A
new grant from Wells Fargo and the Portland Trailblazers Foundation
will improve learning space for students in the R.I.S.E. program.
R.I.S.E. stands for Reaching Individual Students Every Day. It is
a behavioral growth program for students with special needs.

The Take it to the Court
grant  is for $6,000. It will fund outdoor sport courts and play
equipment to help students practice positive social skills and physical
activity, and reading materials to support converting an abandoned
classroom into a library.

Members of the R.I.S.E. team, John Gordon, Heather Johnson, Hallie
Carpenter and Kathleen Walker, traveled to the Moda Center in Portland
this month to accept the check for the grant. The R.I.S.E. award was
$6,000.

There were 320 grant applications from schools in 31 counties.
Fifteen schools were selected for awards up to $7,500. Portland
Trailblazers starting shooting guard Wesley Matthews partnered with Wells Fargo Regional President Tracy Curtis to present the awards to the 15 participants.

The following grant narrative was submitted with the grant application:

$6,000

Grant Use: Repairing and repainting a sport court,
building playground equipment, creating a small library and study space
for at-risk students

Grant Narrative

Four years ago in the darker days of the recession, McMinnville
School District created a program for our neediest and highest-risk
students. The R.I.S.E. program is a program for students in grades K-12
who have social and emotional challenges and have struggled to find
success in school.

Many students in the R.I.S.E. program have been victims of trauma,
abuse and neglect. In 2011 there was a need to find a way to support
these students; however, limited funding to create such a program.
Therefore the R.I.S.E. program houses 55 students in grades from
Kindergarten through Twelfth grade in the upstairs of an old elementary
school building that was built in 1914, the Adams’ building. Since its’
glory days the classrooms in the Adams’ building continues to
deteriorate, along with many other building components including the
play structure and equipment which was removed for safety concerns.

For many of the students in the R.I.S.E. program, it is the first
time they have been able to find success in school. The staff is made up
of caring, patient and hard-working professionals who routinely go
above and beyond to support the high needs of the students. Classes
focus on reading, writing and mathematics; but there is also a
significant emphasis on positive social skills development and
developing successful interpersonal skills. Without the support of the
R.I.S.E. program these students are at a high-risk of continuing to
struggle in school, potentially drop out of school and in many cases
these students are at a high-risk of engaging in illegal activities and
possible jail time or incarceration. For these reasons the staff and
leadership at the RISE program understand a need for a significant
emphasis on those positive social skills, improving interpersonal
interactions and increasing student self-esteem.

With a generous donation of $6,000 from the Trail Blazers Foundation
and Wells Fargo, the R.I.S.E. program could use $4,500 to partner with
Northwest Recreation or another similar company to bring back to life
dilapidated outdoor sport courts, and design and build play equipment
for the younger students in the R.I.S.E. programs to use as a vehicle to
practice those positive social skills and get much needed physical
activity. The remaining $1,500 would be used to convert an abandoned
classroom into a library with reading materials, and quiet study areas
for older students who are working to quickly recover credits or study
for G.E.D. testing. The generous $6,000 grant for the R.I.S.E. program
would create a significant, lasting impact for some of the neediest and
most deserving students in Yamhill County and in the state.