Expanding Our Reach: The Andrew Grene School
HELP is always looking for ways to offer opportunity to more young people so when the Andrew Grene School approached us about collaborating on a civics and leadership curriculum for high school students, it seemed like a natural fit. The Andrew Grene High School is a scholarship school in Cite Soleil, often considered the poorest neighborhood in the western hemisphere. Founded in memory of an Irish UN worker who died in the 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, the Andrew Grene School seeks to provide young people with a strong secondary school education, access to extra-curriculars, and a sense of commitment to their community. To build on this commitment to service and community, HELP agreed to work with Andrew Grene to adapt HELP’s unique Citizenship & Leadership curriculum for a younger audience, train teachers, and consult on program implementation.
HELP citizenship & leadership team lead a training session at Andrew Grene School
The partnership began with curriculum development in early 2021. The HELP academic department staff outlined general learning goals and benchmarks for each year of school. The team then created more detailed programming guidance, including learning modules and teaching resources, to be implemented in the school’s first-year classes (“Niveau Secondaire 1”, equivalent to grade 9 in the American system).
This May, the team completed the first-year curriculum for Andrew Grene and ran a three-day training workshop for Andrew Grene teachers covering theory and practice on how to best present the material in the classroom. The teams from HELP and Andrew Greene will meet three more times throughout the school year to check-in, answer questions, and provide feedback.
The beginning of this school year marks the first time that our Citizenship & Leadership curriculum has been implemented in a high school setting. We are excited and proud to watch a whole new generation of young people learn about themselves, their community, and how to contribute to the future they envision.