After School Program

Lauren Ham
University of North Texas

Needs Assessment
Introduction

The purpose of our needs assessment is to examine the needs of high school age
teenagers who are struggling in school and dropping out of school early in life. We would like to
help them be more successful in school and prevent them from participating in community
violence. We hope to determine why this is happening as well as what can be done to prevent
this.
Analysis Plan
In order to determine what the needs of the teenagers in the community one method we
are going to develop a survey to mail to the members of the community. By doing this we hope
to get unbiased results from many diverse members of the community. We hope to receive
responses from members of the community who have children in this age range, and from people
who do not have children in this age range but want to see a change to better the future.
We are also going to develop a questionnaire to e-mail to existing agencies that serve the
teenagers in the area. By doing this we hope to find out what local programs and businesses view
as the communitys strengths and weaknesses and what the local programs are currently doing
for the community. We would also like to find out if they would like to partner with us in the
overall cause we are working towards. We would like help with funding, volunteering, or
becoming an active part in some way. We believe this could be beneficial to the program we are
trying to create.
The final method we are going to use is an open forum meeting for teachers, school board
members, and administrators in the area who are concerned about the teenagers living in their
community. By doing this we hope to get a sense of what school thinks about the teenagers
current functioning. We also hope to find what they are doing to help the children and what
challenges they face in doing so.

Instruments
Survey of Community members:
Please rate the following statements on a scale of 1-5
1: never 2: rarely 3: sometimes 4: frequently 5: almost always
If you do not have a child please apply the question to children you know.
-The teens in my area take pride in themselves and often do not think of others.
-The teens in my community are examples for the future generations.
-I work long hours in order to provide for my child. -My child attends school often.
-I would like to spend more time with my child. -My child has a positive role model.
-My children eat at least three meals a day.
-My children and I sit down every day together to work on homework.
-The schools in our neighborhood are beneficial to our youth.
-The teachers in the area are enthusiastic about teaching.
-There are many extracurricular activities for my children to participate in.
-My children are able to participate in extracurricular activities.
-My child enjoys participating in extracurricular activities.
-My child comes home from school with stories of bullying.
-Sex is prevalent in my childs friend group.
-I worry about the people that my child associates with.
-Gang violence is prevalent in my community. -My teenager has gotten in trouble with the
police.
-Drugs of any sort are common in the community. -The youth in our community drink alcohol.
-My teenager has a child -My child is involved in a gang.

-The youth in our community use our playground and other community resources with care.
Survey of local teens ages 12-18
Please rate the following from 1-3 from most to least.
1. Which of the following issues teens face within themselves do you think most concerns teens
in your community?
Self-image/self-esteem
Eating disorders
Depression
Smoking/tobacco use
Diet/fitness/exercise
Childhood obesity
Learning/educational issues
Other (please specify)
* 2. Which of the following issues involving other teens do you think most concerns teens in
your community?
Bullying
Abusive relationships
Sexual activity
Teen pregnancy
Gangs
School violence
Cliques
Other (please specify)

* 3. Which of the following issues involving adults do you think most concerns teens in your
community?
Poor communication between adults and teens
Teen rebellion against adults
Physical abuse
Verbal abuse
Affects on teens in single parent households
Affects on teens of divorce of parents
Independence of teens from parents
Other (please specify)
* 4. Which of the following environmental issues do you think most concerns teens in your
community?
Endangered species
Recycling
Pollution
Protecting natural resources
Global warming
Other (please specify)
* 5. Which of the following issues involving society and its laws do you think most concerns
teens in your community?
Texting while driving
Drinking and driving

Alcohol abuse
Drug abuse
Seat belt laws
Discrimination
Censorship
Poverty
Other (please specify)
* 6. Which of the following issues regarding media do you think most concerns teens in your
community?
Online predators
Online availability of and exposure to material of mature content
Influence of television and movies on youth
Influence of video games on youth
Influence of music with explicit or suggestive lyrics on youth
Other (please specify)
*7. Which of the following interventions do you think would be most helpful to teenagers in you
area?
Mentoring
Counseling
Exercising
Increased peer interaction
Tutoring
Recreation

Other (please specify)

