Editor’s note: This is the seventh in a 10-part series looking at the agencies that were awarded grant funds by the SHARE Foundation as the first partners in the new Violence Intervention Plan.
One way to combat violence is to stop it before it starts.
That’s the purpose of the C.A.T.S. Academy, a program that was launched last year by the El Dorado Police Department to help build positive relationships with incoming fifth-grade students in the El Dorado School District.
Participants in C.A.T.S. (Committed Ambitious Trustworthy Student) are linked with police officers during a week-long summer camp and ongoing mentoring throughout the school year.
The inaugural academy was held in summer 2017, and the second academy is slated for July 9-13, said Gerid Ardwin, School Resource Officer for El Dorado High School.
“We as police officers want to combat violence in a real way, and C.A.T.S allows us to develop relationships with the kids. It’s about character building, learning to value each other, to do what’s right, and why we should obey the rules,” Ardwin explained.
The program is patterned after the PRIDE Academy, an initiative that was started in Texarkana seven years ago.
Personal Responsibility in Daily Efforts was the brainchild of an officer with the Texarkana Arkansas Police Department, and it caught the attention of the EPD and the local PRIDE Youth Programs, which focuses on drug prevention and education.
In Texarkana, officers connect with middle school students and work with the school district to track participants’ behavior and academic progress.
Ardwin said El Dorado officers took note of reports that the program had helped to reduce the incidents of behavioral infractions in school and the juvenile crime rate in Texarkana.
Police Chief Billy White said C.A.T.S provides an opportunity for law enforcement officers to go into the schools, explaining that with the exception of SROs, the EPD has not had many chances to maintain a consistent presence in schools since the D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) was scrapped years ago due to federal funding cuts.
The EPD partnered with Pride Youth and other local organizations to present the first C.A.T.S. Academy, which was funded with a grant from the SHARE Foundation.
With a Violence Intervention Plan in place for 2018, SHARE selected the C.A.T.S. Academy as one of 10 new partners in helping to address violence and crime in the community.
White and Ardwin thanked SHARE for a grant award of $25,750 to fund the academy for the second year.
“This really would not be possible without SHARE. The money we get from SHARE is a lifeline,” Ardwin said.
Some of the activities that were offered for the 2017 C.A.T.S. Academy were equine therapy, a community service project that raised money for Agape House Children’s Home, a food drive to help stock the school district’s food pantry and light maintenance projects at Washington Middle School.
Throughout the process, Ardwin said the students learned the importance of valuing others, anger/emotional control and how to recognize and deal with negative character traits that can drive a person to devalue another and engage in violent behavior.
One of the goals of the academy is to foster positive interactions between police and the community, particularly youngsters, to combat negative images of police that children may see in the media or hear from adults.
“It gives them a chance to see police officers differently and not associate them with bad behavior. It cuts down on the negative stigma of law enforcement,” Arwin said.
Being an SRO, Ardwin engages with students each school day and has earned the nickname “OG” for “Officer Gerid.”
With the C.A.T.S. Academy, participants will get the chance to interact with uniformed officers, he said.
“They get the chance to meet other officers who work on the street, and when they come into the schools in uniform, the kids who may be afraid will have a friend who can say, ‘No, that’s my friend, ‘Officer so-and-so,’” he continued.
With the program heading into its second year, Arwin said it’s difficult to tell what type of impact the first C.A.T.S. Academy had on participants.
However, he said there has been a noticeable measure of improvement in school attendance, academic performance and disciplinary actions for participants in the program.
Ongoing mentoring reinforces the lessons that are learned during the weeklong academy, Ardwin said, noting there are 48 stydents in the mentoring program.
With the first graduates preparing to enter sixth grade in the fall and the end of their tween years, Ardwin said good character behaviors they learn in CA.T.S. Academy will help lay a solid foundation to help them make good decisions in the future.
“Last year, we had a class about using illicit drugs, and they may start to be introduced to drugs, and someone may try to get them to try it a party, and they’ll know to say no,” Ardwin said.
He and White said the first academy was also a learning curve for the EPD. Both said the 2018 program has been refined and tweaked to make it a better experience for participants.
“We have zeroed in on what we need and don’t need,” Ardwin said.
“It was good program for the first time out, and we learned things like we need a certain number of instructors and what accommodations we need for some classes,” White said.
Ardwin said students will also learn about police work and what officers do, but he pointed back to the primary focus of building positive relationships between law enforcement officers and the community and developing good moral character.
“I’m excited about the kids in the C.A.T.S. Academy and seeing them grow into teens and young adults and seeing how they’ll reinforce what they learn in the C.A.T.S. Academy,” he said.
School Superintendent Jim Tucker agreed, saying, “Anything we can do to benefit the students in a positive way is good for the district and good for society, and I think the program is doing that.”
Ardwin said the academy is free to students, and applications will distributed to all El Dorado elementary schools, noting that program is open only to El Dorado public schools.
Transportation will be provided and breakfast and lunch will be served each day.
Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].