. She said YARD will work with Joseph Lumpkin’s team during the school year on following up with the kids and developing the new model.
Sisters Laila and Jaida, who live in Fair Haven, said Tuesday they expected the summer camp to be boring like ones they’ve attended in the past. They were proven wrong.
From field trips to the aquarium to pet sharks and digital crafts classes to make cups with their animated faces on it, the two agreed the camp has been the highlight of their summer.
Jaida described the camp staff as “having structure, but they’re not strict” because they want the kids to have fun. They looked forward to a planned Thursday field trip to Lake Compounce.
Other students noted learning how to speak up at the summer camp, open up more to others, respect themselves, and how to interact with new people.
In Tuesday’s second-floor classroom at FAME, Smallwood worked with six middle school boys who for the week were assigned to his “restore and reconnect” restorative circle period.
After students had breakfast from 8 – 8:30 a.m. they broke out into their daily circles until 9 a.m.
They anonymously wrote down recent events that have made them happy and brought them pain.
“I understand that feeling,” Smallwood said as a staffer read aloud the anonymous experiences about how they each have enjoyed spending time with their families, playing video games, and playing outside.
The students also spoke about struggling with having a sick grandmother in the hospital, constant fighting in their families, and grieving the deaths of family pets.
Smallwood shared his own experiences — like struggling to see his mother in coma in the hospital and his grandmother passing away at a nursing home in 2020 — with the students to connect their struggles as a group. Others turned to each other to connect over having siblings, similar hobbies, and visiting a loved one in the hospital.
The students spoke about their favorite video games like Call of Duty, NBA 2K, and Roblox; and ice cream flavors like vanilla and cookies and cream.
Smallwood said since he first began working with the middle school boys he has noticed the “intense” conversations about their personal feelings and lives have brought the group closer together and helped the students have a better sense of themselves and their friends.
The boys now take the time to listen to each other and consider first what another person could be dealing with in their personal lives before thinking to judge them, he said.
“These are things I want them to take and apply this school year,” he said. “There’s strength in sharing yourself, and I see that joy in them when they’re understood.”
Mother of two Ladoshia Pendergrass thanks FAME for free and safe program that exercises her kids' body and minds. "Everyday they have a story to tell me about having fun," she said.
Parent of rising 9th grader Pamela Ramos gets to attend early shift without having to request time off mid-shift to check on kids.
Summer program staffers Chazz McCarter, Jose Camacho, Gemma Joseph Lumpkin, Loribeth Rodriguez, Jene Flores and Kaseem Johnson.