Survey of local agencies
What services does your agency provide to the teenagers in the community?
How does your program benefit the community?
In what ways does your program impact the youth in our community?
If there were a program started for youth in the community, what do you think the most
important quality or subject covered would need to be?
What do you think the most prevalent problems that the teenagers in the community face?
Would you like to hear more information about a youth centered program, and possibly get
involved? If so, in what ways?
Is there anything else you would like to mention about the youth in this community?
Open Meeting
What activities are currently being offered to the students?
What challenges do you face when working with students?
Do students seem to enjoy learning?
Are students challenged at school?
What are students attitudes like when at school?
What are students attitudes like when they are at home?
What age group seems to have the most trouble?
How many children drop out each year?
Do you know of many children involved in gangs?
What recommendations do you have for helping these teenagers?
Findings

Based on our community survey we found that most parents do not have time to work on
homework or spend much time with their children. We also found that teachers are not putting
much effort into teaching because there is lack of supplies. There is not much funding for schools
to provide extracurricular activities for the children or to offer tutoring after school. Most of the
parents work late and the kids have to go home right after school to take care of the siblings.
Essentially, those who are being given undivided attention tend to not lack the determination and
tend to actively participate effectively while at school around their peers and in the classroom.
Lastly, we discovered that a lot of students lacking the attention and time they deserve, with a
combination of other factors, could turn to gang violence, depression, substance abuse, and
physical abuse according to the teen survey.
Recommendations
The program will include tutoring sessions that have an adequate amount of supplies for a
learning environment. Tutoring will be offered in the following subjects: history, science,
English, and mathematics. Here, the students will be able to get additional attention to their
problem areas in a more intimate environment. We hope to make learning more interesting for
students so that they will be more enthusiastic about school and believe that they are able to
succeed.
Another part of our program will be structured recreational activities for the students. We
are going to have art groups, sports teams, game nights, movie nights, and other various
recreational activities for the students so that they will be able to interact in a fun and positive
environment with their peers.
We will also have a Big Buddies program where we would bring college students from
the local college to be a mentor to the students. They would help with tutoring and help run the

extracurricular activities. We would pair each college student with one student from our program
to be his or her mentor. This Big Buddies program aids struggling students, whether they lack
academic dependency or behavioral issues, individuals within this program can act as a mentor
in leading others towards success. By incorporating this program we hope to provide role models
for children so that they do not feel like they have to turn to gangs in order to have someone to
look up to.
Justification for Program
Through our program, our community and our youth will have access to affordable,
enriching after-school time programs for high school students.
Vision
Our vision is to enhance the students positive social emotional development, safety,
academics, and overall lifelong opportunities.
Mission
Our purpose is to provide students and their families expanded academic and enrichment
learning opportunities in a safe environment by utilizing an atmosphere the students are
comfortable with, their own school, giving them the power to succeed and thrive in society
through quality learning experiences.
Justification
After getting the survey results back from the community members/local agencies and
also listening to the feedback from the open forum, we found that this program would be
beneficial to the community in a multitude of ways. Teenagers spend a considerable amount of
time at school and from our findings; we realized that most students are not the getting resources
needed during this time. Teenagers who are not getting these resources makes school very

difficult for them, which has shown to sometimes have the result of them dropping out. After
listening to the recommendations made by community members and doing our own research on
how to alleviate this problem, we found that the programs we offer would provide teens with an
outlet for their extracurricular interests and they will receive the attention they deserve; all of
which are things that are lacking in their schools. The tutoring sessions will provide the
necessary resources and a support system in order to help the students excel in school, while the
recreational activities will provide a fun way for the students to interact with one another. The
Big Buddies program we will be offering is our way of making sure that not a single student is
left out of getting the full experience of our program. All of these components offered will help
the community as a whole. This program is helping the teachers by providing things they are not
able to because of funding, and helping the parents by looking after their children when they
cant.
Program Description
The managers and the volunteers (adults and college students) will help implement this
program. The volunteers will be the backbone of the program, because they are the ones who
will be running the activities and helping with the children. The managers will be there to make
sure that the volunteers are implementing the activities. There will also be a few staff members to
help the managers and volunteers.
Departmentalization
Everyone within the program holds their own responsibility and duty to provide for
students. However, work in our organization is divided based on what is most important in the
moment and what priorities are most relevant in regards to a students needs. We will use a

