Re-focus On Education: Re-engagement of H.S. Dropouts

United Way of Southeast Delaware County has embarked on a new Initiative to help promote Education in our community. We strive to encourage lifelong learning throughout the community. We do this by helping all residents gain access to the resources, services and knowledge that will help them learn and develop over their lifetime. Yet we see that education remains a major challenge. It is up to us, the community, to find the root causes of this challenge and find a way we can all contribute to the solution.

Delaware County still faces its fair share of educational challenges, but its citizens have been working to tackle these issues. On October 20^th and 21^st, the Delaware County Office of Employment and Training held a “Re-engaging Delaware County’s High School Dropouts” Summit along with 50 social service agencies (including the United Way of Southeast Delaware County). The Summit consisted of various speakers talking about the issues followed by break-out groups where people discussed ways to re-engage Delaware County’s high school dropouts.

The Summit brought to light some salient statistics about drop-outs in southeast Delaware County:

· There are 3,700 high school dropouts in Delaware County between the ages of 16 and 24 years.

· Dropouts are twice as likely to be unemployed and four times more likely to be living in poverty.

· Dropouts earn 40% less than a high school graduate.

· The economic impact to the community is $638 per dropout per year in public assistance, health care and incarceration costs.

Statistics like these remind us just how critical the drop-out problem is. Statistics like these also serve as motivation to do something about it:

United Way of Southeast Delaware County is tackling tough problems, such as high dropout rates, through its Community Impact Model. We participate in various meetings and summits, like the drop out summit, as well as convene key stakeholders to help identify the root causes of problems and develop strategies to resolve them. This will be a long process but United Way is committed to achieving significant and long lasting change in the Delaware County community. We will continue to work with our partners to ensure that citizens of southeast Delaware County are aware of the educational challenges facing the community while offering solutions. The Dropout Summit was a positive step toward our larger goal however this is just the beginning!