Metropolitan Detroit has one of the largest graduation gaps between suburban and urban school communities in the United States. Bridgepointe’s growing volunteer base works with participating schools to provide educational seminars, field trips, special events, as well as literacy and tutoring programs in order to help bridge this gap.
Bridgepointe is committed to helping students achieve greater academic success through educational support focused on instilling a sense of pride and self esteem within the children, and by extension their community. We know firsthand the power of interactive education in unlocking a child’s possibilities.
Please review some of the programs that Bridgepointe has helped impact. If you have any questions about future events, please contact us or check our calendar.
- Career Days
We help to organize a variety of professionals to visit classrooms and make short presentations about their career. This is a wonderful opportunity for the students to hear about a wide range of occupations.
- Shared Field Days
This offers an opportunity for children from different schools to come together for a day of fun outdoor activities and games. The field day can take place in a park or on school property any green space will work.
- Helping To Develop and Support School Libraries
Bridgepointe has extensively developed and supported Detroit school libraries. In the past and on going, the organization has helped to supply, organize, catalog and shelve thousands of books so that Detroit students and their teachers can have access to a wide variety of books.
- Tutoring
Volunteers visit a particular student at a Detroit school during school hours or during the after school program. Usually meeting every other week, the student and volunteer get a chance to befriend each other, as well as work through any academic challenges facing the student. This year we plan to expand the tutoring program, and even offer sessions using Skype/Face Time!
- Travel Group
Throughout the school year the same group of students travel to different areas in southwest Michigan to have new experiences, helping to expand student’s sense of self and develop more of life’s possibilities.
- Reading Rallies
Bridgepointe encourages literacy and a love of reading through multiple reading events throughout the school year. The largest of these is held during Michigan’s “March is Reading month”.
- Detroit Chamber Music Society
Bridgepointe offers some of our partner Detroit schools a residency program which exposes students to chamber music in an interactive way by cultivating the student’s interest through lectures, demonstrations and live performances.
- Mentoring/Lunch Buddy Program
This program involves meeting with a student at least twice a month to have lunch and offer support to that child.
- Educational Seminars
We are committed to exposing the children to educational seminars by bringing educational and motivational speakers to the schools.
Educational Examples Include:
- Bring poets and authors to our partner schools
- Bring musicians to schools
- Help to expose children to art
- Bring science programs for children to experience
- Help establish pen pal programs to encourage writing and building relationships
- Work with a group from Bloomberg News with our schools to encourage research and writing
- Workshops to encourage self esteem through Girls/Boys Empowered
- Listen to the needs of teachers and try to support their efforts
- Each year we have brought new and gently used books to the school for the children to take home
- Kid's Against Hunger
For the past six years Bridgepointe has brought together students from Northville Public Schools with students from Detroit Public Schools to package meals for the hungry through the organization Kids Against Hunger. We have brought approximately 6,000 students and adults together to package over 640,000 meals, which have been distributed both globally and locally.
