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Community For Youth
999 Third Avenue
Suite 1570
Seattle, WA 98104
Office
(206) 325-8480
Fax
(206) 957-2255
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Steps Ahead
"It has helped me raise my grades, get through personal problems and communicate with people I care about."
Tiffany, Sealth High School
Steps Ahead is for freshmen. The program consists of:
Pre-launch
Prior to going on the Launch Course, the staff meets with the newly enrolled students and the mentors. Frequently, parents will also attend this pre-launch meeting. At the meeting, staff members provide an overview of the program and its structure and discuss mentor and student roles and responsibilities, as well as the time commitments involved. Students and mentors are introduced to some of CfY's major concepts, such as participating 100%, making a commitment, being accountable and coachable.
The Launch Course
The launch course is a four-day "launch" retreat that students and mentors attend together. There, the supportive community begins to form, trusting relationships start to build and participants learn how their thinking impacts their choices. By the end of the launch course, mentors and students each make a public declaration of a new behavior they want to adopt and identify specific commitments they are willing to make to achieve their goal by the end of the school year.
Match Night
The last day of the launch, students and mentors identify the mentor or student with whom they would like to be matched. CfY staff considers the requests and puts together matches they believe will best benefit students, mentors and the community. Giving students and mentors a choice in their matches is unique among mentoring programs. Match Night happens a few days after the launch course. It is a festive occasion.
The Follow-through program
Steps Ahead students and mentors meet weekly throughout the school year. (see school calendars)
The follow-through program consists of a rotation of the following monthly program activities:
- Workshop
- Large group activity
- Match time with mentor/student
- On-going training for mentors
Workshops are designed to reinforce and expand the learning that began at the launch courses. Each workshop includes an opportunity for students and mentors to acknowledge each other and take responsibility for their actions and behaviors.
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Group activities - bowling, game night, even ballroom dancing - strengthen the community and continue to build strong, trusting relationships. These events provide a structured fun event that reaffirms the bonds established at the Launch Course. They also serve as enrichment and provide exposure to new experiences for the teenagers in the program.
Once a month, students and mentors spend one-on-one time together. They may go to a coffee shop and discuss a book. They might go to dinner and do some homework. They might go kayaking or do an art project.
Once a month, mentors continue their training and receive ongoing support from CfY staff. Mentors practice their coaching skills and learn new ones, and talk with other mentors and their Program Manager about the relationships they are building with their students. The Completion Celebration
At the end of the year, students and mentors gather together in a Completion Celebration to acknowledge the impact they have had on each other's lives. It is a time to recognize the completion of commitments and other accomplishments, as well as to clarify the future of the mentor/student relationship. Students who complete the Steps Ahead program may move into Steps Beyond.
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What makes Community for Youth unique:
- We build a community of support for students and mentors
- We teach and instill core concepts focused on personal growth and accountability
- Students and mentors are involved in the selection of their match
- We place a strong emphasis on mentor training and support
- We place a staff member in each of our schools during the school day.
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Results:
Students in Community for Youth's programs show:
- 90 - 100% of students in our programs stay in school (compared to 78% of Seattle Public High School students)
- 90%+ of those students who stay in our programs graduate from high school (compared to 58.9% of Seattle Public High School students)
- 83% of our students positively changed their behavior and/or achieved their goal
- 93% of our students reported that they benefited from our program
- 86% believe they gained a sense of personal accountability
- 97% feel connected to the community
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