Current Programs

Vision Seekers Learn a Lifestyle

From healthy bodies to healthy visions of the future, children can learn that their character, skills, and actions shape the destiny of their community. A migrant housing development flanked between sleepy citrus groves in fertile Southern California belies the rapid pace of the activity within. The 100 migrant families (and two displaced Katrina families) work in the citrus industry in order to stay at Rancho Sespe. It is a good opportunity for them, but where can their children go in the summer? They once roamed the hamlet battling the heat and sometimes each other, but for the past six years, they have attended the Full-Circle Learning school recently assisted by the Mona Foundation. Youngsters from two to eighteen readily flock to the school to participate in a curriculum that infuses character education, conflict resolution and community service into every academic and arts-based learning unit. Even the music supports the service projects.

In this project design, students become the helpers and healers of their communities. They reach out to serve with gobal partners as well. "To serve is to lead and to lead is to serve," they repeated each morning as they gathered. Students this year at Rancho Sespe were dubbed the Vision Seekers. They each identified their vision of who they would become and what they would do in 25 years. Then, based on their vision of current community needs, they taught their community about the need for healthy bodies in a diabetes awareness project, honoring the guest presenters and artists who helped them. They also attended a field trip to honor the Chumash people for their vision of how to save the native oak tree from development. They wrote poetry, painted, sang and completed math projects related to their work. They sent challenges to partners at the School of the Nations in Brazil to ask students who are the Vision Seekers in their community. Excellent youth and adult volunteers assisted the project.

These children wait all year for the non-profit summer school, but this year, at $100 per child, the organization's funds were low, so the length of summer school was shorter than usual. Still, they appreciated the time they could spend with teachers and with each other engaging in the Full-Circle Learning curriculum that sets them apart from others who attend schools in the nearby town, according to the school superintendent. Their skills and character have improved dramatically over the history of the program.

Some of the most poignant experiences this summer came in vision seeking exercises among the high school students. They had to identify the visions of heroes in their country and also to depict imaginary heroes living in societies around the world. They also drew visions of their own future contributions to society as adults. The program attracted several new boys who participate in gangs, for personal protection. While others had been attending the program over the years and had developed positive habits and paths, one friend had just recently committed to attend. The storyboard conveying his vision still involved shooting other rival gang members to protect his own gang. By the end of the summer school, he was able to consider risking his life to discuss the idea of a peaceful gang that does not shoot back but creates positive change in the community.

“I'm still afraid they will shoot me,” he said. “But I will think about this.”

A year ago, his friend who had saved a life while studying Sacrifice urged this gang member to attend summer school this year, so he too would find direction for his life. The teachers were so glad he had. They only wished for two more weeks to solidify his sense of forging a higher vision and belonging to a world beyond the walls of community conflict, but funding had run out. He contemplated whether to leave the gang as he walked along the trail with young children who dreamed of becoming pediatricians, veterinarians, firefighters or who simply wanted to work at the local supermarket but to do it in a way that serves their community.

It takes a virtuous village to build a village. This is the message at Rancho Sespe. Participants are seeing how learning this lifestyle will extend lives, save lifes and improve lives.

Preschool Program

FirstFive of Ventura County was so impressed with the project that they offered to add funding for a year-round preschool, which has now served the community for a full year with preschool twice each week and a third day of in-home reading. On this day, the teacher goes into the home and teaches the caregiver and the 2-4 year-old together, using the same thematically created book and song taught in class. Help with the preschool enabled the program to develop a new curriculum, 10 read-aloud books and CDs for preschoolers. The grant, however, cannot provide services for children over five years old.

Preschool is provided by FirstFive Tobacco Tax Funding, whose state budget has recently undergone cutbacks. Additional funding for site management costs to replace the 25% lost in this budget (reduced from $44,000 to approximately $34,000) would assist with the development of materials for Year 2 for students who complete the Year 1 lesson plan and for the facilitation of services at the site with additional teaching salaries. (We may have to cut days or salaries otherwise.) The program serves 28. As with the summer school, it includes a free lunch program. The cost is $10,000 to make up the shortfall or $101 per child per month.

Expansion of Year-Round Services

During the school year, all children are welcome in classes in the evening, led by volunteers. The evening class participates together in music class and then breaks into groups – The Peacemakers, the Rebuilders and the Ambassadors – to conduct activities linked to the character theme and to an ultimate service. Some of these include links to their friends at an orphanage in Afghanistan. (The students have had a collaborative learning partner in Afghanistan for two years.) Using project-based learning (and process-based learning for preschoolers) students learn that the purpose of every academic and artistic skills is service to humanity, and that the impetus for that service is born of a human virtue. The projects teach them to realize, through practical application, their deep connection to the human family.

All services at Rancho Sespe are provided free of charge to the students, whose parents are usually away at work as students search for a place to gather to find positive role models and constructive activities. In this isolated HUD housing project, surrounded by farmland, they have no transporation to other outlets for enrichment or entertainment. During the school year, students now receive only two evenings of music, supper and class time per month, as the building is used for other meetings at night and also because program volunteers must travel some distance to participate due to the isolated location.Yet students need the same services during the school year that they receive in the summer! They also need extra tutorial assistance, as local funding for onsite academic help provided by Migrant Services has been reduced. Character goals are sometimes difficult to reinforce in bimonthly evenings alone, and there is a lot of catching up to do in the summer. Our past assessments show a direct relationship between number of days attended during the year and the impact on the students. (11-month learners show the greatest impact.) Regular after-school hours when students are unattended would be an ideal time to provide regular service, especially to strengthen conflict resolution, character and academic goals. The cost below includes an onsite manager/teacher and a limited budget for nutrition and supplies for a 9 month program offered to 100 students. The cost is $18,000 per year for a nine-month after-school program, 2-3 days per week or $20 per month per child.

Summer School Support

Currently, fundraisers and small grants support the summer school, so the quality of the program is contingent and variable from year to year. Food Share and other in-kind donations stretch the budget. Securing donations to solidify the budget or extend it to provide an additional teacher would reduce class sizes, since the program serves 70-75 children and often has only three teachers to teach children spanning ages 2-15. Free lunch is provided for all students. The cost is an $8,000 minimum target budget, 4 days a week including field trips or $114 per child.

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