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Community Extension Programs, a local nonprofit, aims to help break the cycle of generational poverty in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

Through donations and partnerships with Flowing Wells School District, Lapan Sunshine Foundation, Fini’s Landing and the Landing Restaurants and BICAS, CEP developed educational programs to support children and families in financial hardship.

“Education is the No. 1 tool that can help a child break out of poverty,� said Bill Walther, CEP executive director.

With 50 years of history helping the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ community, what started as a before- and after-school program, has assisted 35,000 families and has expanded its services across the metro area.

“We want to empower the students,� said Brenda King, CEP longtime board member and reading teacher at Amphi Middle School.

It is not just giving out money to students, they must earn it, said Angela Wichers, Amphi Middle School principal.

Students need to participate in community service around the school and keep their grades up. In that way, it is preparing children to work hard and achieve their goals. It sets them into a growth mindset.

“We need to show students what’s available to them so that we can break the cycle of poverty,� Wichers said.

Every year, Amphi Middle School has a trip to the Catalina Island Institute in California where students learn about working with marine life.

It’s expensive, about $500 per student, and that puts it out of reach for the majority of Amphi Middle School students, said Wichers. “Some of our students have never even seen the ocean. So, to offer them the opportunity to travel somewhere to use the skills that they’ve learned in their science class in the real world really has an impact on our students.�

Wichers said that by showing children what is available to them, it opens the world for them because they understand that there is more than what they see in their neighborhoods.

“It’s all about showing them that they can. They have to walk through the door but if we can open it for them that makes all the difference,� King said.

CEP just created the Lou Cisco Memorial Scholarship to provide financial support post-secondary education to high school graduates from the class of 2022, who have made progress throughout their high school career.

Since its beginning, CEP has donated more than $40,000 to different nonprofit organizations and schools including the Boys and Girls Club of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, Flowing Wells Community Schools, Resurrection Lutheran Church and Amphitheater Middle School.

These donations can be monetary or school supplies like science kits, desks, books, athletic equipment, music instruments and other miscellaneous items.

In the upcoming years, CEP hopes to receive more funding and provide English classes for non-English speaking families. It is committed to filling in the cracks of the educational system, said Victoria Cook, CEP director of development.

For CEP, education is the pillar to make changes in the lives of unprivileged children. Walther said that even for children who have grown all their lives in poverty, a solid education and foundation give them that one critical step which could allow them to be the ones in their families to move forward and make things better for the generations that come after them.

“The more education you get at whatever age you are, the better it is going to be for your family down the road,� Walther said.