matrix structure to departmentalize the organization's work. There will be an overhead director
that is in charge of the organization. There will also be a department manager for each part of the
organization: one for Big Buddies, one for tutoring, and one for recreational activities. There will
also be staff members that will work underneath the managers to help in departments as needed.
For each department there will be volunteers to work with the children. With that being said, our
wish is for the different entities to not ignore or not work with one another. Instead, the different
departments will work together in two specific ways. First, there will be an open communication
between them to keep the others updated on what they are doing and how that may impact
others. Second, many of the clients or students will be attending more than one resource so the
entities must keep high communication about their common students. This is imperative in
making sure that both the program and students are successful.
Duties
The director will put together the program and activities that the high school students will
be involved in. The director will also be the main communicator with the school board. She will
also be in charge of overseeing the budget as well as applying for funding. She is basically the
liaison between groups and public relations for the program. She truly is the whole business and
administration side of things rolled into one. Then the manager of each department will have the
staff and volunteers to run these activities while overseeing them and reporting back to the
director. She then can make executive changes as need be. The staff will be in charge of running
the activities and helping the volunteers. The volunteers will be in charge of executing activities
specific to their department. However, managers will have the power to let the staff and
volunteers help other departments when necessary. The manager of the Big Buddies department
will be responsible for matching students with volunteers, training volunteers, and overseeing the

interactions. This manager will also be responsible for communicating guidelines for interacting
with students. The manager of the recreational activities department will be in charge of helping
to decide on activities, overseeing the staff and volunteers, training volunteers, providing staff
and volunteers with a list of recreational activities that will be offered in the next two weeks,
overseeing interactions, and evaluating staff and volunteers. Recreation can be costly with all the
equipment over time, so this manager is also available for possible recruitment of donations for
equipment. The manager of the tutoring department will be in charge of training volunteers,
relaying information from the teachers about student progress and curriculum, monitoring
volunteers, reporting to the director, and evaluating the staff and volunteers success. At many
points of the year the tutoring manager must meet with educators from the schools to understand
the curriculum the students are learning in their individual classes, and how the tutoring portion
of our program can help bridge the gap. The staff will not be specific to one department. They
will be there to supplement the manger and make sure that the volunteers are doing what they
should be doing. They will also take care of communicating to the manager when a volunteer or
student does something wrong so that proper disciplinary action can be taken. The staff will be
assigned duties by the director as requested by the managers. The staff switching between the
different departments will help with coordination and unity within the organization.
Organizational Chart
The school board is at the top of the organizational chart. Then below the board is the
director of the after school program. Below the director are the managers who will put together
the activities for their department. Below the managers are the staff who implement the activities
and help the volunteers when needed. Below the staff are the adult volunteers who will be
working with the high school students in their activities. The college students for the Big

Buddies Program, recreational activities program, and tutoring program will report to the staff or
department manager.
Coordination
Everyone will know what their specific job is and what they need to get done. The
director will set certain guidelines for how the program should be run and the managers will
implement these activities. The managers will also oversee the staff to make sure they are doing
their specific job and meeting the goals they have set for the program. The volunteers will have
bi-weekly meetings with their department specific manager to ensure that they are meeting their
job requirements. They will have guidelines for interacting with the children, as well as a
schedule of the recreational activities that will be going on in the weeks to come. The managers
and staff will have monthly meetings with the director so that she will be able to keep up with
what is going on in the program as well as how productive and successful the staff and managers
are in their work.
Staffing Requirements
Director
Description: The director presides over the entire program and serves as the person that
all staff members, including managers, report to. He or she will plan the activities that the high
school students will be involved in and will evaluate the effectiveness of the activities. If changes
need to be made to an activity or department, the director is the one that would approve them.
The director is the one who communicates with the school board about the program. He or she is
also responsible for the hiring and disciplining of managers and staff members. The director is in

