Mentoring at Risk Youths in Racine, Wisconsin: Counseling, tutoring, job training, and apprenticeship programs

$220,000 Grant Boosts OIC Quantum Program
Joe Buttweiler Monday, July 10 2000

A highly successful program at OIC that helps at-risk youth graduate from high school has received a $220,000 grant from the SC Johnson fund. The gift will provide $55,000 a year for four years to the Quantum Opportunity program at Opportunities Industrialization Center of Racine County, 1020 Washington Ave.

"I am really overwhelmed," said Claudius Adebayo, OIC executive director. Despite the remarkable success of the First group of Quantum participants, it has been difficult raising money to continue the program, he said. Thirty-eight of the 40 students in the pilot program graduated, compared to only one of 40 students in a control group, Adebayo said. Ninth-graders entering the program basically come from single parent, low-income homes, and have low grades and siblings who are in street gangs, Adebayo said.

The program serves Case High School students who live in census tracts 1 through 5. Adebayo said 21l students met the program criteria. Fifty were chosen for the current program. Quantum has three segments: Academics, self-development and community service. Participants get help with homework and assistance in catching up in weak subjects; they learn about self esteem, the dangers of drugs, and can get help to quit smoking; and they must take part in community service programs.

Adebayo said that besides preventing students from dropping out of high school it aims to help them enroll in college or vocational training, reduce teen pregnancy, reduce arrests, and reward regular school attendance. Adebayo said seven or eight of the first 40 students in the program are already enrolled in college, and another three will be starting in the fall.

He said the SC Johnson Fund gift should make it easier for OIC to solicit other funds for the program, which costs $126,000 a year to serve 50 students. Among other sponsors are the Racine Community Foundation and the city of Racine. "This program is worth every penny of it and we are all grateful to the Johnson Fund for helping us to keep a good thing going in our community," Adebayo said.

Write to Joe Buttweiler c/o The Journal Times, 212 Fourth St., Racine, WI 53403.