Who Is Served?

Jennifer Janssen with craft class students at the peace center

Several years ago, in preparation for one of our tutor training sessions for our After School Tutoring Program, we compiled a report entitled “Who is Served?” As we recruited tutors for the program, it became evident that it would be helpful for us to take a closer look at those we were serving and use that information to help us make decisions about how to improve our program. Sources of information included written registration forms and conversations with facilitators, drivers, tutors, and the children themselves.

During the 2015 – 2016 school year we had 94 children who registered for our After School Tutoring Program. Our largest group was the 12- to 14-year-old group. In past years we had very few students below grade 1, but this year we had 11 who were in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten. Our population was evenly distributed between male and female students. New birth countries represented in this year’s population included Congo, El Salvador, Rwanda, and Senegal. Approximately two-thirds of our children attend St. Louis Public Schools. When asked about religion or church affiliation, the majority of the registration forms showed that the children professed to be “Christian”. In other words, most of these students and their families have found a church home, with a little less than 20 percent now attending nearby LCMS congregations.

Each new school year is a new year for our After School Tutoring Program as well.  A number of children return to our program year after year, but there are always new children joining the program. Now you know a little bit about those who were served this past school year. Who will be served next year? We don’t know, but we will be planning over the summer for those whom God sends!

By Sandy Gerber St. Johns Lutheran Church (City)