A Second Chance for Dropouts

Today, Todd Portune, I, the President of Cincinnati State, and a team of outstanding agencies announced the kickoff of an initiative we have been working on for some time.

It's called Connect2Success, and it's a comprehensive effort to identify high school dropouts from across the County, and reconnect them to a path of opportunity--either education, or job training, or both. For more details, see: http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=d30f7d47-8919-4a7c-8265-976776d2f7f3.

We're not reinventing the wheel through new programs--instead, we're undertaking a systematic effort that, working with Cincinnati State, CPS and other partners, will identify as many high school dropouts as we can, and through one-on-one interaction and the best agencies our community has to offer, get them back on the right track. The initial goal is to identify and get on track 700 dropouts.

This is not an isolated approach, but is part of our broader strategy to use County programs and resources to support and complement our schools' critical efforts to educate our children. Along those lines, we have supported more after school programs, early childhood education, and now this effort.

I am confident that the investment we're making in Connect2Succes (not from our general fund, by the way), will be paid back many times over in the positive difference it will make in the lives of the young people affected, and their ultimate contribution to our community. Needless to say, for every child we get back on track, we also avoid the far higher costs our community pays for the problems too often associated with high school dropouts.