Creative Visions staff joined more than 200 community volunteers in going door to door to encourage students who have dropped out of school to return.  Creative Visions’ CEO Ako Abdul- Samad,  COO, LaVon Stennis- Williams and Program Coordinators Cynthia Hunafa and Kevin Clark  joined volunteers who worked in groups of five in visiting the homes of 452 drop outs. The event was sponsored by United Way, Aviva and Des Moines Public Schools and included volunteers from the school district, community organizations and local businesses.

 “Helping students to stay in school and graduate is not only a moral obligation, but has become an economic necessity given the diminished earning capacity of an individual who drops out of school, and as a community resource, we want to be a part of the District’s efforts to help increase the graduation rate of our youths”, said Ako Abdul- Samad,

Creative Visions’ commitment to helping reduce the dropout rate, lead to Creative Visions developing its Outside the Box High School Graduation Initiative program which is designed to help students who have been identified as being at risk of dropping out of school and students who have been suspended from school to remain engaged in school. The program provides academic and non academic support for students and utilizes Education 2020 an online educational program which is also used by the school districts.  To better deliver educational support services, Creative Visions hired a retired teacher with over 20 years of teaching experience in the Des Moines School District as the Program Coordinator and Learning Coach.

Creative Visions encourages students who have dropped out of school to contact the last school attended for help in re-enrolling. If any student or parents need help in re-enrolling their student, please contact Creative Visions at (515) 244-4003, and Creative Visions will take you to the school to re-enroll.

L to R Ako Abdul- Samad, Quan Tran, Mary Campos, Swallow Yan, and Hatim Yusif

Creative Visions was joined by leaders representing several ethnic communities in helping to promote I Am Green, Creative Visions’ energy saving program through a series of community workshops and in a recent billboard that was erected on 63^rd and Grand.

 The purpose of the I Am Green project is to help household learn practical low costs ways to reduce energy and save money on their monthly energy bill. To date, I Am Green workshops, which are sponsored by Creative Visions, Iowa’s Office of Economic Development, MidAmerican, and the Energy Group,  have been presented in English and translated in Vietnamese, Spanish and Arabic. Over 100 households have signed up to become “green”  A workshop translated in Chinese will be held in mid October. For more information on Creative Visions’ I Am Green Workshop, please visit www.creativevisionsia.org/green or call us at (515) 244-4003.