Community Involvement

A team of representatives from the Youth Inspiring Leadership and Civic Participation Project, a program sponsored by the U.S. State Department, have been visiting Pensacola for the last few days and stopped by the J.E. Hall Center today to learn about the ECSD Youth Motivator Mentorship Program from Jo McArthur, ECSD's Community Involvement Coordinator.

McArthur explained, "They learned about the Escambia County School District, different services offered to our students & families, the demographics of our county and unique challenges we face in Pensacola regarding education. The focus of the presentation was on the Mentorship program: it's structure, vetting process, mechanics and how they might implement such a program in their home countries. 
It was a lively, interesting dialogue and the visitors from Liberia, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone and Singapore were full of questions and loved their last session of a five day visit to our city. They have learned about many different facets of our city from government, civic organizations, agencies that support youth programs and have even spent time at the beach."

"We are honored to have hosted them in our District and wish them safe travels to the remaining cities and back to their home countries, " said McArthur.

Other stops during their stay included the Pensacola City Council, AMIkids Pensacola Day Program, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of NW Fla, the Supervisor of Elections office, the National Flight Academy, Ocean Hour Florida, the U.S. Congressional District Office, and they had time to socialize with local host families. The visitors came from Liberia, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone and Singapore. They have also visited Washington D.C. and Portland, Oregon. From here, they will visit Boston, Mass. before returning home. Other city teams went to Charlotte, NC; Cleveland, OH; and Tulsa, OK.