Operation Hero Helps Troubled Military Children
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 26, 2004 -- Having a parent deployed or experiencing frequent
moves can be tough on a child, sometimes leading to social or academic problems
at school.
Operation Hero, an Armed Services YMCA program, is bringing after-school
tutoring and mentoring assistance to 6- to 12-year-old children experiencing
temporary troubles at school and helping each find the "hero" inside
themselves, explained program manager Susan Sims.
The Armed Services YMCA branch at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton started the
program almost a decade ago to keep young children from joining gangs, Sims
said. Since then, Operation Hero has expanded its mission as well as its scope.
It now serves more than a dozen military installations throughout the United
States, with certified teachers and trained child-care professionals helping
participating students in small groups that ensure individual attention.
The program, which involves twice-a-week sessions lasting two and a half hours
each, offers group activities, self-esteem-building activities and homework
help. Students also keep journal entries about good things that happened to
them during the day, Sims explained.
Sims said the program focuses on personal responsibility as the way for
troubled children to get back on track in school as well as at home.
Bob Brinton, superintendent for Camp Lejeune Dependents Schools in North
Carolina, calls himself "an enthusiastic advocate" of the program that has
served "well over 100" elementary school children in his district.
Brinton said many children in the Operation Hero program have parents deployed
overseas, which he said can leave children too distracted to focus on their
day-to-day schoolwork.
Although teachers at Camp Lejeune generally are good at identifying and working
with students who act out their concerns about deployments, transitions and low
self-esteem, Brinton said, Operation Hero offers a full curriculum that focuses
specifically on these issues.
"It provides opportunities for these students to communicate and deal with
these issues in an open way," Brinton said. In doing so, he said, students
regain their ability to focus on typical school-day issues.
"The bottom line is that it's good for the children," Brinton said. "Operation
Hero is an example of what can happen when the larger community wraps its arms
around its schools."
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