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SLPS Outreach Efforts Creates Academically Successful Students Since 2004, the St. Louis Dream Center has been involved in a very special program with St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS). This program is designed to help children and adolescents succeed in school and society. The following press release from SLPS shares the details.

ST. LOUIS (03/04/09) — The Faith Based Initiative was born out of a need to connect St. Louis Public Schools with St. Louis area churches, synagogues and mosques in the hopes of supporting academic achievement and providing positive role models for students in the district.

Since the Initiative began in 2007 more than 20 congregations have assisted schools in a variety of different ways. From volunteers working on a school service project, to adult mentors serving as role models to young children or an adolescent, these congregations have bridged communities to erase divisions and come together as a strengthened and unified community with one purpose—to provide SLPS students across the district with the support they need to achieve not only in school, but as members of the community.

The St. Louis Dream Center, founded by Dave and Joyce Meyer, offers a variety of programs to give each child a hope and a future by presenting a positive message of faith through activities, games, music and drama. The St. Louis Dream Center paired with St. Louis Public Schools after visiting with schools around the district and specifically asking what the schools needed. Their response was to provide assistance with the schools’ curriculum which required teaching students about character traits. Thus Character Building Assemblies were formed. For four years now the St. Louis Dream Center has gone into elementary schools across the District and provided a 45-minute show along with games and activities to teach lessons such as how to forgive, how to be responsible and how to be kind.

The St. Louis Dream Center also provides instructional camps, sports leagues and special sporting events to area students. Currently 19 SLPS schools participate in the DC Sports program with three SLPS schools waiting. Highlights of the program include a flag football league sponsored by the St. Louis Rams that gives teams the opportunity to compete against other teams across the state for the opportunity to win an all expense paid trip to Disney World; a free St. Louis Cardinals baseball league for ages 5-13 that provides each participant uniforms, tickets to Cardinal games, a chance to walk on the Busch Stadium Field, and other gifts; and a basketball league that provides uniforms, coaches and bus transportation to arranged games. At the end of each sporting season, a banquet is provided for children and their families to recognize the players’ accomplishments and to receive trophies.

Another congregation, New Sunnymount Missionary Baptist Church, located in North St. Louis City, has teamed up with west St. Louis county congregation Salem Ladue United Methodist Church to tutor students from Yeatman-Liddell Preparatory Junior High School. Yeatman-Liddell students are being tutored by 20 congregation volunteers who come to the school during the school day, after school, and on Saturdays. Since the program has been so successful at the school it is now evolving into a mentoring program as well with the students traveling to St. Louis University High for bonding activities. New Sunnymount Missionary Baptist Church and Salem-Ladue United Methodist Church also come in on Saturdays to paint and to make repairs to the classrooms as needed.

SLPS is continuing to strengthen community outreach efforts to ensure that all children receive the best education possible. For more information on SLPS’s Faith-Based Initiatives please contact Karen Hylton, Community Outreach Coordinator for the Office of Public Information, (314) 345-4689 or via email Karen.Hylton@slps.org.  


Joyce Meyer Ministries is an international nonprofit organization that focuses on reaching people through media—with a potential audience of 3 billion people. In addition, Joyce Meyer Ministries provides millions of meals to people every year as well as supports and operates major medical outreaches in remote areas, operates and fully supports 46 children’s homes worldwide and provides other humanitarian and disaster relief around the world. For more information, please visit www.joycemeyer.org.

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