Program gives Madison dropouts new OPTIONS

A new $72,000 program will aim to support Madison high school dropouts with outreach and education about their options to obtain a high school diploma while also outlining long-term plans for success beyond school.

The program, OPTIONS, is the most recent initiative of Operation Fresh Start. The OFS non-profit organization was founded in 1970 with an aim to "help participants to become self-sufficient, contributing members of the community by providing them an opportunity to gain employment training, education, independent living skills, and a chance to serve the community."

OFS Executive Director Gregory Markle unveiled the program, which will work with 16 to 24 year old high school dropouts around Madison, at a press conference Thursday.

"They are at a point in life where they need to make a decision," Markle said. "Right now their decision is based upon simply the fact that they didn't complete high school. But there's more to their decision which it should be based on. There's an inner strength, there's abilities, there's the community which wants them to succeed, which can help them move forward."

OPTIONS will be funded mostly by a $46,000 grant from the Madison Community Foundation, which has helped to fund other OFS programs in the past. OFS will partner with other educational groups in Madison including the Madison Metropolitan School District and the Omega School, which offers programs to help drop outs and adults attain a G.E.D.

In Madison alone, more than 400 students each year drop out or fall behind enough to require more than four years in high school, Markle said. OFS hopes to reconnect at least 100 people to their education through the new program, with at least 60 graduating within one year.

Markle cited a study that shows a high school dropout costs a community an average of $250,000 over their lifetime as they often remain within that community. He also pointed to the $1.2 million invested in a student during their K-12 education, and said it's important to help students "finish that job."

Marcus Hamilton, a 20-year-old OFS participant who moved to Madison from Chicago in 2008 and eventually left high school, said his "turning point" was the first day he joined OFS, when he decided to "not [give] 20 percent but [give] 110 percent" in school.

"Since I joined the program, everything's looking much brighter to me," said Hamilton, who will graduate from high school in June. "It's like putting on a pair of new glasses."

The OPTIONS program will have four "ambassadors" who are current OFS participants and can share their successes with those they reach out to. Markle said the main goal is to spread the word that dropouts still have educational options, including returning to school or participating in programs at places such as the Omega School, which has a four hour per week program to help students obtain their G.E.D.

"Wherever young people who have dropped out are, we will be there, meeting them, and saying 'hey, you have some possibilities,'" Markle said.

While the current funding is only for one year, Markle said the organization hopes to receive enough donations and money from its June 6 graduation program luncheon to continue into the future.