How We Work

The Thread Community Model

 

Students

At the core of the Thread Community Model  is a student, engaged during his freshman year of high school. As a student spends time in the Thread Community, he forms deep and meaningful relationships with other students, volunteers, and collaborators. Relationships are the heart of what we do at Thread.

 

Volunteers

Once enrolled, each student is matched with a Thread Family, the basic building block of the organization.  A Thread Family is comprised of one student and a group of up to five university- and community-based volunteers willing to do whatever it takes to help their student realize his or her potential.

Unlike traditional school-based tutoring programs, Thread Families extend support beyond the school dayand into the home by creating customized and comprehensive solutions to address the root causes of academic and social challenges. The Thread Family works to build a deep foundation of trust with their student and with each other, modeling consistency, communication, and persistence. Thread Family members are active agents in their student’s life, often scheduling daily activities that might include packing lunches, providing rides to school, tutoring, a social activity like going out for ice cream or a baseball game, completing college applications, or obtaining daycare for a younger sibling. Each Family has a volunteer Head of Family (HOF), who ensures that their student’s needs are met. 

 

Threads

To provide students and volunteers with even greater support – and to facilitate even more meaningful relationships among our community members, eight individual Thread Families (including students from the same cohort and their Families) are woven together into an extended family of support called threads. Threads facilitate peer-to-peer support among students and volunteers and are managed by an experienced volunteer GrandParent (GP) who mentors the HOFs and facilitates the sharing of resources and practices among Thread Families.

 

Resource Teams

Thread Resource Teams add yet another strand of support to our Thread fabric by creating access to expertise and efficiency in the allocation of resources. Resource Team volunteers serve as low-barrier touch-points that connect Thread students and volunteers to Thread collaborators, who provide these pro bono services not only to students, but also to volunteers and the organization.

Student Resource Teams engage students in academic advancement, enrichment and college and career preparation program activities throughout the year, as well as connect students and their families to health, social, and legal services.

Volunteer Resource Teams recruit, enroll, orient, and train new volunteers and provide ongoing engagement services.

Organizational Resource Teams complete general accounting and financial planning, recruit financial resources to support program activities, execute the marketing and communications strategy, and manage organizational risk and intellectual property.