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Community Forum May 6, 2015

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Between October 2014 and February 2015, two MSW students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had conversations with fifteen families at the Nature Trail.

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The parents at the Nature Trail have many hopes and dreams for their children.

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Well right now hes too young to decide what he wants to be in the future but we always try to teach him to focus himself first on school, that the most important thing is school, studying, and then after what he wants to do.

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Graduation Photos As Hispanics, we have always been criticized for this: the young people make it to high school but do not finish. Thats why I talk to my oldest son a lot, and I tell him, You studydo something useful.

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We really hope both the children can make it through and go to college, and you know, become successful, have a career, and not struggle.

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Well I did not get a chance to study. I would like for my children to study. I do what I can. If they are behind in school, I look for things like tutoringthe help so that they can help me with English too because I do not understand it well.

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Back in the day my thinking was, well, as soon as Im done with high school you know, Im just going to dedicate myself to work, but I started coming to the tutoring and then I was like, well no, college is important. I have to go to college and do something productive with all those years. A former Learning Trail student

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She did just that. She is currently enrolled in community college and working part-time.

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The Learning Trail provides after-school tutoring for Nature Trail students.

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The tutoring program has been very helpful because I can see a change in my daughter

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The tutoring program is great. I am happy with it.

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The tutoring program is a very positive resource.

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It is a great support that they have the tutoring program here, here in the office.

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My daughter used to be below grade level, but now she is on grade level with her peers.

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The Chatham County schools support the students of the Nature Trail.

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The help I feel, well, for example, we have the school close by. I feel supported because we have the school bus that comes for the children, that is very important because there are other schools that do not offer transportation to school, and you have to take the children to school, and I am an only parent. I always say, it is my turn to be a mother and a father for my three children and so it is a great help for me.

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The school is good, the school my children attend, and I like it. That is why I do not want to move. From this lot I do not want to move because I like the school. My husband he would like to move, but not me because I like the school.

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Now with the teacher he has this year, Im really happy because he puts pressure on him. Well, not like pressure, but rather he takes an interest in my son.

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I am very happy with his teacher and everything. I even had a conference with the teacher two weeks ago and it made me happy because my son in doing well, he is progressing, he is trying, and he likes his teachers a lot.

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Parents would like more resources for children at the Nature Trail.

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There are not any activities here for the children to do, or a place to go. I imagine that they are bored.

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And for the adolescents, I would like it if there were activities in the afternoons because many of them go down the wrong path. They focus on other things.

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For me, it would be great if they were to come and have talks with the adolescentsthere are so manyand motivate them to continue studying so that they could have a better future.

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Some residents desire a greater sense of community at the Nature Trail.

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Maybe a lot of people would like to come down here [to the Community Center] more, get to know each other, because we have a lot of new people that just moved in, and back in the day, it was like everybody knew everybody here.

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