Alaska Native Heritage Center

Anchorage, AK

Alaska Native Connections to Promise

Alaska Native Heritage Center (ANHC) is an educational and cultural institution that provides programs on Alaska Native knowledge, heritage and tradition. It offers culturally based after-school programming that instills pride, leadership, self-confidence, and academic achievement.

RWJF will support ANHC’s after-school programs for vulnerable high school and middle school boys. ANHC’s middle school program targets Alaska Native and American Indian students in grades 6-9, addressing poor attendance and behaviors that lead to disengagement and underachievement, by engaging youth prior to suspension or expulsion. In 2011, the 12th grade graduation rate for regular participants was 77 percent, as compared to 43 percent for Anchorage School District Native students not enrolled in the program.

Alternatives, Inc.

Chicago, IL

The Safe Schools Consortium

The Safe Schools Consortium, supported by Alternatives, Inc., is a unique collaborative aimed at scaling up school discipline approaches that address behavioral problems. The initiative focuses on teacher practice and collaborative teacher leadership to expand best practices to school staff, including security and discipline officers. In just one year, citywide restorative justice trainings resulted in more than 2,000 suspension days avoided, and 94 percent of Alternatives-trained teachers reported that they incorporated restorative practices into their classroom.

Grant support will go towards Alternatives, Inc.’s efforts within the Safe School Consortium to advance school discipline approaches that do not push students out of school.

The Brotherhood/Sister Sol

New York, NY

Educational & Emotional Services for Young Men of Color

The Brotherhood/Sister Sol (BHSS) supports academic achievement and provides counseling and other wraparound services to Harlem youth ages 8 to 22.  RWJF support will help strengthen and grow BHSS’s model, which prioritizes three areas for youth development: academic achievement, holistic education rooted in racial literacy and identity development, and global competence.

Services encompass group counseling, with special emphasis on addressing the effects of exposure to trauma in young people’s lives; an in-school “Rites of Passage” program that empowers youth to develop emotional intelligence, critical thinking skills, and educational success; and an after-school program that provides academic support and enrichment activities.  A total of 88 percent of BHSS alumni have graduated from high school and 95 percent are working full time or are enrolled in college.

Clayton County Juvenile Court

Jonesboro, GA

Quad C-ST/System of Care (SOC) Approach- Intervention to Suspension Expansion Project

The Clayton County Juvenile Court partners with local schools and law enforcement to identify alternative discipline measures for young people who may be sent to juvenile court for suspensions and expulsions. RWJF is funding efforts to double the capacity of the court’s System of Care, which provides effective alternatives to school suspensions that keep youth in school and connect them with services and supports to address their chronically disruptive behavior. This alternate approach has already been shown to reduce school arrests by 83 percent and increase graduation rates from 58 percent to 82 percent since 2004.

Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment

Los Angeles, CA

Youth, Power, Progress

Community Coalition fosters youth leadership, parent engagement, and academic achievement. It works to help transform the social and economic conditions in South LA that contribute to addiction, crime, violence, and poverty by engaging thousands of residents in creating, influencing, and changing public policy. This project seeks to replicate at Dorsey High a set of interventions that have been effective at helping students of color succeed in Fremont schools, including: comprehensive mental wellness programming; a career academy, and; a dropout prevention program.  In 2012, Fremont High graduated 750 students, a 65 percent increase from 2011, and suspensions decreased by more than 55 percent. 

RWJF will invest in Community Coalition’s community-driven school reform model, which is rooted in the concepts of youth leadership, parent engagement, and cross-sector collaborations. Funds also will support evaluation efforts to assess health, social, and education program outcomes for young men of color.

East Baltimore Development, Inc.

Baltimore, MD

Adolescent Behavioral Health Partnership

The East Baltimore Development Inc. Adolescent Behavioral Health Partnership (ABHP), a collaboration of Elev8 Baltimore and Johns Hopkins Bayview’s Department of Pediatrics, delivers trauma-informed care to 250 fifth- to eighth-grade boys attending two East Baltimore schools. In partnership with each school, ABHP provides a full-time wellness coordinator; monitors symptoms of anger, anxiety, and depression; introduces students to a mindfulness-based stress-reduction program designed to improve skills to cope with trauma; links students to academic and social enrichment programs after school; and facilitates parent education designed to remove barriers to academic achievement.

