Our Target Population High School Students
High school girls are at a crucial point in their social, emotional, and academic development. Here’s how we’re meeting their needs. HomeWorks Trenton seeks to provide high school students with a stable environment that promotes healthy growth in critical thinking, decisionmaking, and social-emotional and moral development. According to Dr. Robert E. Slavin, teenagers are in their critical years of growth as they begin to form their own identity by paying attention to how others view them, by experimenting with roles, by acting on their feelings and beliefs, and by seeking autonomy and intimacy with their peers. Teenagers also begin to gain independence in their critical thinking as they rely less on their parents and more on peers to form their own opinions and beliefs.8 Given that high school students are in their critical formative years, their environment is crucial in fostering interactions that will influence their development. According to American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg’s research on adolescent stages of development, most young teenagers make decisions based on their peers’ approval.9 As high school students typically surround themselves with their peer group, they become highly susceptible to peer pressure. Negative influences can lead them to develop serious problems including, amongst others, dropping out of school, becoming pregnant, bullying, engaging in substance abuse, and becoming prey to emotional disorders.
HomeWorks Trenton will provide a stable after-school and school night environment that will reinforce positive social behaviors, ultimately influencing the overall psychosocial development of its scholars. We aim to develop our scholars’ critical thinking and social-emotional skills, enabling them to understand the complexity of decision-making and its consequences.
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