“When I was growing up, they would say it takes a village to raise a child. City Mission is like a little village; everybody helps keep the kids on the straight and narrow,” said City Mission Academy parent Matthew Fields.
“There’s not too many places in this city where you can go and take your kids from K to 5, have 10 in a classroom, individualized attention and then have a tutoring program and mentoring program; things setting them up to be successful instead of setting them up to fail,” Matthew said. “I appreciate that.”
He and partner Antoinette Hicks are raising two children that attend City Mission Academy, Angelica Little, 9, and Matthew Fields, junior, 5.
“I’m glad they’re both there,” Antoinette said. “My daughter picked up a lot in her reading. She started going to City Mission Academy and they helped her out a whole lot. She was always good in math, but she knows it a lot more now.”
Their son is taking speech therapy sessions at CMA to help with his word pronunciation.
“I appreciate the smaller class sizes which gives my children a little more individualized attention to help focus on things that will help them learn better,” Matthew senior said.
As with any village, the children are not the only beneficiaries. The parents have received much from City Mission’s Family Independence Planning program, adult mentoring and community outreaches.
“There are a lot of things that City Mission provides to people in the neighborhood,” Matthew said. “They’ve been real helpful with the mentoring and the tutoring as far as helping me overcome some obstacles and make me a better person,” he said. “It’s from the heart; their not doing it just to do it.”
“They’ve always been here for me and my family,” Antoinette said. “I just thank God for City Mission.”
| 