charge of overseeing the budget as well as applying for funding. The director is basically the
liaison between groups and public relations for the program and truly is the whole business and
administration side of things rolled into one. He or she will also lead each staff meeting that
occurs.
Qualifications: The director needs a bachelor's degree in child development or
psychology as well as a masters degree in administration of programs or public administration.
Three years of supervisory experience in human services is required. They need to have
leadership skills, effective written and oral communication skills, and the ability to work well
with adults and children, and be able to plan fun activities for the children. The director will need
to know how to create and implement a budget. The director will also need to have experience
communicating with board members and media.
Salary: $65,829-$71,048
Department Managers
Big Buddies Department Manager
Description: The Big Buddies department manager will be responsible for recruiting and
training all volunteers for Big Buddies as well as matching them with a high school student.
They will supervise volunteers and provide them with feedback for being a more effective
volunteer. They will also be responsible for the discipline of all volunteers in their department
and relaying information related to their department back to the director. They will be required to
evaluate if they need help from a staff member and obtaining permission from the director for

this help. They will also be in charge of giving instructions to staff members when they are
present.
Qualifications: The qualifications for this position include a high school diploma, a
bachelor's degree in social work or a similar human service degree, and a recent background
check. Also they must have training in adolescent development. They must also have experience
working with children, preferably in a mentoring setting. Previous experience matching mentors
with students, is highly preferred, but not required.
Salary: $32,346 - $38, 795
Recreational Department Manager
Description: The recreational department manager will be in charge of helping the
director make choices about recreational activities such as sports, movies, arts and craft
activities, etc. They will be in charge of recruiting, training, and evaluation of volunteers. They
will also be in charge of disciplining volunteers if needed and of relaying information to the
director. They will also be in charge of providing information about recreational activities to
volunteers. They will be required to evaluate if they need help from a staff member and obtaining
permission from the director for this help. They will also be in charge of giving instructions to
staff members when they are present.
Qualifications: Recreational department managers must have a high school diploma, pass
a recent background check, and have a degree in recreation management or a similar degree such
as physical education. They must demonstrate good organizational and multitasking skills. They
must also have significant experience talking to funders and obtaining donations.

Salary: $36,082- $41,710

Tutoring Department Manager
Description: The tutoring department manager will be in charge of deciding which kids
need tutoring and in what subject. They must also communicate with teachers and parents to find
out the adolescents needs and make sure that they are having their educational needs met. They
must train, supervise, discipline, and evaluate volunteers. They will also be required to evaluate
if they need help from a staff member and obtaining permission from the director for this help as
well as being in charge of giving instructions to staff members when they are present. They must
relay information to the director and make sure that proper study materials are available.
Qualifications: The tutoring department manager must have a high school degree, must
pass a background check, and have a bachelor's degree in education or something similar. This
person must have experience working with children and must have significant knowledge of
adolescents development and adolescent needs. They must be familiar with high school
curriculum. They must have effective communication and time management skills.
Salary: $34,501- $41, 642
Staff Members (Hourly personal)
Description: This program will require 6 full time staff members. Staff members are
much like volunteers, however they are on the payroll and are responsible to fulfill their duties as
well as attend required meetings. Staff members should be dependable and reliable to their
department or site manager. Staff members work directly with the students on a daily basis, and
must document observations regarding their assign students for licensure reasons. They must also

help with homework, activities, and fill in where needed or requested. They will also be required
to run errands for the program when necessary.
Qualifications: Qualifications for staff members include a high school diploma, passing a
background check, and training in adolescent and child development. They must also have some
previous experience working with children. They must have a valid drivers license and clean
driving record. They must also demonstrate the ability to multitask, work in a fast paced
environment, and have effective time management skills.
Salary: $11-$13/hour ($22,117-$26,775)
Volunteers
Description: This program will require a minimum of 120 volunteers. However as the
programs grows and changes this number will fluctuate. Volunteers will help run the after school
activities. Each volunteer is assigned to one specific activity that includes tutoring, art activities,
sports activities, game nights, movie nights etc. They will also be a part of the Big Buddies
program and be a mentor to the school students. Each volunteer will be paired up with one high
school student. The volunteers need to have a background working with high school students and
be able to tutor these children. We will pick the students who have great resumes with volunteer
experience working with children and choose the ones who have a great work ethic. The
managers and staff who work there will train them. The managers will go over how the program
is run and the rules and then the volunteers will shadow one of the staff members for a week to
see how to do the certain activities.

