Education Services

Educating Children Facing Trauma and Homelessness: First Place understands the trauma and challenges associated with homelessness and is uniquely suited to educate preschool and elementary students experiencing this reality. At First Place, students benefit from individualized curriculum and instruction plans based on emotional and academic assessment to ensure students are comfortable and capable while learning how to become confident, competent and caring adults.

Children are typically enrolled for one school year to mitigate education interruption and provide time for families to heal emotional wounds, recover independence and achieve permanent housing stability.

First Place education services uniquely designed for homeless and at-risk families include:

First Place has four main Education Programs:
Early Learning
Elementary Education
After School Program
Classroom Without Walls curriculum

Elementary School:

At First Place, elementary students benefit from individualized curriculum and instruction plans based on emotional and academic assessment to ensure students are comfortable and capable while learning how to become confident, competent and caring adults.

First Place elementary education is provided to children in grades pre-kindergarten through 6th grade and is uniquely geared toward children experiencing the reality of homelessness and poverty.

To ensure students realize their learning potential, First Place provides:

• Education staff and counselors sensitive to homelessness and poverty issues
• Emotional and standardized academic assessments
• Individualized instruction plans and curriculum based on academic standards of the Seattle School District and the State of Washington
• Instruction from certified classroom educators
• On-site technology specialists including computer labs and Internet access in every classroom
• Small classroom sizes with an average student/teacher ratio of 14:2 (10:2 in kindergarten class)
• Specialized counselors and educators for psychological evaluation, special education, speech and language therapy, bilingual assessments and tutoring and physical rehabilitation
• Extracurricular activities and cultural enrichment field trips and experiences

 Classroom Without Walls

Classroom Without Walls (CWW)is based on a community-based curriculum developed by First Place Executive Director, Dr. Doreen Cato in 2005. In 2007, Dr. Cato worked with key legislators to create a dropout prevention bill that would provide support to community organizations working to increase student academic success and increase graduation rates within the dropout prevention, intervention and retrieval system through a new demonstration program called Building Bridges which implemented the CWW curriculum.

First Place was awarded a contract to continue their work on dropout prevention. As the host site, First Place also created partnerships with other community organizations doing similar front-running work across the state:

• The Maxine Mimms Academy works to identify barriers to learning and strives to restore suspended and expelled students to full participation in the public education system (student participants:  grades 6-12)
• Tulalip Elementary School is a public school within the Marysville School District and works to integrate Native American culture into education through a Lushootseed language program and an extensive ecological studies curriculum (student participants:  grade 5) 
• The Opportunities Industrialization Complex (OIC) of Washington in Yakima provides education and employment support to students interested in getting a GED and/or participating in a vocational or job readiness program (student participants: grades 9-12)

First Place and its partners use the Community-Based Learning curriculum to align classroom learning and academic standards with real world experiences in the community.  Community-Based Learning draws from research on peer-assisted learning, project-based learning, and experiential learning. By intentionally linking academic standards to the real world of our communities, community schools are narrowing the gap between knowledge and action, and between what students must learn and what they can contribute.

Community-Based Learning Models include:

• Academically-Based Community Service- connecting the academic mission of colleges and universities with the aspirations of the communities that surround them
• Civics Education- preparing competent and responsible citizens while advocating for civic and political engagement and connecting students’ academic learning with civic involvement
• Environmental Education- capitalizing on student’ natural curiosity about the natural world and the social relationships they find there, using the school’s surroundings and the community as a framework within which students construct their own learning
• Place-Based Learning- using the unique history, environment, culture, and economy of a particular place to provide a context for learning
• Service Learning- integrating community service with academic study to enrich learning, teach civic responsibility and strengthen communities
• Work-Based Learning- allowing young people to spend time with adults-whether in a mentoring relationship, role model situation, or informational interaction- to learn about careers, in order to make learning relevant by providing opportunities for contextual and applied learning

First Place After-School Program
The First Place After-School Programs are provided to all First Place students, Monday -Thursday.
The After-School Programs are an extension of the school day, and focus on students’ academic, social and emotional development.

The goal of the after school programs is to provide a safe space for students to explore their creativity, build social skills, and increase their academic success. Our programs are facilitated by community vendors and volunteers, and are managed by First Place staff. Every eight weeks, students sign up for the after school programs of their choosing. Our current after school program schedule includes:

Hip-Hop Dance
Swimming
Visual Art
Basketball
Knowledge Points Reading and Math Tutoring
Homework Help

First Place is always looking for volunteers to help support our growing after school program.  We also encourage any creative ideas for new programming.