Bill Milliken, CIS Visionary and Founder...and me!
The CIS national board of directors hosted several of it’s city affiliates from across the country for a Leadership Meeting and Board-to-Board Convening. The two-day event took place on the eve of the CIS annual board meeting. I had the absolute pleasure of accompanying our Executive Director, Cynthia Clay Briggs, to New York for the meetings, which was a pow-wow of other executive directors, board chairs and members so that we could connect (and reconnect) with leaders from all over the country.
On Thursday, we focused our discussions on best practices and strategies for future growth and sustainability. Special attention was paid to the Total Quality Systems Standards, which were adopted by the national board to provide CIS affiliates with a common blueprint for establishing and sustaining the effective ways we impact the lives of the young people and families we serve. That is a mouthful that, in essence, means that all CIS organizations have committed to do what we’ve established works best for the students.
See the CIS model for creating a Community of Support!
On Friday, we spent a full day with BoardSource, learning and considering ways to improve and better utilize our boards of directors. Both day’s sessions were most informative, with the interaction and sharing among the other affiliates being, to me, the most valuable time spent.
National Board President, Elaine Wynn, hosted us all for high tea at the Marriot in Manhattan, where we shared the hard lessons learned in and from difficult economic times. Affiliates were asked to put forth specific lessons, practices, changes and insights from our efforts to continue to serve our students in the midst of the nation’s economic downturn. We were asked to contribute not just the challenges we faced, but to contemplate and share what opportunities came from the struggle.
This was an utterly uplifting exchange, as CIS leaders, in sharing their own hard lessons, successes and victories, offered impressive examples of innovation and creativity. By the end of the conversation, it became very clear why CIS is so successful. The CIS network is not only going strong nationally, but we have been able to harness the current constrictive economic environment, to better position ourselves as the most cost-effective drop-out prevention model in the market. Now more than ever many school districts know that in economically challenging times, they can’t afford NOT to have CIS on their campuses. Elaine Wynn said she was humbled by the high tea discussion. She came to it very concerned about the morale of the affiliates, and walked away with the realization that CIS is so vital and our leadership so committed, that you “couldn’t kill CIS with a stick!”
As part of the evening’s festivities, we had the pleasure of meeting the new national CIS spokesperson, Tyrese Gibson, actor, singer, songwriter, rapper and former model. He is most commonly known simply as Tyrese. He spoke passionately and compellingly about his commitment to CIS and why the CIS mission is so important to him. He said that he was an at-risk kid growing up in South Central Los Angeles, and that he was saved by a music teacher who saw something in him and guided, mentored and cared enough to give him the support he needed to succeed. CIS’s mission to provide caring adults on school campuses, Tyrese knows, keeps kids in school and changes young lives.
CIS Houston Executive Director, Cynthia Clay-Briggs and Tyrese, Official CIS Spokesman
Rasheeda Phillips, successful, young attorney and mother, shared the incredible story of how, when she was 14, pregnant, and truly without direction, a Philadelphia CIS’s program rescued her and put her on track. She said that she knew everyone around her viewed her as just another predictable statistic, and she even began to view herself that way, too. She knew that she was caught in a cycle– her grandmother, mother and aunt were all teen mothers. But CIS told her otherwise and helped her break that cycle. She went on to graduate from high school. She finished college in three years, all the while raising her daughter. And then she went to law school. She now works for the Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and has already begun to give back to her community in meaningful ways.
Inspirational Rasheeda Phillips, CIS Philadelphia Alumna and Me!
Read more about Rasheeda’s story here!
She reminded us that the CIS mission is spot-on, and that what we do works. And so with new tools and new connections among our different national, state and city affiliates, we return home to the work of changing lives — keeping students in school and on the right track.
Here’s how you can join us to make a difference in the life of a student:
Donate
Volunteer
Become a Partner
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