{"id":943,"date":"2012-10-03T11:59:33","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T18:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/?p=943"},"modified":"2018-02-01T01:03:24","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T01:03:24","slug":"lendri-purcell-program-director-of-the-at-risk-youth-families-program-of-the-barbara-donald-jonas-family-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/2012\/10\/03\/lendri-purcell-program-director-of-the-at-risk-youth-families-program-of-the-barbara-donald-jonas-family-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Lendri Purcell: Program Director of the At-Risk Youth & Families Program of the Barbara & Donald Jonas Family Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>October 3, 2012
\nBy Lisa Hewitt<\/p>\n

Coming to Oakland in 2000, Lendri Purcell has spent over a decade teaching, advocating for under-resourced educational systems, community organizing and working to implement programs that aid at-risk students. As the Program Director of the At-Risk Youth & Families Program of the Barbara & Donald Jonas Family Fund, Lendri has a deep commitment to under-served communities. She began her career with Oakland youth as part of Teach For America.\u00a0 Becoming a teacher just out of college, Lendri taught Special Education at Lowell Middle School. She explains,\u201cIt\u2019s a big responsibility but there was a lot of support. At the same time the needs were daunting. It was kind of shocking; there were things at the school that blew me away. We have televisions in the classroom, but we don\u2019t have books. I got to see a lot of great things and a lot of sad things.” Lendri\u2019s time in Oakland and teaching experience made her realize there are many positive things about the community, but a lot of work to be done.<\/p>\n

It is estimated that only 40 percent of existing students will graduate high school in Oakland and it\u2019s essential that teachers, parents, and community members work to curb this trend. The Jonas Center is one organization doing just that.\u00a0 For the last five years they have made grants to school programs, after school programs and summer programs that serve middle and high school age students all in an effort to keep students in the educational system and on a strong career path.<\/p>\n

In order to gain funding from the Jonas Center, the programs must incorporate education into their mission, while also integrating one of the following components: mentorship, mental health treatment and\/or a school to career focus.\u00a0 Lendri explains, \u201cEducation is kind of tied into all these programs, just in different ways, whether it\u2019s life skills for transitioning foster youth, or trying to bring entrepreneurs to the classroom\u201d.\u00a0 Students play a large and important role in the grant making process. From serving on the board of the Jonas Center\u2019s At-Risk Youth & Families Program to reviewing grant proposals from local organizations, they offer a unique and valuable perspective. Lendri says, \u201cWhen I was living in Oakland and I had a lot of contact with young people, they would just straight out tell me, \u2018This program is really helping me.\u2019 Or \u2018This program\u2019s great, but we don\u2019t have a counselor.’\u201d\u00a0 From the inception of the Jonas Center\u2019s initiative, youths\u2019 voices have a played an essential role; they offer relevant and first hand experience to aid in the grant making process.<\/p>\n

Whether through a stipend, a paycheck or a chance to build their resume, young people need to know what they\u2019re doing has meaning, \u201cThey often say, \u2018I want a job. I need money, I need money for clothes. I don\u2019t have money for school lunches.\u2019 So I think another thing that is really important is access to a job, an internship, a mentorship. Something where there\u2019s a stipend, so the young person gets, if possible, some sort of monetary gain. Or training or something they can put on their resume. And that\u2019s a great way to have that link between school and career.\u201d Lendri stresses it\u2019s important for the organization or business to make the work they\u2019re doing relevant to the student.<\/p>\n

Lendri recognizes that the students can\u2019t do it alone; having a strong adult in their life is vital. Mentors often can show the connection between education and a profession; encouraging young people to stay in school longer. \u201cIt\u2019s important to have some kind of mentor in your life. I know even for me, growing up in a very well resourced community, that connection wasn\u2019t made very clear. That what you do in school will dramatically impact what kind of salary you have later. How easy or hard your life might be, your choices. It\u2019s important to make what\u2019s happening in school very relevant to the world of work outside of school.\u201d She stresses it\u2019s essential that each student has an adult in the community who cares, is accessible and who has time to spend with them, in order to keep young people interested in school, their job, or an internship.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in getting involved with a business partner that works with young people, please visit: www.oyfba.org<\/a>, which provides a youth friendly business directory.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lendri Purcell and her grandparents, Barbara and Donald Jonas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 3, 2012 By Lisa Hewitt Coming to Oakland in 2000, Lendri Purcell has spent over a decade teaching, advocating for under-resourced educational systems, community organizing and working to implement programs that aid at-risk students. As the Program Director of the At-Risk Youth & Families Program of the Barbara & Donald Jonas Family Fund, Lendri … Continue reading Lendri Purcell: Program Director of the At-Risk Youth & Families Program of the Barbara & Donald Jonas Family Fund<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[77,80,85,101],"coauthors":[],"series":[],"affiliates":[],"programs":[],"collections":[],"interests":[],"class_list":["post-943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kqed_research_local_ag","tag-kqed","tag-kqed-american-graduate","tag-lendri-purcell","tag-oakland-public-schools"],"acf":{"template_type":"standard","featured_image_type":"standard","is_audio_post":false},"template_type":null,"featured_image_type":null,"is_audio_post":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1904,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943\/revisions\/1904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"affiliates","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/affiliates?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"programs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/programs?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"collections","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collections?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"interests","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/americangraduate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/interests?post=943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}