617 Steiner Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45204
Dater4Kids
Grant Application:
Program Goals:
Youth Developmental Programming is pursuing 2 goals:
1. Elementary aged students at Oyler school continue moving toward educational equity (promoting equity refers to providing specific resources & support to disadvantaged students to bring them up to the same opportunity level as their peers (www.learningcirclesoftware.com/resources/equity-in-education/) & raise their academic levels by the end of 21-22 school year.
2. LPH youth develop social & emotional competencies that are predictive of academic and non-academic success through a combination of structured group facilitation and consistent family advocacy.
The following are our expected outcomes for the program:
Short term (1-4 months):
-Families are able to access culturally competent program coaches (Youth Advocates/other Santa Maria staff from various programs/services) & resources to meet basic housing/food/mental & physical health/transportation/ESL/ social support needs within 4 months of program enrollment.
-100% of referred students are connected to tutors/university students and are meeting regularly by end of first quarter.
-100% (36 of 36) of youth in structured social/emotional skills groups are pre-tested to determine baseline S/E skill level via Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) after 4 group sessions.
-36 of 36 (100%) of the students in structured groups will be able to identify steps to conflict resolution peacefully and resist negative peer pressure after 10 sessions.
-60% parents of 36 students are introduced to their students' teachers by end of first quarter and develop a learning plan for students.
-40% of students show grade improvement after 3 months of participation in programming.
Intermediate (5-7 months):
-50% of 36 parents/caregivers of the program's 6th-8th grade participants meet with teachers quarterly during school year and demonstrate knowledge of students' academic challenges and strengths and ability to provide support to students.
-50% of students increase academic skills and show grade increase after 6 months of participation in programming.
-29 of 36 families (91%) will not only be able to identify factors affecting family stability but address and mitigate these factors after six months in the program.
-30 of 36 (83%) youth participants that remain in the program for at least 7 months will improve their t-score on the DESSA, verifying an increased level of Social/Emotional skill attainment.
Long-term (9-10 months)
-22 of 36 (60%) of students demonstrate academic progress after 9 months of participation in program.
-34 of 36 students (95%) advance on to the next grade.
-32 of 36 (89%) students who stayed in the program for at least 9 months score greater than 6 on both the "Positive Life Choices" and "Life Skills" subscales of the Colorado Trust Inventory for Evaluating Positive Youth Development, indicating that youth were actually using the above steps to resolve conflict peacefully and resist involvement in negative behaviors.
-27 of 32 families (84%) who remain in the program for at least 9 months will utilize support services to make the family more stable.
Grant Evaluation Report:
The Dater 4 Kids program was extremely successful at attaining our goals and objectives despite the ongoing impacts of the pandemic on the mental wellbeing and material realities of our youth and families. We adapted as a result of the obstacles we faced and either came close to meeting or surpassed our desired goals and objectives. We also learned many valuable lessons about how to be creative in a post-pandemic scenario—still using technology, home visits, and new partner organizations—to pursue our objectives in even the most difficult of circumstances. The program touched youth from Lower Price Hill, Sedamsville, and Price Hill from diverse cultural backgrounds and ethnicities.
Results:
- We measure our youth’s progress in social-emotional learning (SEL) skills through Deveraux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) at the beginning of the school year (after 4 SEL sessions) and at the end of the school year (at least 10 SEL sessions). 30 out of 32 youth (94%) as opposed to the 83% we had expected, achieved significant growth in their social-emotional skills according to the DESSA measurement tool.
- To evaluate the “family advocacy” component of our work, we use the ROMA (Results Oriented Management and Accountability) family stability measure. It measures income, housing, education, health care etc. to assess families’ progress toward self-sufficiency. 71% (93/131) families have improved their economic stability after 10 months of participation in the family advocacy component of the program.
- Through the “open activities” that we offer to any and all youth in LPH neighborhood we served upward of 200 youth in the 2021-22 school year. By the end of July we will have identified the 75 of these youth who have been most consistent participants in our activities so as to administer two subscales of the Colorado Trust Inventory for Evaluating Positive Youth Development. We will provide this data by early August.