CREATE
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2022 Grants Challenge

Powering The Next Generation of Leaders

CBMLA CARES is a school-based youth development project where CBMLA facilitators and mentors lead weekly workshops designed to improve academic and life outcomes for middle school students. This year CARES returned after the world was rocked by a global pandemic. The return focused on helping the youth find their voices and develop visions for the future. They learned effective communication, self-awareness, healthy relationships, and more, culminating in a student led video project that we want to further develop and sustain.

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What is the primary issue area that your application will impact?

Access to Creative Industry Employment (sponsored by Snap Foundation)

In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?

South LA

In what stage of innovation is this project, program, or initiative?

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative

What is your understanding of the issue that you are seeking to address?

Risk Factors - Disconnection Structural Racism Income Inequality Neighborhood Violence Lack of Trust High Rates of School Dropout and Suspensioins Parental Incarceration Low Emotional Self-Regulation Opportunity Factors - Promotion, Prevention, Reengagement Access to Employment and Education Opportunities Supportive Teachers Prop-social Peers Parental Support and Engagement High Motivation Academic Achievement

Describe the project, program, or initiative this grant will support to address the issue.

THE PROGRAM CARES mentoring program is a school-based program that was offered at two charter public middle schools located in South Los Angeles, Kipp Academy of Opportunity and Kipp Scholars Academy. The goal of CARES is to improve attendance and grades. School administrators select male students to participate, prioritizing those with poor attendance who are not performing well academically. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, up to 55 students from the two school sites had been enrolled. Both schools provided a dedicated classroom once a week for a CBMLA facilitator to conduct group mentoring sessions addressing a number of life skills topics. This program also included field trips, some in conjunction with the other CBMLA programs. This fall, we will expand the program into two additional Los Angeles Unified School District middle schools located in the San Fernando Valley, who have requested coed programming. Along with expanding CARES, we will also bring back Welcome to Womanhood, a program that was created in 2018. Patterned after CBMLA's Welcome to Manhood program, Welcome to Womanhood (WTW) serves middle school aged girls between the ages of 11-15 years old and is designed to provide girls of color with the tools needed to become successful in a globalized world. Workshop sessions include a range of life skills topics. Our vision is to further develop the video project, incorporate into CBMLA programs, and foster creativity while providing digital skills training.

Describe how Los Angeles County will be different if your work is successful.

By the end of our program students will have explored effective decisions and communication skills that are necessary to ensure the best possible outcome. Students will be better prepared to access critical thinking and communication skills needed to navigate the world personally, academically and professionally. LA County will have a growing young population that takes personal care and community care as a priority; young leaders with the motivation and discipline to act as positive change agents in their communities. They will have the unapologetic confidence and intelligence to persist, to persevere, and to express themselves in places and spaces where people don’t look like them, and in any other environment that they may find themselves in as they journey through life.

What evidence do you have that this project, program, or initiative is or will be successful, and how will you define and measure success?

This is an early-stage project. Data Collection Process Roll call / attendance is collected at every class session. CBM CARES Pretest Survey is completed by every student. Report cards and attendance information from the school for each student in the year prior to beginning the CARES program are requested. A client file is created for each student using the completed forms in their enrollment packets along with attendance data and report cards from the school. Students who withdraw are asked to complete the CBM CARES Posttest survey. At the end of the school year, every student completes the Posttest survey. Another measure of CARES impact and success is more parent and school staff engagement with project facilitator. We will continue to fine tune our program assessment tools to develop benchmarks and indicators that more definitively show progress on achieving student learning outcomes and measuring program effectiveness, particularly, digital skill learning outcomes.

Approximately how many people will be impacted by this project, program, or initiative?

Direct Impact: 75

Indirect Impact: 750