Keith Bevacqua starts every meeting with the same question: “How do you feel?”
“I’m OK,” one student said on a recent evening.
“I don’t know,” another mumbled.
Jumping from student to student, Bevacqua repeated the question and placed a check mark above one of several smiley faces on the board in front of him.
They reviewed lessons and went over tricky homework, but no one received a grade. And though there are desks, chairs and a whiteboard at the front of the room, Bevacqua was intentional about reminding the kids: This isn’t school.
The scene repeats every week on the fourth floor of the Wheeler Mission Center for Women and Children. A team of Brightlane Learning tutoring staff and volunteers take over the Wheeler Mission office space to help kids staying at the center with schoolwork. But, most of the time, their goals reach far beyond academics.
Sometimes, a kid comes in just needing a nap. And if they’re not feeling able to complete the worksheets he printed out for a given day, Bevacqua said, he’s got other activities on standby.
Wheeler Mission is one of more than 30 partners for Brightlane Learning, which works with staff to offer free tutoring to Indianapolis students facing housing insecurity.
“We’re looking at grades. We’re looking at standardized test scores. We’re looking at attendance,” said Kelly Coker, Brightlane’s chief operating and program officer. “But we’re also looking at simple things like, does a student feel safe in tutoring? Is it a place where they feel like they have a connection and they feel supported?”
The nonprofit has weathered the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic and added more tutoring sites. But changes begun during the pandemic also have brought a need for more volunteers.
A plan for each family
Brightlane Learning launched more than 20 years ago to meet kids where they were. The Indy nonprofit first started working inside community shelters, which provided an easy way to immediately assist families.
The staff quickly realized, though, that they weren’t reaching all students facing housing insecurity.
Marion County schools are serving an increased number of students who are homeless, according to a report Brightlane released this month. However, not all of those students live in shelters. That’s why Brightlane turned to schools years ago.
The nonprofit now serves more than 600 kids through weekly tutoring sessions at community centers and in schools across the city. The county as a whole educates nearly 5,000 students who are homeless, according to Brightlane’s report.
Tutoring experiences are tailored to each student. At school sites, Brightlane staff are able to talk to teachers to find out what students are working on in class and where they need help. That could include reviewing a specific skill or catching up on missing assignments.
At community sites, such as Wheeler Mission, staff work with families to learn about their kids’ needs regarding academics but also about other barriers affecting their education.
Staff also help with school enrollment, parent-teacher conferences and special education services — all systems that can be difficult to navigate on their own, let alone when facing housing insecurity.
“We call it educational case management,” Coker said.
Marvin Offett Sr., a case manager with Wheeler’s Compass family program, said he’s more than happy to cede his office to the program once a week.
He said the tutoring opens a door for families to pop in with questions — questions about their kids tutoring but also questions about what other support Wheeler’s Compass program provides like child care and employment help.
Offett said he’s grateful for the relationships Bevacqua is building with students.
“If they grow with him and the tutoring,” Offett said, “then they start to trust him. And they’re more open, and that helps me.”
Building confidence and other life skills
Success for Brightlane looks different than it might for your typical tutoring group.
The team pays attention to academics and builds an individualized learning plan for each student. Brightlane has data sharing agreements with schools that allow tutors to keep track of how their kids are doing in the classroom.
But staff also put a premium on students’ social and emotional growth. They work with kids on building up self-confidence and figuring out how to handle frustration when homework gets difficult.
If they don’t make it through a planned tutoring activity, that’s OK. Sometimes, just helping a young student stay focused for half an hour is a win.
That’s something Donna Twedt said she’s encountered at Wheeler Mission.
The longtime tutor is helping a fifth grader with math homework, incorporating math games into their meetings. They can help capture the kid’s interest when concepts grow tricky and the urge is there to give up.
“She’s very smart,” Twedt said. “She’s doing well. She just doesn’t have the confidence.”
The lessons seem to be working. At the end of one January tutoring session, the student left her desk only to rush back to Twedt a few minutes later with a snack and a hug.
“Confidence doesn’t just make you good in school; it’s a life skill,” Coker said. “That conversation alone shows the value of the program because that’s another adult who’s building a relationship with a student to push them in those skills.”
Looking for more volunteers
Coker said Brightlane needs more volunteers like Twedt.
The nonprofit has grown over recent years to 43 part-time and full-time staff members. The growth began as a response to school safety plans during the pandemic, which often limited the presence of volunteers in classrooms.
The scaling up of staff has allowed the nonprofit to bring on more school partners. However, Brightlane leaders found that as volunteering resumed in schools, some tutors weren’t willing to return.
The nonprofit went from having more than 400 volunteer tutors before the pandemic to about 200 this year. Brightlane especially needs volunteers who can meet with students during their school day. They’re also looking for tutors who are comfortable with upper levels of math and Spanish — though no teaching experience is required.
Brightlane provides training to tutors. Volunteers are taught to focus on relationship building first. They also receive guidance on how to work with kids who have experienced trauma.
A staff member is on site during tutoring, so volunteers always have someone to turn to if they’re nervous getting started.
“We’ll go through and teach you what one of our tutoring hours looks like,” said Amber Ewing Kostoff, Brighlane’s chief philanthropy officer. “We’re going to teach you some of the ways you can help our students, but we’re also doing continuous training throughout the year as refreshers.”
A large pool of volunteers helps Brightlane lessen the size of tutoring groups and get as close to a one-on-one tutoring experience as possible, Ewing Kostoff said.
Above all, she hopes that by bringing on more tutors, Brightlane can reach more students and provide reassurance to kids at a time when so much is changing around them.
“We’re a consistent presence,” Ewing Kostoff said, “and I think that’s why they’re excited to see us.”
You can learn more about becoming a tutor on the volunteer page of Brightlane’s website.
The nonprofit is also in the middle of a monthlong fundraising campaign. Supporters can learn more on Brightlane’s fundraising website.
Mirror Indy reporter Carley Lanich covers early childhood and K-12 education. Contact her at carley.lanich@mirrorindy.org or follow her on X @carleylanich.
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