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Children’s Empowerment, Inc. (CEI) incorporated in October 1999 as a non-profit community corporation, led by local business owner and San Francisco native, Spencer Holeman, who serves as its President and Executive Director. Mr. Holeman raised ten foster kids between 1972 and 1979 and spent the past 20 years working with at-risk high school students in San Francisco. CEI grew from Mr. Holeman’s desire to expand his efforts to give deserving, disadvantaged youth a rewarding educational experience and instill in them an interest in higher education. By the end of 2000, Mr. Holeman had raised enough resources to begin two six-month pilot programs, one at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco and the other at Jefferson High School in Daly City. This first program, the "Latino Empowerment Program," began in January 2001 at Jefferson High School. In this first group were 12 Latino students who were not scheduled to graduate with their class. After a semester of after-school tutoring and one-on-one mentoring, all 12 students graduated, with 10 of them accepted to local community colleges and the other 2 to vocational job training schools. Based upon the success of the pilot program, CEI began a year-long program at Jefferson High School that, over 2.5 years, saw the graduation of over 50 formerly at-risk students, with the majority either going on to college or job training programs.

School Within A School
By 2002, CEI realized that the program would be more effective in earlier grades. Thus began the "School Within A School" (SWAS) program that shepherded 40 at-risk students, selected by the school, through core subject classes as a group. In addition to supporting a team of four dedicated teachers, CEI also provided class outings to local colleges, museums, theaters, and companies; ropes courses; group dinners for the students as well as family dinner/meetings; after-school tutoring; career guidance and family interaction; healthful snacks; incentives; and individual scholarships to special programs, including overseas travel and summer art courses

Homework Center
In September 2003, when the California budget crisis forced the cutbacks of many programs, including the after-school Homework Center at Jefferson High School, CEI stepped in to run and expand the program. From one teacher supervising a handful of students in one classroom, the program expanded to the school cafeteria, averaged 50 students a day, and offered peer tutors from the school's Honors and Advanced Placement programs to students in need of help. CEI also provided healthy snacks each day the Center open. In early 2004, CEI expanded the Homework Center program to nearby Pollicita Middle School, a major feeder to Jefferson. The Pollicita program is "Student-Led" with CEI providing tutors who graduated from Jefferson High School and are now attending local colleges.

Today, the Homework Centers continue to provide the much needed assistance to the student population. Physical Education has been incorporated into the Programs, and new and exciting projects seem to spur up at a blink of en eye. Though the SWAS program is no longer offered, it did served as the model for the Jefferson Union High School District's Smaller Learning Communities.