best practices
Every interaction counts. Each day new mentoring relationships are born, innovative strategies for helping youth succeed are built and young people throughout the Commonwealth surpass their own expectations. With each achievement, we should all grow. Here you'll find the strategies that are working today to raise youth up and give them viable options for the future.
Out of Harm's Way
Nationwide studies report that exposure to community violence and chronic poverty increases depression and aggressive behavior among adolescents, and can even lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It also affects how children learn and achieve in school. A United Way partnership with Boston Public Schools called “Out of Harm’s Way” is working to reduce violence and improve school climate for the healthy development and learning of middle school students.
Out of Harm’s Way (OHW) is an initiative that strategically increases resources in Dorchester ’s Lilla Frederick School, Roxbury’s Dearborn Middle School, Dorchester’s King Middle School and East Boston’s Umana/Barnes to help middle school students make decisions that keep them safe and ready to learn.
While the goal of OHW is ultimately about helping the students, it also focuses on providing support to the staff who often feel emotionally overwhelmed by the problems their students are trying to overcome. OHW staff are being trained to identifying those youth most in need and link them to programs, assessing the availability of services at the school and starting new programs to address gaps.
OHW has a unique feature that uses on joint training for afterschool and school staff, to work with these students to better understand how to meet their needs around trauma and resiliency and create a climate in the school where all adults, in-school teachers and afterschool staff, are together providing common techniques and strategies to support healthy alternatives to destructive or violent behavior.
For more information about the initiative, click here.
Connecting Schools and Afterschools
United Way’s Connecting Schools and Afterschools Initiative was designed to improve communications, align curriculum and foster new policies to build collaborations among staff of schools and afterschool programs. The initiative is grounded in findings from the 2005 Massachusetts Afterschool Research Study (MARS) and has been extended to 56 program sites from 27 community afterschool programs
For more information about the initiative, click here.
Learn fifteen ways to improve partnerships
between schools and afterschools.
United Way’s Increasing Youth Opportunities Impact Papers
United Way’s Increasing Youth Opportunities impact area seeks to ensure all youth will stay in school and have positive options for the future as responsible involved members of society. Within this area, we are focused on six core measures that sound research identifies as the key ingredients for inspiring youth to succeed in school and have positive options for the future.
A complete list and explanation of these measures can be found by accessing the Increasing Youth Opportunities Impact Area Paper.
Engaging Families Initiative
The Engaging Families Initiative (EFI) is a United Way effort to develop model programs and proven strategies for increasing family engagement that can be replicated. Eight after-school programs serving black and Latino children ages six to 10 years in Roxbury, Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, East Boston and the South End were selected to participate in the initiative, which is funded by The Wallace Foundation and managed by BOSTnet.
Read more about Engaging Families Initiative (EFI) or read a related press release.
Building and Supporting Family-Centered Practices in After School
Focus on Families! How to Build and Support Family-Centered Practices in Afterschool, is a national guide for after-school providers published by the Engaging Families Initiative Team and the Harvard Family Research Project. The guide presents current research on the benefits and challenges of engaging families, after-school and strategies that after-school programs can use to engage families.
Faith and Action
Reaching high-risk youth is no easy task. That’s why United Way has taken an unconventional approach. We call it Faith and Action (FAA). Young people’s involvement in faith-based activities often provides transformational opportunities and protects them from choosing negative behavioral responses to everyday challenges. FAA seeks to reach high-risk youth in under-served communities who do not seek help through traditional human services.
Read more about the High Risk Youth Needs Assessment.
Today’s Girls…Tomorrow’s Leaders Initiative (TGTL)
For more than a decade, United way has helped over 200,000 girls between the ages of 7-18 in Greater Boston with innovative programs and opportunities through its Today’s Girls…Tomorrow’s Leaders (TGTL) Initiative. This initiative matches girls with mentors, provides them with technical skills, and educates them about healthy lifestyles to help them achieve academic success and become responsible, involved members of society.
Read the 10 year TGTL plan.
Intentional Mentoring Program
As a component of the Today’s Girls…Tomorrow’s Leaders (TGTL) Initiative is the Intentional Mentoring program which creates group mentoring programs that serve girls’ social and emotional well-being through the development of positive, supportive relationships with caring adults.
Learn more about the Intentional Mentoring Program.
Toolfind.org : Measuring Outcomes in Youth Programs
Looking for an easy way to measure outcomes of your youth-serving program? Look no farther than Toolfind.org.
Toolfind is a free directory designed to help professionals in youth-serving programs find measurement tools for up to 11 youth outcome areas. All tools are tested, low-cost and have few restrictions. Tools included in this database address elementary, middle and/or high school students and youth, parent, staff and teacher respondents.
