Communities in Schools Charleston, Inc.

About the Member

Communities In Schools (CIS) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to champion all youth to stay in school by connecting the best community resources with the needs of students, their families and schools. CIS was founded in 1989 after a study by Johns Hopkins University identified the need for dropout prevention programs in our community. Today CIS serves approximately 3,500 at-risk students annually in 14 schools through partnerships with the Charleston and Berkeley County School Districts. CIS places full time staff members called Student Support Specialists in selected public schools where they collaborate with school administrators and staff to identify young people in the greatest jeopardy of dropping out of school, then provide them with evidence-based strategies to counter the risk factors they face.

About the Partnership

Communities In Schools Clark Mentor Program creates between 15 and 20 successful mentor/mentee matches each school year. With the addition of 80 iMentor Interactive user accounts, this program will aim to expand to 40 matches. Through use of iMentor’s writing prompts, the program will emphasize career exploration and post-graduation plans. With the addition of iMentor Interactive, Communities in Schools hopes to improve academic achievement, school attendance, grade promotion and school behavior.