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Every school day 7,000 students become dropouts nationwide. The Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce is helping with this crisis within its own community. The membership organization is delivering CHOICES, an interactive decision-making workshop that empowers students to achieve academic success in pursuit of their career and life aspirations, to local seventh graders through volunteer presenters from the business community.
“We are thrilled that the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce is able to deliver CHOICES to the Eastern Shore community,” said Leo Muller, Executive Director of the national not -for-profit. “CHOICES helps kids at a crucial point in their lives, when they are old enough to think realistically about their future but are young enough to still do something about it.”
Through their social enterprise business model, the CHOICES Education Group licenses CHOICES to businesses, chambers of commerce and service clubs for an annual program fee based on the number of students served, and then provides the training, materials and support needed to implement and manage the program in local communities. CHOICES is a powerful tool for building and sustaining effective business-education partnerships in local communities. Volunteers from the business community facilitate the program, bringing their real-life experiences right into the classroom and serving as positive adult role models for the students.
“Our volunteers are presenting the CHOICES program to 32 seventh grade classes in schools along the Eastern Shore,” said Darrelyn Bender, president/CEO for the ESCoC. “We are pleased with the results thus far. The students learn the importance of making an effort to be a good student, how to manage their time and money and the reasons for setting future goals . We are pleased to provide this value added program to our own youth because they are the future of our community.”
About The CHOICES Education Group
The CHOICES Education Group is an independent 501c (3) nonprofit social enterprise started in 1985 with initial funding from Pacific Northwest Bell (now Qwest Communications). CHOICES has been delivered to more than 6 million students since 1985.The CHOICES workshop is currently being delivered to 200,000 students per year in 47 states in the U.S., three provinces in Canada and two sites in Australia. More information about CHOICES is available at www.choices.org or by calling 1-888-CHOICES (1-888-246-4237).
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