LONGVIEW, Texas — Longview ISD trustees earlier this week created a new after-school enrichment program by investing in a partnership with a local nonprofit.
On Monday, the board voted in favor of partnering with Thrive Longview and investing up to $96,000 in the organization for the after-school program during the 2023-24 academic year.
Clent Holmes, director of Thrive Longview, said this mentoring and character development program seeks to "create safe environments for teens to fail and learn from those failures."
"Thrive Longview hopes that our students and their families will prosper, grow, and develop vigorously through intentional programming because we believe in the African proverb, 'It takes a village,'" he said. "The after-school sessions will focus on enrichment opportunities, skill-building, and drug prevention education."
According to the Thrive Longview website, the nonprofit's conviction and passion is the development of teens' characters. The mission is to transform the lives of teens while Christ is at the foundation that Thrive Longview establishes its identity and culture in as a ministry.
Thrive Longview said its staff walks alongside students using group mentoring and looks for the expertise of community members to build positive, mutually beneficial relationships.
"We believe middle school aged students have as much to teach adults about real life as adults do. We strive to be an extension of and therefore supplemental to the school, the church, and the home," the Thrive Longview website states. "We recognize that a big part of success is learning how to fail forward. With this in mind we want to prepare our teens for the adversities life has to offer by creating safe environments for teens to fail and learn from those failures."
Dr. Craig Coleman, LISD chief innovation officer, said the program will serve as an extension of what's being done by schools, churches and families in the Longview community.
"Thrive builds on those efforts by bringing in community experts and forming mentorships," he said.
The program is expected to start in late fall and run through spring, the school district said.
"Our students becoming whole, healthy, and valuable members of the community and transforming their lives so that they can be the best version of themselves is our mission," Holmes said.
Funding for the program will come from grants and local revenue this school year, Coleman said.
