Our Opportunity

An after-school, community-based boarding program

Boarding schools have proven to be a solution to these challenges, but they are historically inaccessible to low-income students of color.

The Boarding School Model

Using a boarding school model, HomeWorks Trenton sees the opportunity to help high school girls reach academic success through after-school and evening academic enrichment; to prevent absenteeism through in loco parentis and partnering with parents; to support growth in critical thinking, decision-making, and socialemotional and moral development by providing a curriculum aimed at healthy development to girls assembled together in a stable environment; and to increase girls’ sense of safety and independence by expanding their geographical territory through living away from home and participating in a robust after-school and evening curriculum. HomeWorks Trenton sees the opportunity to supplement public schools, promote female empowerment, and build community leaders in Trenton. Boarding schools have proven to “increase students’ exposure to social, cultural, and education capital” and “can serve as an equalizer, [while] protect[ing] urban students from becoming part of negative statistics.”18 According to Carole Weatherford’s article in Education Week, a 24-hourday learning environment allows educators to have “optimum control” of the climate, subsequently enabling underserved students to succeed academically.19

Lisa Bass writes in The Journal of Educational Research: The structure of boarding or residential schools provides the opportunity for schools to exercise control over a larger portion of the student’s day than traditionally formatted day schools, allowing schools to more fully implement practices proven successful. When schools have access to children during evening hours, they can be sure that students are receiving the structure they need to ensure their best opportunity for success. They are also positioned to receive the help they need, and are given mandatory quiet time dedicated solely toward study and completing assignments. Another benefit of students living on campus is that they are under the protection of the school until their parents sign them out. Not only do residential schools have the potential to shelter students from negative outside influences, such as drugs and gang culture (as Bailey & Paisley [2004] suggested is necessary for change), but they also provide an opportunity for all students to have access to social, cultural, and education capital, which poorer students are often denied both at home as well as in educational settings (Bourdieu, 1983; Coleman, 1988). When students are together 24 [hours] a day, 7 days a week, they share an increased number of common experiences, shrinking what we currently view as unavoidable experience gaps; equating to a lower capital benefits deficit between privileged and disenfranchised students (Bourdieu, 1983, 1986; Coleman, 1988; Fryer, 2003; Sullivan, 2001).20

“I really do believe that HomeWorks is going to help me shine a light of positivity on Trenton.” -Darae

Limitations of Boarding Schools

While boarding schools have proven merit, students from underserved communities often face personal conflict, for their enrollment choice requires leaving their community as they subscribe to the “stay and limit your future or leave and succeed” narrative. Bass argues: “Separation from home culture may pose an insurmountable obstacle for some urban African American students or other students from high poverty populations. The focus on the relational dimension of the African American culture or the culture of poverty may prevent students and their families from choosing boarding schools as an option.

They may view students who attend boarding school as being willing to trade home and family for education. People in this category are sometimes referred to as race traitors or sell-outs—neither of which is a badge of honor. For some African American urban youth, remaining uneducated is a more palatable option than being viewed as a traitor to the race and no longer fitting in. Therefore, the boarding school environment may not be the most appropriate alternative for every child.”21

HomeWorks Trenton elevates public education by replicating the benefits of a boarding school experience without the bureaucracy, high fixed costs, and scalability issues.

HomeWorks Trenton’s unique 5-½ day boarding school model does not require its scholars “to trade home and family for education”; instead, students live in the same community as their parents, speak with them daily, and live in their parents’ homes from mid-afternoon on Friday until late afternoon on Sunday. When students choose to live in their community and participate in civic engagement projects as part of the HomeWorks Trenton curriculum, they cast a vote of confidence in their community and commit to learning skills that will enable them to be role models in their public schools and emergent leaders in Trenton.