Qualifications: Volunteers must be able to help with homework and have experience
working with high school students. They must have a clean background check and be able to run
certain activities like sports games and art activities. They must enjoy working with adolescents;
they need to have a good work history, a strong work ethic, and a positive attitude. They must
also enjoy working with adolescents. If they would like to be a mentor they must demonstrate
proficient knowledge in the subject that they will be a tutor for. If they would like to be a mentor
they must have a valid driver's license, and a clean driving record.
Salary: smiles and pride
Budget
U.N.I.T.E. Programs:
Big Buddies
Tutoring
Recreation
Support and Revenue:
LOreal Women of Worth Grant
Job Creation and Alternative Activities Grant
The LOreal Women of Worth Grant is providing $36,000 and the Job Creation and
Alternative Activities for At-Risk Youth Grant will give $400,000. The first grant will be divided
so that each department (Big Buddies, tutoring, and recreation) gets $12,000. The second grant
will be allocated so that the Big Buddies department receives $75,000, the tutoring department
receives $185,000, and the recreation department receives $140,000. This money will be used for
supplies, the amount of space (square feet) that we will rent from the school for the program, and

salaries for managers as well as a percentage of staff and director salaries. It may also be used for
the future expansion of the program outside of the school we are currently operating in.
Salaries:
The director (Leah Jackson) is the head of the program and makes $65,829. Brittany
Madden, Noel Watts and Lauren Ham are the department managers of the Big Buddies, Tutoring,
and recreational program and they make $32,346 a year. We have 5 staff members apart of the
team and they make between $19,000-$26,457 depending on their experience in the program.
Benefits:
In our program we provide various benefits for our employees in the U.N.I.T.E program.
The first benefit we provide is dental and vision insurance and this is $180 per employee. We
also provide health insurance which is $1,326 per employee, equaling $11,934 total. We provide
a simple 401 k plan for our program and it ranges from $13,401- $41,378 depending on their
salary. We provide maternity and paternity leave, which is .35%, deducted from their annual
salary.
Funding Sources
Executive Summary
Through our program the youth of the community we are serving will have access to
affordable, enriching after-school programs for high school students. Our vision is to enhance the
students positive social emotional development, safety, academics, and overall lifelong
opportunities. Our purpose is to provide students and their families expanded academic and
enrichment learning opportunities in a safe environment by utilizing an atmosphere the students
are comfortable with, their own school. This will give them the power to succeed and thrive in
society through quality learning experiences. We have found that this program would be

beneficial to the community in a multitude of ways. Teenagers spend a considerable amount of

time at school and from our findings; we realized that most students are not the getting resources
needed during this time. When teenagers do not have these resources it makes school very
difficult for them, which has shown to sometimes have the result of them dropping out. After
listening to the recommendations made by community members and doing our own research on
how to alleviate this problem, we found that the programs we offer would provide teens with an
outlet for their extracurricular interests and they will receive the attention they deserve; all of
which are things that are lacking in their schools. The tutoring sessions will provide the
necessary resources and a support system in order to help the students excel in school, while the
recreational activities will provide a fun way for the students to interact with one another. The
Big Buddies program we will be offering is our way of making sure that not a single student is
left out of getting the full experience of our program. All of these components offered will help
the community as a whole. This program is helping the teachers by providing things they are not
able to because of funding, and helping the parents by looking after their children when they
cant. This program will require a director, three managers, and six staff members, along with at
least 120 volunteers. In order to serve the youth the best way that we can we will need sufficient
funding for our program. We have some funds secured through student dues and we have also
received substantial contributions from Academy and Kinkos. This contribution combined with
the school allowing us to use their space has given us a great start to get the program up and
running. In order to have sufficient funding we are trying to secure $200,000 through grants,
donations, fundraising, bequest, and more.
Project Narrative

