Mission Statement

We fight the good fight so that every child has access to success. We inspire kids to believe in themselves, achieve their goals, and do good.

Today’s students, tomorrow’s leaders!

Empowering, equipping and exposing students to resources they would otherwise miss. We help close the opportunity gap students face by helping them take ownership, turn motivation to action and bring goals to reality.

About BRING IT!

BRING IT! is an out of school program that serves 4th to 12th grade students whose families come from 30 countries, and speak just as many languages at home. By empowering, equipping and exposing these students to resources they would otherwise miss, BRING IT! helps close the opportunity gap they face. A hub for the Manchester area beyond drop-in evening programs, BRING IT! has four key focuses: Academic Support, Dance and Performing Arts, Soccer-Fitness and Career Exploration.

ENGAGEMENT

BRING IT! engages students by celebrating their diversity. For example, students in the Dance and Performing Arts program perform to music from their culture which they introduce to their teachers. This gives them a sense of belonging. The environment encourages positive self-esteem by providing students with a space to truly be themselves. The program also helps students who are afraid to join in classroom discussions and exercises, confront the gremlins that prevent them from becoming engaged learners.

CORE TEAM

BRING IT!’s core team are educators and deeply committed community members who know how to work with students from diverse backgrounds. They know when to go deeper to help students dissect issues that are keeping them from excelling. In 2016, BRING IT! was invited to train educators in Estonia in how to work with multicultural students, specifically to show them how to use the BRING IT! model with new Middle Eastern refugees.

To modify an old expression, BRING IT! does not give students fish; it shows them how to build tools to catch fish and then teaches them how to fish.

Areas Of Need

We want to increase our annual budget to $250,000-$300,000. This would enable us to hire a full-time Executive Director, a full-time Program Manager and 4 part-time employees (Dance Teacher, Academic Support Manager, Athletic Manager and Program Specialist). For the last 8 years, BRING IT! has been running successful career exploration programs focusing on healthcare occupations. On average, 50 students participate in exploration programs every school year. Students receive school credit after successfully completing the program. This is done in partnership with Extended Learning Opportunity Coordinators of the Manchester School District. BRING IT! wants to expand its offerings to other occupations — such as insurance, technology, trades and business. The money we raise will help to expand our career exploration offerings.

BRING IT! has a high percentage of students who attend regularly with a lot of potential as well as access to even more students in the Manchester School district. As a scalable program, BRING IT! has the potential to reach 1,000 to 1,500 students a year. Our mission is to do exactly that: to expand our services and give every student in Manchester the opportunities we can provide. With your help we will be able to do that.