“Promise Heights began with a handshake. One principal, one school and now encompasses B’more for Healthy Babies and other cradle-to-early-childhood-to-career services, five community schools, and support for many other nonprofit programs in support of the Upton/Druid Heights community. ”
Parenting education leads to healthier social and emotional adjustment of children which leads to better attendance which leads to improved academic outcomes. For these reasons, Promise Heights invests heavily in parenting programs, from birth to age five, that increase the availability of support for parents and decreases negative parent/child interactions.
We’re expanding our work with neighborhood early childhood education providers to ensure children make age-appropriate progress toward literacy, numeracy, social-emotional development, and other skills that contribute to kindergarten readiness.
Promise Heights has a goal of moving Baltimore’s children to graduate from high school into college and a productive career through individualized college/career plans, college tours, and career certification with high school graduation.
Supporting the success of youth requires that their entire family and community be supported, that’s why we provide financial literacy classes and case management to families of students in the neighborhood. The goal is to reduce student mobility by helping stabilize their housing and to decrease economic-related stressors that students experience at home and might affect their academic achievement.
Traumatic exposure to violence in a community can subtly or significantly affect the ability of teachers to teach, students to learn, and parents to engage. It is for this very reason that Promise Heights hires licensed social workers as Community School Directors—an uncommon community school strategy—because we believe our work is best done through a trauma-responsive lens and with training on healing interventions.
