PARCO UPCHURCH

What are Watch Dogs?

 

Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads Of Great Students) is an innovative program focusing on males (fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, and other male adults) who volunteer for one (or more) days each year at a local school involvement and work cooperatively for the education improvement of our schools as well as creating a presence in Shelby County Schools to ensure a secure environment. Since the inception of positive male role models, there has been an increase in homework completion, class participation, and the number of males on the honor roll, as well as a decrease in discipline referrals and suspensions at our schools. Fathers for Education encourages a proactive - as opposed to reactive - philosophy, organizing monthly meetings for the group to discuss concerns and planning regular activities that promote positive paternal and general family involvement in education. Fathers for Education welcomes all men who are committed to helping students to excel and willing to help enhance the learning experience for all students. Fathers are asked to spend at least one day (or any available time) at school volunteering as security monitors, reading mentors, sports referees, listening ears, watching the school entrance, assisting in unloading and loading buses, assisting with traffic, doing flashcards, playing at recess, eating at lunch side by side with the students. Many other activities to actively engage with not only their child(ren) but the student body as a whole or for whatever needs to be done to plant the seeds of success in the lives of children. One of the most significant accomplishments is the satisfaction that a dad feels when he completes his investment of a day in the school life of his child or that of another child.

 

Watch D.O.G.S. is a non-profit organization that began informally in 1998 by Jim Moore, immediately after the Jonesboro, Arkansas, middle school shooting tragedy. Watch D.O.G.S. operates for the objective, as stated in its motto: "To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers."