They're starting over, thanks to a school aimed at high school diplomas
(MOBILE, Ala.) Sept. 15 - A few weeks ago, Delfred Brooks was not doing much with his life. In fact, Brooks was not doing much of anything.
"I mean, I was out here on these streets, you know what I'm sayin'?" Brooks says.
It is a familiar story for those without a high school diploma, but Delfred and others have decided they have had enough of the streets. They want a job. They want a good job.
They have decided to get their high school degree, but they are not enrolling back in high school. They are going to St. Stephens AME Church.
On Sunday, the church is a place of worship, but it is also a place of learning.
Inside, you can find a class of the "Mobile County Drop Back In Academy." Classes happening at five locations in Mobile County. Classes created especially for high school students who either dropped out or had to leave school for discipline reasons. But when they dropped out, a real lesson set it: no diploma means no job.
"They don't want to go back and start from ninth grade because they're already 17, 18, 19 maybe 20 years old," Mobile County School Superintendent Roy Nichols says. "What they want is a way to go through their high school credits in a way that won't embarrass them, but a way that will help them get through it faster than four years."
Tuesday at city hall, Nichols introduced the academy to the Mobile City Council. At his side, representatives from Alternatives Unlimited, the company that runs academies like these in many parts of the country. Employees of Alternatives Unlimited compiles a list of recent dropouts, then recruits those students to come to classes. The goal is to help each of the students get their diploma at their own pace.
Jay Vincent Brown, of Alternatives Unlimited, says the program's success rate is 95 percent.
"Ninety-five percent of the doors we've knocked, those kids have responded," Brown says. He says the kids have been excited about it and are attending the classes.
The academies are financed by state funds, which include money returned to the county for each student enrolled in the Mobile County School System. Every student that returns to school via the Drop Back In Academy gets money for the program.
Brown says nationally 95 to 98 percent of their students graduate high school, and he expects the same in Mobile.
And, there's a reason for the success. The kids want their diploma this time around.
"Everything on the streets is not the same these days and everybody's looking for a way out," Alternatives Unlimited's Robert Safford says.
The program sounds good to county electrical worker Mary Jane Burch. Burch dropped out of high school, and she says she cannot wait to tell her daughter's friends about the program.
"Maybe I can get 'em back in school, because I want all kids, all kids to go to school," Burch says.
Get more information on Mobile's Drop Back In Academy by visiting one of their open houses: Tuesday, Sept. 22 at New Ship AME Zion Church in Theodore (5313 Laurendine Rd.) or The Greater Deliverance Church in Prichard (1613 Wolfridge Rd.) Visit alternativesunlimited.com.
