PROGRAM SUMMARY

A 15 week, Youth Mentoring Program focused on:

Academic Tutoring,
ACT/SAT Preparation,
Substance Abuse Prevention
Athletic Training

Career Planning

Location: DC Center for Therapeutic Recreation,

3030 G Street Washington, DC 20019
Date: (Tentative) September 2007

PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Background

The Sound Mind, Sound Body Saturday Youth Mentoring Program is an extension of The Lifting As We Climb Foundation’s “Sound Mind, Sound Body H.S Football Camp & College Prep Workshop”. The camp was initially created to support youth development in football and encourage academic responsibility among high school student athletes. However, the vast need for further academic assistance and youth-to-youth mentoring encouraged The Lifting As We Climb Foundation to develop a year round program to provide additional support to DC-Metro youth.

Need for Program

DC-Metro youth are at risk. There are a declining number of high school graduates across the nation and daily classroom attendance has reached an all time low. Youth in urban communities need additional assistance and further development of academic skills to successfully complete high school, enter college, or to pursue productive careers. To counter the impact of destructive behaviors, youth must be engaged in enriching activities and surrounded by positive role models. Our purpose is to create a program for the population of children that will be ultimately “left behind.”
The youth in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area are at risk and their participation in an event such as this is critical to their success. Recent statistics show that:

On average, 60% of Black Males in the U.S. DO NOT graduate from High School (2005 The Schott Foundation for Public Education & Black Male Students: A State Report Card)

Only 54% of Black males in Washington, D.C. graduate from H.S. (2001/2002 National Center of Education Statistics)

In 2001/2002 58% of African-American males DID NOT receive diplomas with their cohort. (2001/2002 National Center of Education Statistics)

Long term mentoring programs result in greater school engagement, better grades, higher cognitive attainment, and a greater likelihood of attending college. (Jekielek, S., Moore, K. & Hair, E. (2001). Mentoring programs and youth development: A synthesis.)

“For the first time in 100 years, kids today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents, our national epidemic of youth inactivity and unhealthy weight has worsened with the decline of school-based P.E. programs.” - Molly White, Director of US Community Affairs

Millions of students in middle and high schools across the nation struggle to read in school every day. The number of students scoring below the basic level in overall reading skill is astounding:

36 percent of 4th grade students
25 percent of 8th grade students
26 percent of 12th grade students

And while students from elementary school through college lack basic literacy skills, this problem does not just affect our children; some 27 million adults are functionally illiterate as well. (National Assessment of Educational Progress report (2002), NAEP)

Extracurricular activity participation is a predictor of improved academic achievement ((1999) Journal of Educational Psychology))

1 in 3 U.S. children born in 2000, will contract Type II diabetes unless their lifestyles emphasize eating less and exercising more. The odds are 1 in 2 for African American and Hispanic children. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics)

Daily attendance in P.E. dropped from 42% to 25% among high school students between 1991 and 1995. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1996)

Consistent participation during high school is linked with a significantly higher likelihood of going to college, voting in local and national elections, and volunteering in the community. (Zaff, J. F., Moore, K. A., Papillo, A. R., & Williams, S. W. (in press). Implications of extracurricular activity participation in adolescence on positive outcomes. Journal of Adolescent Research)

Program Outline

The Sound Mind, Sound Body Saturday Youth Mentoring Program will launch a 10-week pilot program to begin on February 3, 2007 and concluding on April 7, 2007. The program will focus on 4 major areas:

• Academic Enrichment
• ACT / SAT Preparation
• Career Development
  
• Leadership Skill Development
• Substance Abuse Prevention
• Youth –to-Youth Mentoring
  
• High performance athletic agility training
  

An additional component of the program will feature a variety of guest speakers. The guest speakers will include professional athletes, young entrepreneurs, and local business and political leaders. The pilot phase of this program will target 50-100 high school student-athletes. These individuals will be selected from the pool of 250 student-athletes who attended the LAWCF Sound Mind, Sound Body football camp and the DCTR After-School Teen program. A heavy emphasis will be placed on assisting under-achieving student-athletes. Upon selection into the program, a parent/student orientation will take place. During this visit, parents and students will receive an overview of the following three program phases:

Phase I- Academic Enrichment

Students will be given an online Pre-grade level assessment test. These results will be used to determine the students current grade level and determine where to begin prepping students for educational instruction. Students will then receive subject-based tutoring.

Phase II- ACT/SAT Preparation

Each week students will be tutored and trained on different sections of the ACT / SAT standardized test. Students will also receive academic fundamentals and standardized test taking techniques.

Phase III- Career Development

Each student participating in the city-wide study hall program will be assigned a mentor. This mentor will be responsible for monitoring student progress and attendance. Mentors will focus solely on identifying individual strengths and weaknesses. Their goal is to provide consistent uplift and motivation to their assigned mentee. A major component of the career development portion will be focused on Leadership Skills Development & Substance Abuse Prevention. The program will involve 1-on-1 youth to youth mentoring, team building workshops and working groups to help prepare students to identify and achieve personal goals.

Phase IV- Athletic Conditioning

Each student will receive high-intensity physical agility drill instruction. This workout centers on increasing students’ athletic skill levels in several areas: agility, endurance, recovery time, and hand–eye coordination.
Program success is based largely upon 100% attendance by participants. To encourage high attendance by participants, the program will be incentive-based. Student incentives will range from athletic scholarships for summer camps and workout equipment to video games and tickets to sporting events. Snacks will be provided for all students at each study hall session. Students will also receive supplies needed to participate in each study hall session