Inner-City School

3560 Josephine Street
Denver, CO 80205
PH: 303-316-4533
FX: 303-316-4535

Jacquelyn Graham, Executive Director

Our Mission….

The mission of Inner-City School is to equip children in the inner-city with values, academic skills, and self esteem necessary for success throughout their educational careers.

 Changing the odds for children…….. Several program strategies are employed to bring about academic success and personal character development in our students through early literacy, parent involvement, positive role models, cultural relevance, student stability and safety, community involvement, and positive character development.  ICS helps disadvantaged students reach their potential both academically and personally.

 FORMED to help children in the city……ICS was formed in 1996 by a cross-cultural team of people who were concerned about the high rate of academic failure and high school dropout rate of among inner-city youth. The founders, many of whom are still active board members, envisioned a faith based, culturally relevant, academic program that would enable disadvantaged children to reach their highest potential.

 The school began with phonics and math based preschool program and grew by one grade level each year until it reached the fifth grade.  ICS outgrew its space at 2609 Lawrence Street and relocated to 3560 Josephine Street.

 The integration of faith-based principles into the curriculum mirrors the culture in which ICS students live.  Historically, people of inner-city have looked to church leaders for guidance and leadership in solving their social ills.  The urban pastors who helped found the school and who are still active as board members reflect this relationship with people in the city.  While Bible teaching and chapels are part of our curriculum, students may be removed from these activities at the parent’s request.  

THE CHILDREN WE SERVE…….ICS currently serves 30 students from Denver’s inner-city.  Forty-Four percent of our students are African American, Fifty-Four percent are Hispanic and One  percent are Caucasian. Ninety percent of our students qualify for the federal free lunch program, a current marker of child poverty.

 Growing up in Denver’s inner-city where many negative factors converge, these vulnerable children have few, if any resources needed to succeed in life. Concentrated poverty makes unlikely the prospect of economic improvement or academic success. Without intervention, they face discouraging odds.

 Recent research by the Piton Foundation reveals that child poverty, single-parent homes, teen births rates, crime rates, the educational levels of parents and other factors pose an overwhelming threat to the academic progress of the children we serve.

 The crime rate in our students’ neighborhood is as high as 241 compared to Denver’s 81. Forty-five percent of children in Five Points are living with a single parent. 63% of births in the Clayton neighborhood are to mothers with less than a twelfth –grade education.  With these and others factors at work, our student spend little time with caring adults and their parents often lack the tools necessary to encourage their academic achievement.