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gameoflife

R&B Launches Technology to Help Keep Kids Off the Street

Apr 28 2010

(Grass Valley, CA) - New roads are being paved at Charis Youth Center of Grass Valley to make way for a uniquely crafted curriculum; one that is designed with an individual’s strengths and weaknesses and history accounted for to maximize the opportunity to succeed. Charis’ non-profit charter is to provide emotionally challenged adolescents with academic, residential and mental health services to help them succeed after becoming an adult.

“The statistics for these youth are frightening if they don’t graduate from high school. About two-thirds of foster care youth end up homeless, in jail or dead within 18 months of emancipation. If we can help these kids to graduate, their chances for making it increase exponentially. Something different needs to be done and we’ve taken on that challenge.” Carol Fuller Powell, Ed.D. Executive Director at Charis Youth Center.

The Plan
Upon entry into the program at Charis Youth Center, each student’s academic history is constructed to help staff determine which requirements have been satisfied and which ones need to be fulfilled. This measurement helps create a plan for future academic navigation.

The Map
After the evaluation has been completed, the resulting plan is mapped against the California State Frameworks and Standards. All of the Standards for Language Arts, Science, and History courses – eighth through twelfth grades – have been entered into Charis’ customized online database. Four quarters’ worth of curriculum based plans are compared against each student’s academic map to determine which quarter of which subject would be an appropriate placement. The placement criteria avoids a student having to repeat instruction that has already been satisfied and keeps the student on target and motivated for graduation.

Unchartered Waters
Tracking this level of detail with paper (or with spreadsheets) would be nearly impossible - and to do it with a non-profit budget even more impossible. Before entering into these unchartered waters, Charis had searched for an off-the-shelf software solution. They only found the one-size-fits-all tools that didn’t fit this new model. So, they set out to develop their own tool with the help of a local technology company: R&B Communications of Grass Valley, CA. After an arduous year of requirements development, system review and testing, they have now entered each of the California Standards into the database as a Treatment Plan and each student now has a quarterly academic plan that is mapped to those Standards. Each standard that is met funnels into a report card and then automatically translate into a transcript - which significantly streamlines operational processes. “This entire program significantly increases the youth’s chance for successfully transitioning into independence!” exclaims Powell.

On The Horizon
On the horizon awaits a high school graduate, full of anticipation for the next road ahead. Powell believes the reason why more non-profit schools haven’t adopted this individualized map approach is because the administration is overwhelming and costly. Powell, admits, “The technology has made this journey possible for us. We have paved this road in the hopes that other agencies will join us on this venture to serve more youth without increasing overhead. For every youth that graduates, that’s one less lost soul who is homeless, incarcerated or forgotten.”

Npower 2009 Survey of IT Use in Non-Profits indicates that “76% of non-profits still use spreadsheets and paper to track client service information.” There is room for significant improvement in our nation’s social service delivery model. If there is any interest in learning more about Charis’ individual academic mapping model or their online technology, feel free to write Carol Fuller Powell at carolp@charisyouthcenter.org or Lisa Klinkhammer at R&B Communications at lisa.klinkhammer@rb-com.com.

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