Kena Brown, 43, of Peoria, enjoys taking her teenage son to the local library, where both of them have homework to do.
Brown is studying to become a teacher in the Grow Your Own Teachers initiative that is rapidly expanding in Illinois.
"Now, I have an interest I can share with my son," Brown said. "I get a lot of encouragement. My co-workers encourage me. Sometimes, it’s hard to get the homework done. You have to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel and knowing that I am going to serve a much-needed purpose in life and it’s not just for me, but it’s also for my community."
Sixteen communities throughout the state, including Peoria, are participating in the program. Participants and organizers came together at the Capitol on Tuesday to rally for continued funding for the program. The group wants $4.5 million out of the budget for the fiscal year that starts in July, which would be an increase of $1.5 million.
According to a Grow Your Own Teachers news release, the $4.5 million would be used to support students who are enrolled in the program and already in college, and it would help recruit and enroll other prospective teachers.
The increase would help meet the organization’s goal of 1,000 teachers by 2016.
Madeline Talbott, organizer for GYO Illinois and the grass-roots organization Action Now, said the program was developed to help communities that struggle with staffing and low performance in school districts.
"We have identified a solution to the problem from within those same communities. We are working to train people from the community where hard-to-staff schools are located, to become fully certified and highly qualified teachers in those communities."
Ruthie Hamer, coordinator of the Grow Your Own Teachers initiative in Peoria, said that since its creation locally, 40 prospective teachers have enrolled in and begun classes.
"The community needs to know that there are plenty of intelligent, hard-working parents and people in the community that want to give back," Brown said. "We want to be more than another parent. We are here to help solve the problem. It’s a way of giving back."
Currently, the program has 545 prospective teachers statewide.