Project My Time

Summer 2007

In this issue:

●Project My Time's First Semester a Big Success

●Summer Programs Offered, Two New Schools Added in the Fall

●Academic, Leadership and Resiliency Secondary School Program Helps Asian Youth

●Washington Post KidsPost Features Project My Time

●Higher Achievement Parent Featured on NPR

●Lights! Camera! Action! Project My Time Featured in a New Video

 

The school year may be drawing to a close, but the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation is still in high gear with Project My Time continuing through the summer and expanding in the fall. All the Project My Time partners have worked diligently to ensure that District students receive the best after-school, and now summer, opportunities.

Many of us are engaged in the “Double the Numbers” initiative to increase the number of District students graduating from high school, attending and completing college. Middle school is a critical time for young people on this journey, and Project My Time is committed to strengthening the bridge to high school for our youth. Project My Time Director Meeta Sharma-Holt is leading the middle school working group in this effort and our president and CEO Greg Roberts is on the committee for community outreach and public information. Project My Time is working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, DC State Education Office, DCPS, DC Education Compact, DC College Access Program and many other partners to coordinate our out-of-school time system and boost District youth toward success in graduation and college.  

From the Project My Time Director

As we wrap up our first semester of Project My Time, I am both thrilled with the success that we’ve experienced and excited about what the future holds. Since our launch in January, we’ve brought 25 after-school programs to Lincoln, Kelly Miller and Hart middle schools. Enrollment is up across the board, and we’ve achieved an unprecedented level of coordination with program providers and DCPS. As the summer approaches, we look forward to implementing student-driven changes and expanding our program in the fall.

 

Together with our partners, we are reaching our goal of offering students high-quality programs to ensure that our youth are supported in and after school, so they can achieve success in graduation, college and beyond. In this issue, read about our plans for the future and learn about one of the District’s high-quality programs. Also, see us in KidsPost and in our new video online!

 

Meeta Sharma-Holt

Project My Time’s First Semester a Big Success

The first five months of Project My Time have seen significant accomplishments. Since Project My Time began enhancing and coordinating after-school offerings in January, we have increased enrollment by about 20 percent at each of our three pilot middle schools. Equally important: About 75 percent of the students at those schools stayed in after-school programs.

At the same time, we were very kid-centric. We added a greater variety of programs at each school, often because students wanted particular activities. For instance, we added music, dance, urban debate, playwriting, baseball, tennis and soccer programs, where none existed before.

We’ve also learned how much value the full-time site directors bring to each school. They are able to identify students’ needs and wants, helping to determine which programs to fund. They are master recruiters, even if it means cornering kids in the cafeteria. “They have added a level of efficiency and coordination that never existed before,” says Meeta Sharma-Holt, director of Project My Time. “In the past, this was always just a quarter of someone’s job. For the first time, there is a full-time person dedicated to this.” More >>

Summer Programs Offered, Two New Schools Added in the Fall

Summer won’t be quiet for Project My Time. All three pilot sites – Hart, Lincoln and Kelly Miller middle schools – will offer fun, engaging programs for children over the summer months. And we’re adding at least two more Project My Time schools in the fall – MacFarland Middle School and Jefferson Junior High School.

We also are embarking on more research, including parent and student surveys and focus groups, to better determine what programming students, parents and administrators want at those new schools. Our research also will analyze the experience over the last semester at our existing three schools. We will use that data to do an even better job at those schools. The other major task on our summer agenda is refining our business plan for Phase Two of the initiative. “We will spend time defining the next stage of our work,” says Sharma-Holt.

Through Project My Time, the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust is building a system to improve the quality of all after-school and summer programs in DC and to get more kids to participate in those programs. The goal is that all students will benefit from this improved system. From time to time, we will feature high-quality programs with well-trained providers who reinforce what students learn during the school day.

Academic, Leadership and Resiliency Secondary School Program Helps Asian Youth

After school, ninth-grader Lynda Nguyen heads over to Asian American LEAD in Columbia Heights for the Academic, Leadership and Resiliency Secondary School program.
“I really like it,” she says. “All my friends are there. It’s cool – you get to do different things I never would have had the chance to do, like hiking and camping. It gives us time to hang out and talk. It’s pretty cool.”

The Academic, Leadership and Resiliency Secondary School Program helps many immigrant students from China and Vietnam make successful transitions to a new land. “It’s a small group and not very intimidating,” says Lynda, 15. “It’s a good support system.”

“It gives them a space they don’t necessarily have as Asian-American youth,” says Sherry Hao, who runs the program at AALEAD, a Trust grantee for about five years. “They gravitate here because they don’t have that safe haven. Here they are able to make friends and do activities they otherwise wouldn’t be able to do. Many of them, for instance, would not be able to experience horseback riding or rock climbing.” More >>

Washington Post KidsPost Features Project My Time

We are thrilled that the Washington Post’s KidsPost wrote a prominent feature story with photos about Project My Time. The nearly full-page story features the terrific program by Young Playwrights’ Theater at Kelly Miller Middle School, located in the northeast neighborhood of Lincoln Heights. Our middle school students love reading KidsPost. So coverage by that popular newspaper section is a great way to spread the word about Project My Time and to build interest among kids and parents. To read the story, please click here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/kidspost/pdf/projectmytime.pdf

Higher Achievement Parent Featured on National Public Radio

Congrats to Project My Time partner Higher Achievement, a nationally-recognized, year-round and summer high school prep program for middle school students from under-served areas. One of Higher Achievement’s parents, police officer Gregory Sanders, recently appeared on National Public Radio’s popular News and Notes program with Ron Fairchild, executive director of the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University. Sanders is the father of two Higher Achievement scholars in Ward 7. On the nationally broadcast radio show, he and Fairchild discussed the importance of high-quality summer learning programs. To listen to the show, please click here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10632322

Lights! Camera! Action! Project My Time Featured in a New Video

The Trust is pleased to present a short new video that explains what Project My Time is about. The video is intended for policymakers, funders, business leaders, educators and providers, community members and parents. Filmed at Lincoln Middle School, the video features Greg Roberts, president and CEO of the Trust, DC City Council Chairman Vincent Gray, Lincoln site coordinator Brodrick Clarke and Meeta Sharma-Holt, director of Project My Time – and of course, young people in our programs. The video credits the broad partnership backing Project My Time and explains what is meant by system-building. “It means providing first-rate after-school and summer learning opportunities to the kids who most need them,” Roberts explains. “You do that by understanding the needs, aligning programs to meet those needs, and then tracking outcomes.” To watch our new video, click here: http://www.projectmytime.org/mmedia/tw.html. Please be patient while it loads.

Project My Time is an initiative of the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation.