City of St. Petersburg and Students First Alliance hold Operation Graduation with goal to increase graduation rates
3/11/2010
By Chrystal Morris
On January 22, 2010 the City of St. Petersburg, Fla. and the Students First Alliance hosted a Dropout Prevention Summit called Operation Graduation: Empowered, Engaged and Involved at the St. Petersburg College EpiCenter. Operation Graduation brought people together from all around Pinellas County who shared the same vision to work collaboratively to increase graduation rates.
More than 200 people joined Mayor Rick Baker, representatives from the mayor’s Office of Education Policy, city and school leaders, State Farm, the United Way, Big Brothers-Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs of America and a host of other Alliance partners.
The Life Skills Center, a school for 16-21 year olds who either have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out due to poverty, addictions, teen pregnancy and family issues provided support for the summit. Pinellas County Youth Council was involved in all stages of the summit planning and on February 19, a follow-up meeting specifically for young people was convened.
Subsequently, youth will be working closely with adults to incorporate their voice into a community-wide dropout prevention action plan that will address achievement gap issues, strategies to keep students engaged and helping to prepare students for college and beyond.