EL DORADO — Deb Crawford and Officer Gerid Ardwin spoke to the El Dorado Kiwanis Club last Wednesday about a new program being implemented this summer called the CATS Academy. The academy is being held for students going from fourth grade to fifth grade, who are high risk.
“This is going to be a part of the strategic plan for helping to reduce crime and violence in Union County,” Crawford said.
Crawford is the executive director of PRIDE Youth Programs, a service of SHARE Foundation located in El Dorado. In 1998, she was instrumental in the merger of PRIDE Youth Programs and the SHARE Foundation.
Ardwin is a five-year employee of the El Dorado Police Department. He spent four years in the patrol division and in August 2016, he assumed a position as a school resource officer at El Dorado High School.
Ardwin is also a stakeholder for the SHARE Foundation’s Union County Initiative on Preventing Crime and Violence. He also mentors several young men through the “Project We Believe” adapt a school program.
The CATS Academy will be a week long camp held beginning on Monday, July 24 at Washington Middle School.
The academy will be almost entirely staffed by local law enforcement, who will be working closely with the children teaching and encouraging them with numerous activities.
The idea for the CATS Academy came from a camp held in Texarkana called the PRIDE Academy. Since there is already the PRIDE Youth Programs, they decided to call the camp in El Dorado the CATS Academy, which stands for:
• Committed - I will work hard to finish what I start.
• Ambitious - I am determined to do great things.
• Trustworthy - My teachers and peers can depend on me.
• Student - I am smart by choice, not by chance.
The information obtained for the CATS Academy was based on survey information that SHARE Foundation was able to gather, Crawford said.
Every fourth grade student going into the fifth grade in the El Dorado School District received an application for the academy. The teachers and councilors were a big part of picking out which kids were considered high risk.
“Once we got the interest letters back, we were able to go through and pick out which kids had behavioral issues, which kids they knew had hard home lives,” Ardwin said.
There will also be students included who are not considered high-risk.
In Texarkana, within the first five years, the juvenile crime and violence rate has been reduced by seven percent, Crawford said. They have also significantly reduced discipline issues in the school district.
“This is one of the goals we hope to achieve as well as to help with getting these young people involved in the positive things in their community so that they will be less likely to engage in this kind of things as they grow older,” she added.
Each day the students will be given breakfast and lunch. They will also be transported to and from all the activities, free of charge to their parents.
“We have a target number of about 100 kids,” Ardwin said. “The officers will be in direct contact with these kids all day long playing games, going to different classes, sharing information and making relationships.”
One of the benefits from this academy is that after the week is over, the officers will still be in contact with these students through their high school years. “It’s a statistical fact that children who have responsible adult relationships, do better,” Ardwin said. “They perform better at almost all areas of life. So what we want to do is supplement that problem by not only putting a police officer who can improve relationships with law enforcement and children, but also another adult in their lives who cares.”
One example of a class that will be held during the academy is Oasis Acres Equine Assisted Therapy Center, which is a program that gets children involved with learning how to handle horses.
There will also be classes discussing bullying, hygiene, seatbelt safety and drug education.
“Theses at-risk kids, you’d think fourth grade is too early. Fourth grade is not too early,” Ardwin said. “There are children out there in the fourth grade that are abusing prescription drugs.”
On the last day of the academy, all of the children will participate in an obstacle course, with a graduation ending the program.
“What we need are times like these when I can get with these children and explain, ‘Hey I’m the good guy, I wear a belt like Batman,’” Ardwin said. “Where we can hang out with them and love on them, things that accurately portray what law enforcement does.”
Kaitlyn Rigdon is a staff writer at the El Dorado News-Times and she may be reached at 870-862-6611 or by email, [email protected].