A year of impact, growth and expansion. Alliance for Education Solutions 2014: The Year in Review Pipeline to College: Providing first generation college students support and mentoring for a college education. We held our first Pipeline Retreat and connected with high school juniors and seniors in order to support them in their journey to a higher education. Part of Pipeline to College , a two-year program that assists students with barriers in their lives in their pursuit of a college degree. Facilitated by college student's and para professionals from Chico States’ Cross Cultural Leadership Center, who themselves have faced many of the same struggles , the program is in its second year and has already seen over 90% of its participants apply to college. At the retreat students formed program families, pushed limits, laughed, cried, grew, made plans for the future and formed bonds of trust and friendship with each other, site mentors and college mentors. Pipeline to College Retreat: Shady Creek, CA, 2014 #Barriers2U: Students Speaking Out in Their Own Words We supported the launch of #Barriers2U a youth driven campaign to eliminate barriers to graduating high school and obtaining a college degree. http://youtu.be/KxLMNjQ8OOs http://barriers2u.tumblr.com/ http://aesimpact.org/barriers2u/ We completed “Leading with Heart”, a documentary chronicling the groundbreaking work of principals from AES’s Turnaround Principals Work Group, whose leadership and focus on changing school climate and culture helped turn around their underperforming schools. http://youtu.be/U_0Q0DJYgcQ Youth Empowerment and Advocacy Retreat 2014 We held two summer leadership retreats for area high school students. Developing leadership skills. Supporting a college education. Building future leaders. Creating space for youth voice and youth leadership. Youth Voice Matters & #Barriers2U Blogs We created two new blogs in support of youth voice and youth engagement. These are places to highlight the work of young people AES works with and other young people around the world seeking to create change in their lives and their communities. www.youthvoicematters.tumblr.com Chicano/Latino Literature Class & Writing Workshops We helped sponsor a Chicano –Latino Literature Class at Berkley High School . This was the first time the class was available to students as an elective in ten years. We also supported a series of writing workshops at the High School to help students improve their writing skills in order to develop college essays. Most of the students who attended the workshop will be the first in their family to go to college. As our programs grew, we continued to build our advocacy efforts in Sacramento , we overhauled our website, and took to social media to help spread our reach and deepen our impact. Lots of exciting changes ahead in 2015. Please join us, follow us and support us: www.aesimapct.org www.facebook.com/pages/Alliance-for-EducationSolutions/265287373513500 https://twitter.com/aesimpact