This program is a collaboration and a
partnership between Texas Tech
University, Covenant Health and our
wonderful community partners, Lubbock
Independent School District.
Students who are sent to
an alternative education placement
because of discipline problems
at their school as they transition back
from that campus to their home school
they sometimes have a little bit of
difficulty making that transition.
We provide an advocate who meets with that
student on the alternative education
campus and then follows them back to
their home campus and kind of is their
voice until they are able to advocate
for themselves for their needs.
Our advocates meet individually with
students and then we're also able to do
groups and so we're able to provide a
great service for the school district
and a great service for our community.
So we recruit advocates from the community, many conversations with colleagues at
board meetings we even reach out to
programs here at Texas Tech that seek
internship and volunteer opportunities.
Once the advocate has met all of the
criteria and they can dedicate that hour
a week and they have successfully passed
the training they are then assigned to
one of our staff members who is what we
call an advocate supervisor and what
that means is they help them navigate
the school system and they help them set
up that first meeting with the student
or that first group meeting and help
them navigate everything and
that liaison between the advocate and the school it is also with this advocate
supervisor with that they see them
through the process and help the
advocate assess any challenges or
struggles along with celebrating those
successes that they see with the
students.
Covenant is the community
partner with the advocacy program and so we help support them in several ways
one is helping with funding of the
actual program. It's my second year to
volunteer is an advocate so you know
I've had two full years of doing that
and getting to work with the kids and
I've been in two different middle schools.
The kids that I've worked with
have been just fantastic and you know
sometimes there are hard things and sad
things, so I think that's what the
program can do is help kids. We're their
advocate but our goal is to help them
be able to advocate for themselves.
The CAPS program I think has a lot to offer
in more than just a little bit they
have been doing that I think they have
a lot more things to to offer their kids
as far as relationships as well because
one of the things that our students have
trouble with is relating with other
people where they have trust issues and
for them to come—for Amy and Linn to
come to our campus and help establish
that for their kids is very beneficial
the rapport they have the students
it's very beneficial because students
can then take that back with them to
their own campuses week or anywhere in
life after that and say hey I learned
this from them, you know this is what
I've picked up on as a JJ but not
because of JJ because of the CAPS program.
In an age when there's so much
mobility and that the only way often
that people in the school systems track
kids is through computers the fact that
there's a human being an advocate who
follows these children is absolutely amazing.
We work with a lot of students that need
extra support and extra help but
sometimes it's hard to find that support
either at home or in school because
there's not a lot of trust so the CAPS
mentors and advocates that have come in
have really become that person for our
students they filled that role.
The CAPS program has been just a
benefit to all of us at every level our
elementary students who have the CAPS
experience go into middle school now
seeking that sort of advocacy and
support which i think says a lot about
the program.
What's been so beautiful and
sweet to see and with our advocates is
they come in and just love the person
and they advocate for them and they give
them voice. They're consistent they
show up every time that they say they're
gonna show up they they don't miss
meetings they're present they're
invested in their academic success but
they're invested in their whole person.
The university commitment to community
engagement and outreach is so much a
part of what CAPS does because we're
directly interacting with the population of
students who are vulnerable and we have
something to contribute to them but not
just to them to their families, to their
schools, to their classmates. It allows us
to better understand what the science
says when it's a real-life person that
you're trying to deal with trying to
help trying to learn from—that makes
that so rich and it just wouldn't be
that otherwise it just simply wouldn't
be as rich as it is
"Someone needs to go out of the beaten path and take those children by the hand—
by the heart—and lead them back."
-Ettie Lee
