Children & Youth Investment Trust Corporation

Out-of-School Time

Are you a dynamic youth worker or group that is interested in an exciting opportunity? Be part of the Out-of-School Time movement in the District of Columbia and become an Indie Provider with Project My Time. Individuals who can teach middle-school youth the following activities are encouraged to apply: dance and movement, yoga, martial arts, tennis, stepping, gender-specific activities and more. Applications are due August 15, 2008.

Request for Bid from Independent Contractors

DC BEST Trainings for 2008

The Trust offers a number of trainings in youth development:

Advancing Youth Development for Youth Workers (AYD)
Advancing Youth Development for Supervisors
Navigating Youth Culture (NYC)
Reunion/Core Competencies

Learn more about the trainings and see the calendar of trainings for the year.

“Project My Time” Expands to Five DCPS Middle Schools and Brings “DC Carrera Trust” to ATA Public Charter School

Following the successful launch of Project My Time, which has provided high-quality after-school and summer programs at three DC middle schools since January, the Trust is expanding opportunities for more District children to participate in enriching after-school activities. Project My Time is bringing 59 free after-school programs to students at five DC middle schools.

Featuring programs ranging from Korean martial arts and African drumming to culinary arts and creative writing, schools offering Project My Time programs for the first time this school year are: Jefferson Junior High School in Buzzard Point and MacFarland Middle School in Petworth. Schools continuing to offer Project My Time programs this fall are: Charles Hart Middle School in Congress Heights, Kelly Miller Middle School in Lincoln Heights and Lincoln Middle School in Columbia Heights.

Project My Time, an initiative of the Trust, aims to build on what children learn in school, while providing safe, fun, and stimulating places for children to thrive. The initiative is supported by full-time site directors at each school to ensure coordination between the school-day learning and the engaging after-school activities offered by the selected providers. Project My Time is currently operating in five DC Public Schools, but in subsequent years, the initiative will expand to other sites throughout the District including charter schools, community-based sites and recreation facilities.

With our partners, we are creating a fun and safe after-school environment, and our plan is to continue to grow until all young people in the District have the chance to participate in programs that will help them achieve their fullest potential. Now, with the expansion of Project My Time into two new schools, more parents can enroll their kids into fun high-quality programs that will also reinforce the academic skills they learn during the day.

In 2006, the Trust was selected to receive an $8 million grant, making DC one of five cities funded by The Wallace Foundation in New York to focus on improving after-school programs. Project My Time is the result of a partnership of 50 stakeholders, including the Trust, the Mayor’s office, the DC Public Schools, several District government agencies, including the DC Department of Parks and Recreation, the local philanthropic community, parents and community groups.

DC is working to offer comprehensive after-school programs, operating five days a week and blending strong academics with enrichment activities. The Trust initiative aims to build a more coordinated system to improve the quality of after-school and summer programs for all DC as well as to increase access to and enrollment in those programs. Project My Time began its programs in middle schools because recent national research shows many urban children are “lost” during those years. One study shows that children entering middle school with even one of four risk factors have only a 10-percent chance of graduating from high school on time or at all. The four factors are: failing English, failing math, poor behavior, and truancy.

Go to the Project My Time website to see all the programs offered and to learn more about the initiative.

Trust Launches New Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program in District

Seven-Year Program Follows Children through Graduation

The Trust is partnering with the Children’s Aid Society to launch a new program that offers a unique combination of academic enrichment, career exploration, arts, sports and sexuality education as a means of comprehensively preventing teen pregnancy. The new DC Carrera Trust Program began at the start of the school year with the entire 5th grade class at the Arts and Technology Academy Public Charter School in Northeast DC (Ward 7).

Guided by a philosophy that sees youth as “at promise” instead of “at risk,” the DC Carrera Trust Program takes a holistic approach to develop each participant’s capacity and desire to avoid pregnancy during their teen years and to complete their education and move on to higher education or career opportunities. The program works with youth during school, weekends, and summers for seven years, beginning in 5th grade and extending through high school graduation. Three times a week, the DC Carrera Trust Program engages the Arts and Technology Academy’s 72 fifth-graders in 50-minute sessions. The program also includes four hours of activities for participants on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month.

The DC Carrera Trust Program has seven components replicated from the nationally-recognized model developed by Dr. Michael Carrera of the New York-based Children’s Aid Society:

Education – Students receive daily and weekend homework assistance and academic enrichment with trained teachers and tutors, individualized academic plans, and high school and college preparation.
Job Club – Youth gain exposure to the world of work, earn weekly stipends, open individual bank accounts, and participate in entrepreneurial projects and summer job placement.
Self-Expression – Youth gain the opportunity to discover talents and build self-esteem through music, dance, multimedia, and drama sessions led by art professionals.
Lifetime Individual Sports – Youth participate in a fitness program emphasizing sports that build self-discipline and can be played throughout life, including golf, tennis, bowling, squash, and swimming.
Family Life and Sexuality Education – Youth participate in age and stage-appropriate sexuality literacy instruction to learn the facts about puberty, improve communication with parents, and understand how to manage peer group pressure. Classes for parents and family members also are provided.
Mental Health – Youth participate in weekly group discussions, individual counseling as needed, school and family visits, crisis intervention, referrals and case management.
Medical and Dental Services – Students are provided with comprehensive, no-cost annual physicals and dental visits, including specialty care and reproductive health care and counseling.

The Carrera program is the nation’s only fully evaluated teen pregnancy prevention program with statistically proven effectiveness. It has led to a 50-percent reduction in birth rates and a multitude of other positive youth development outcomes, including increased likelihood of high school graduation and college admission; increased employment experience; more bank accounts; and increased use of private physicians instead of emergency rooms.

“This model program has made a measurable difference in young lives across the nation, and now it will do the same for youth in DC,” says Dr. Carrera. “Hope is a powerful contraceptive, helping young people avoid pregnancy and showing that good things can happen in their lives.”

Check out the Washington Post article on this great program.

Learn more about the Children’s Aid Society and the success of the Carrera program.

Closing the Achievement Gap for Young Males of Color

The Trust, in collaboration with the National Organization of Concerned Black Men, foundations and community-based groups in Baltimore and Philadelphia, is launching a Cross-Cities Learning Circle to devise strategies to raise the educational attainment of young boys of color and increase high school graduation rates in the three pilot cities. The initiative overview is available for downloading (download the concept paper).

Read the Schott Foundation Report on “Public Education and Black Male Students”

If you are interested in this program, please join the Closing the Achievement Gap listserve. Just enter your name, email and select a password and we will add you to the list.