United Way Receives Grant to Prevent Students from Dropping Out

Check and Connect, an outreach program geared toward ninth-graders who are at high risk from dropping out of school, will be starting up in Alachua County thanks to a $300,000 grant received by the United Way of North Central Florida, the only United Way in the nation to receive the award. The funding was provided by AT&T, and will serve Gainesville, Eastside and Hawthorne high schools to supply three specialists and manager to work for two years. Annetta McCloud is one of the three specialists in Alachua County who will be working with mentoring, counseling and social service referrals with 40 to 50 students and their families.

“My biggest challenge is going to be connecting with the parents,” said McCloud. She has already met with 35 students at Eastside.

Close to 30 percent of the youth in Alachua County live in poverty-rooted issues and figures have recently shown that more students now compared to the past seven years are eligible for free and reduced price school meals.

“I’m expecting great things for the most vulnerable of our high school students,” said April Griffin, chair of the Alachua County School Board.

To read more about the grant, click here.