successj
middle school United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County
WHY FOCUS ON MIDDLE SCHOOL? United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County identified Middle School Success as its focused initiative in 2010 because successful completion of high school is a determinant of a greater opportunity for a better life in the areas of Education, Income and Health. Research shows that middle school students who do not perform well academically and/or have behavior or attendance problems arrive in the ninth grade unprepared for high school. These students are much less likely to graduate from high school than their peers. The statistics are sobering. •
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Sixth graders who failed math and/or English, attended school less than 80 percent of the time, or received an unsatisfactory behavior grade in a core class had only a 1020 percent chance of graduating on time. More than eight in 10 eighth grade students lack the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in high school. Ninth grade failure is one of the strongest indicators that a student will ultimately drop out.
After extensive research, United Way identified a gap in assistance for middle school students in our area. We support Middle School students by improving the quality of and access to out-of-school-time programs, assessing the quality of after school programming and helping them with continuous improvement, providing professional development and technical assistance to providers and helping programs assist more students and more communities.
OUR GOALS Enhance the quality of youth serving programs.
Keep Asheville,
Buncombe County and WNC on the map in state-level policy decisions.
Help the community connect to ways to support kids this age.
Increase the capacity
and reach of programs.
2011-2012 HIGHLIGHTS Youth
Providers
Capacity and Reach
Quality: Professional Development
Along with the YMCA of WNC,
Well-trained adults create better learning
we are increasing services to Buncombe county students. So far we have: • Assisted with the development and implementation of Owen Middle School’s after school program, serving students.
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• Funded and assisted in the creation of Summer Discovery, a free learning and enrichment program for students from Enka, Erwin and Owen middle schools, hosted by AB-Tech.
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• Began implementation of a community school pilot project at er m Enka Middle Sumovery School, along c s Di with Buncombe County Schools, Hands On Asheville-Buncombe and Americorps VISTA volunteers. Community schools become community centers that integrate academics, health/social services and community development.
We also assist the IRL (In Real
Life) program at Asheville Middle School by providing database management support, staff training and quality assurance.
opportunities for youth. In our professional development series for youth development workers last year, people from organizations participated in workshops on: positive youth development, brain and gender differences in young adolescents, basic Spanish and family Music engagement and more. a
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Quality: Assessments
n Traind Power ing
High quality programs improve grades, increase selfesteem and decrease risky behaviors.
United Way brought staff from The Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality to our community to share their nationally acclaimed, research-based Youth Program Quality Assessment (YPQA) tool with local programs so far.
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This graph shows local improvement in the areas of safe environment, supportive environment, peer interaction and youth engagement.
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Each year, we produce a marketing campaign to raise awareness of the importance of community support during the middle school years.
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