/EINPresswire.com/ The Peace Corp may be pulling out of Central America due to increasing drug issues and organized crime, but Mockingbird Education, an educational consulting firm located in Dallas Texas, is not deterred. Tamara Thompson, a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of North Texas, and lead facilitator for Mockingbird Education, traveled to EL Salvador this last week to train educators and social workers in methodologies designed to keep high risk youth engaged in education and away from the gangs, violence, and crime consuming the region. This is Mockingbird Education’s second training in San Salvador in recent months. Mockingbird Education trained 50 educators and social workers from the Jovenes Constructores programs in November and returned last week to train an additional 35 staff.
The trainings are timely. Increases in violence and instability have brought challenges to programs such as Jovenes Constructores. Jovenes Constructores provides vocational training, education, gang intervention, and conflict mitigation for youth in El Salvador’s most volatile regions. The program is implemented through a partnership between YouthBuild International, Catholic Relief Services, Fey Alegria, and Fundacion Quetzalcoatl. Four El Salvadorian Jovenes Constructore programs service over 1600 youth in El Salvador. Safety concerns have increased in the region. The Peace Corp withdrew 158 volunteers in Honduras on January 16th and is planning to relocate another 76 recruits trained for service in Guatemala and El Salvador. The three countries make up the so-called northern triangle of Central America, a region plagued by gang violence and drug trafficking.
Similar to dropout recovery programs in the United States, the El Salvadorian programs face tremendous challenges engaging youth in education and vocational opportunities. In El Salvador, youth unemployment is high, often 1.6 to 3 times the national average of adults. In addition, nearly all youth abandon school before the 6th grade. In short, youth are unemployed and uneducated and as a result many are involved in the gangs and drug trafficking activities that currently plague the northern triangle of Central America.
The trainings in El Salvador are the first international trainings that Mockingbird Education has delivered. Jovenes Constructores learned about Mockingbird Education during a weeklong visit to the United States last spring. Latin American Youth Center Charter School (LAYC), a vocational charter school for high-risk youth in inner city D.C., was utilizing Mockingbird Education strategies. LAYC is a former Mockingbird Education client. Impressed, Katharine Andrade, program manager for Peacebuilding and Justice for Catholic Relief Services and the Chief of Party for the Jovenes Constructores program contacted Mockingbird Education.
Using teaching and learning strategies grounded in practicality and research in cognitive learning theory and social cognition, Mockingbird Education teaches staff how to keep learning accessible and engaging for high risk learners while maintaining high behavioral expectations and learner motivation. Simultaneously, all of Mockingbird Education’s strategies focus on building a strong program culture.
“Successful high risk education programs demand that staff be both skilled educators and competent social workers. In addition, all staff must continuously nurture a program culture that not only competes with, but beats the safety and sense of belonging that youth often find in gangs, drugs, and other activities.” says Tamara. “Mockingbird Education not only provides training, we also coach programs through implementation, intentionally and deliberately embedding strategies into the core culture of their programs.
Tamara began her teaching career in an inner city alternative charter school in Austin, Texas. She was the 2003 Austin Area Charter School Network’s Teacher of the Year. She spent 7 years as a contract consultant for various professional development companies. In 2008, she created Mockingbird Education to provide professional development that focuses exclusively on the needs of high-risk education programs. Mockingbird Education’s training and resources focus on behavior management, instructional design and delivery, learner motivation, and program implementation. Mockingbird’s current clients include the Department of Labor, YouthBuild USA, YouthBuild International and alternative schools, drop out recovery programs, and public schools throughout the U.S.
Despite the slow economy and the increasing budget constraints that challenge many educational programs, Mockingbird Education continues to grow. The firm currently employs two part time employees and several contract facilitators.
“I have visited high risk education programs in China, Africa, and now EL Salvador plus probably a hundred programs here in the United States. Despite the differences, programs in all countries are struggling to answer the same questions. ” says Tamara. ” How do we keep these youth engaged in learning and how do we create educational programs that overcome the negative factors in their lives? Mockingbird Education helps programs answer those questions. We plan to continue our work in El Salvador despite the security and safety concerns and we look forward to future international opportunities.”
For more information on Mockingbird Education contact Tamara Thompson at ta[email protected] or at www.mockingbirdeducation.net