RWJF support will help link behavioral health data to attendance, achievement, and suspension/expulsion rates; spread services and best practices to more schools; and develop a plan for city-wide replication.

East Bay Asian Youth Center

Oakland, CA

Addressing Violence and Trauma with Southeast Asian Young Men

The East Bay Asian Youth Center (EBAYC) supports young people to be life-long builders of a just and compassionate multi-cultural society. Focusing on Southeast Asian Young Men who have experienced trauma, EBAYC works to support their social and emotional development through intensive outreach to high-risk juvenile offenders and their parents/caregivers.  EBAYC also provides comprehensive case management support to each youth, connects routinely with teachers and administrators to monitor academic progress, works with probation officers to promote compliance with probation conditions, and offers therapeutic activity groups to engage youth in addressing the impact of trauma on their lives.  

Among 105 youth in EBAYC’s 2011-12 program, 94 percent did not recidivate.  Moreover, 9 percent of youth received an out-of-school suspension during the school year following their first contact with EBAYC services, as compared to 36 percent who were suspended prior to their first contact with EBAYC.

The Evergreen State College

Olympia, WA

Opening Gateways for Incarcerated Youth

The Evergreen State College’s educational program, Gateways, offers incarcerated young people the opportunity to complete their education.  The program gives students in the juvenile justice system the opportunity and support to earn dual high school and college credits, and enlists college students as peer mentors.  The Gateways program positions incarcerated students as the drivers of their educational experiences and provides transition support to help them chart pathways toward success and away from recidivism. RWJF support will help strengthen Gateways’ data collection and evaluation efforts, and build its capacity to expand to more facilities.

National Economic and Social Rights Initiative / Dignity in Schools campaign

New York, NY

National Dignity in Schools Campaign Capacity-Building for Positive Discipline

The National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) supports the Dignity in Schools Campaign, which unites parents, youth, and educators to replace disproportionately harsh school discipline practices with common-sense reforms that keep students in school while holding them accountable for disciplinary offenses. In 2012, the Dignity in Schools Campaign launched its "Solutions Not Suspensions" initiative to call for a moratorium on out-of-school suspensions, and released a Model Code on Education and Dignity, a set of recommended policies for states, districts, and schools designed to end practices that push students out of school. 

Dignity in Schools Campaign members are beginning to adopt local and statewide strategies for implementing common-sense reforms and evidence-based models for transforming school disciplinary approaches. RWJF support will help build the capacity of the Campaign's national network of members to advance similar changes in their states and school districts. The Campaign's goal is to end harmful discipline practices that disproportionately impact low-income students of color, and to spread implementation of positive approaches that reduce conflict and improve teaching and learning.

Native American Community Academy

Albuquerque, NM

The Hiyupo Project: Promoting Achievement in Native Youth

The Native American Community Academy (NACA) promotes the success of Native young men through male mentorship and programming that advances their mental, physical, emotional, and social health.

Forward Promise will support NACA’s Hiyupo Project, which focuses on engaging Native young men to actively participate in a school environment that will prepare students to transition successfully from adolescence to adulthood. The program positions young men to help strengthen their communities by developing strong leaders who are academically prepared, healthy, and secure in their identity.

NACA’s success is evidenced by a 92 percent student retention rate, with 100 percent of its first senior class being accepted into and attending college (75 percent first-generation college students). RWJF support will support the replication of the Academy’s model, strengthen its technical assistance capacity, track longer-term student outcomes, and build on NACA’s programmatic success.

After Trayvon, 10 Reasons for Hope

On the Culture of Health blog, Maisha Simmons offers thoughts on the 10 Forward Promise grantees as solutions that will help drive urgently needed change for our nation's young men of color.