News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Dorothy Pintar, director of the School Success Program and Community Programs, shows off the Youth Impact Award on Wednesday given to NEMSCA at the NEMCSA School Success Partnership Program office on Gordon Road.

ALPENA — Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency’s Success Partnership Program received the 2023 Youth Impact Award at the Governor’s Service Awards, an annual recognition event that acknowledges the acts of organizations, businesses, and individuals within Michigan.

The success program started 32 years ago as a truancy program to get kids to stay in school. Northeast public schools, local government money, private companies such as Besser Company, and other individuals chipped in to support it.

It wasn’t until Dorothy Pintar, director of the School Success Program and Community Programs, came to NEMCSA 28 years ago that the program blossomed into a larger development.

“And we realized we needed more of an educational piece and to really develop our home visiting piece, not just truancy,” Pintar said. “We had only four school success liaisons who were housed in school buildings and it started working so well. We started seeing some real improvement with kids and families.”

Between 2022 and 2023, the program served more than 3,500 students and saw a 97.86% reduction in absentees in 15 school districts, which include Alpena, Alcona, Montmorency, and Presque Isle counties.

Overall academics, reading skills, and math skills improved in the students it served by 79%, 77%, and 75%, respectively.

Pintar said that the program does not look at the financial records of families or grades of students to find struggling children. Instead, all students and families that the program contacts are based on referrals — people who believe the student is struggling and might need help to become more successful in school.

“So, we go and ask, ‘What are your needs?'” Pintar said. “Maybe they need their basic needs met, so we can help them and move around the community and help get their basic needs met Or maybe they need counseling services. Maybe their needs are short-term, maybe their house burned down, maybe their family is going through a divorce, some things that need immediate attention. So, it’s just a helping hand when people need help.”

Around 2012, the University of Michigan came to the Northeast Michigan community for a behavioral health initiative and asked NEMCSA for any demographics and statistics the non-profit organization had collected over the years.

NEMCSA gave the School Success Program demographics to the researchers, who were more interested in how successful the program was. According to Pintar, the researchers said they had never seen an educational program as successful as them and began researching the program.

“The University of Michigan did an evaluation on the school success program, came out, and said, ‘This is a program that is working,'” Pintar said. “It’s changing lives, it’s showing that it is working and improving the lives of kids, it’s improving parental involvement in their child’s education, it’s helping kids.”

With a U of M certified research study that confirmed the program’s success, Pintar went to Lansing and campaigned the program to legislators and senators for state funding.

After two years of talking, showing the study, and pitching the program received $150,000 in state funds in 2014.

In 2015 and 2016, it was raised to $500,000. Last year, Pintar said the Michigan government gave NEMCSA $1.5 million for the program.

“We’re spread now over 11 counties,” Pintar said. “We have 53 staff members, we’re in schools all over 11 counties, and we’re partnering. It’s pretty cool that we’re written into the state budget now.”

Pintar said that whenever she needs to talk in front of legislators and politicians to explain the program and its success, many ask her why this isn’t a part of all schools in Michigan.

That’s Pintar’s final goal for the program — to have it spread throughout all of Michigan’s school districts to help students and families.

“I know it could work in any school, whether it be a city school or rural school, but you have to have the right people,” Pintar said. “I just love building confidence in the kids and the parents. And I love it when parents come back and give back. I just love helping people.”