Every year Jubilee Reach helps thousands of Bellevue area children in a myriad of ways, said Eric Eun its the group’s director of operations. While those needs are being met, it’s growing at a rate the nonprofit can barely sustain.
The organization provides meals, clothing, even housing for those in need, and offers 38 different free after school programs across each of Bellevue’s middle schools and two elementary schools with the help of 4,000 volunteers.
With nearly 20 percent students in Bellevue eligible for free or reduced lunch, the need is great, costing roughly $3.5 to $4 million in donations annually to keep each running.
“When people think of Bellevue they think rich, in Seattle poverty is clearly present, here it’s invisible … it’s masked” Eun said.
This Saturday Jubilee Reach is hosting its annual Festival of Trees, a fundraiser held at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue Grand Ballroom starting at 5 p.m.
The $150 plate dinner prepared by chef Gene Cunningham, includes select wines, access to a silent auction for fully decorated Christmas Trees and themed gift packages from sponsors and live music from Moxie.
All of the money raised will go to help fund the after school programs, and provide support for the more than 490 families locally, through its Community Care program.
With the help of Jubilee Reach, students are showing remarkable improvement in and out of the classroom, Eun said.
At Highland Middle School, where nearly half of its student population is eligible for free or reduced lunch, the students have seen firsthand the benefit of Jubilee Reach, serving as major part of the school’s recent success, he said.
Based on President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind legislation, Highland went through a “restructuring process,” said principal Anissa Bereano.
Sixth grade blocks were grouped together so students had the same instructor for language arts, social studies and math. In doing so, the students didn’t have to deal with as much transitions from different classrooms and were able to build stronger relationships with their teacher, she said.
At the same time, the school also brought in coaches from Jubilee Reach to help build those relationships and encourage the student participation carrying over their influence from after school activities into the classrooms.
“A lot of great things happened at once,” Bereano said. “One of our biggest focuses was positive relationships, if they could have positive experiences at the school after class it would carry over to their school work.”
And it did. Between 2009 and 2014 the number of students passing state testing grew from 72 percent to 92 percent.
Bereano said a lot of students were having in trouble in algebra in particular, so one of the coaches sat in class with them as well as tutored them after school. He already knew the homework they were going go have to tackle because he was in the class.
The combination of a caring community partner and a team of teachers providing quality education made it possible for students to excel in places they never though possible, she said.
“Often times kids may feel disconnected from school, they may not have that positive relationship with a staff member, but the site coaches have been very successful in that,” Beareano said.
The “power” of having those coaches at school during the day also greatly reduced the number of detentions. In the 2008/2009 school year the school administration issued 101 detentions. Last year there were just 29 incidents that required a detention and this year the school has essentially stopped giving them out, opting instead to focus on reteaching and allowing the students to learn from their mistakes, the principal said.