UNITE has taken the lead in providing social emotional development, safety, academics,
and overall lifelong opportunities for emerging adults in our community. UNITE was founded
with the purpose of fostering our emerging adults for a better future. We hope to expand our
program outside of our two high-school districts, to neighboring areas that may also be in need.
In addition to this we hope to bring in a counselor to all off of programs that will help with
college and career readiness within the next six months. Our hope is to have one for each
location, but for the first bit our new counselor will be traveling between our two locations. We
hope that within our next school year we will see an increase in our graduation rate as a district,
and have 98% graduation rate amongst those who attend our program on a regular basis.
Inquiry Letters:
Women of Worth Award
c/o Points of Light
600 Means Street, NW Suite 210
Atlanta, GA 30318
Dear Women of Worth Team,
The U.N.I.T.E organization is an after school program for high school students that has
taken the lead in providing positive social emotional development, safety, academics, and overall
lifelong opportunities for emerging adults in our community. I am writing to see if you would
consider a proposal to expand the tutoring and counseling services available to these youth.
Our organization currently operates only in two high schools in our area serving about 75 youth
every afternoon. This is an increase of 30 percent from last year. Our major goal is to expand
academic and enrichment learning opportunities in a safe environment to convince these young
people to seek some form of higher education following graduation, and to become employed.

We believe our chances of accomplishing this would be improved by expanding our program
into neighboring school districts, and hiring an on staff career and occupational counselor. Your
foundation has expressed a special interest in the coordination of services to young people. We
hope that you will give our project further consideration.
The other community services involved have pledged their cooperation. They agree that a
major problem in reaching these young people is the access to other forms of recreation and
education. We estimate the cost of this project the first year at $150,000 of which $50,000 will be
provided by the cooperating agencies. We would like you to consider a proposal for the
remainder. If we can prove that our service is effective, we would qualify next year for some of
the demonstration funds available through Southern Association of Colleges and Schools,
Commission on Colleges agency.
I will be calling shortly to seek an appointment to discuss this project. Ms. Jones of TIFA
(Therapy Insider Family Advocates), one of your past grantees, will be accompanying me. She is
helping in the design of this project.
In the meantime, would you please mail me your application guidelines and any
instructions for preparing a completed request. A copy of our 501(c) 3 letter is attached.
Sincerely,
Brittany Madden (UNITE Co-Founder)
Here is the RFP I found for this funding http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/rfps/rfp6550-l-orealparis-seeking-nominations-for-2016-women-of-worth-awards
Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention
810 Seventh Street NW.
Washington, DC 20531

Dear Ms. Jennifer Tyson,

The U.N.I.T.E organization is a nonprofit program that provides mentoring, tutoring, and
recreational opportunities to at-risk high school students. These services help students to thrive in
school and at home by providing them with much needed extra care and attention. These service
also help kids to develop positive self-image and emotional development. The combined effect
of these services allows children to stay in school despite their circumstances so that they can
become productive members of the community. I am writing to see if you would consider a
proposal to support the staff and recreational activities of the program. We would like our
organization to be able to serve at least 100 students a day starting out. Our goal is to be able to
increase this number within the first six months, as we are able to secure more volunteers and
staff. Eventually we would also like to expand our recreational activities in order to take students
on field trips so they can have fun beneficial experiences that their parent may not be able to take
them to.
We believe that your contribution would be very beneficial to both the children and the
community that we serve. We know that your department is interested in helping at risk and
delinquent youths so that they will not enter into the justice system. We believe that having a
place that children feel safe, are valued, and are being educationally stimulated will decrease the
youth crime rate in the area therefore benefiting the entire community.
We have partnered with the local high school in this program and they are allowing us to
use their space for our program. We have also received donations that have allowed us to start
advertising. This has been proven very effective, as we have seen a lot of interest from both
volunteers and families that would like their children to attend. We have also received a generous

donation of recreational equipment that has given us a very good start on materials for our
program. Your contributions would be just what we need to get the program up and running.
We estimate that the cost of this program for the first year at $150,000, of which $50,000
will be provided by other contributing agencies. We would like you to consider a proposal of
400,000, the award ceiling for the Job Creation and Alternative Activities for At-Risk Youth
Grant.
I will be calling shortly to seek a Skype appointment to discuss this project. In the
meantime, would you please mail me your application guidelines and any instructions for
preparing a completed request. A copy of our 501(c) 3 letter is attached.
Best Regards,
Leah Jackson
UNITE Director
Program Evaluation
Needs Assessment
The problem being addressed by this program is under privileged teenagers dropping out
of school and sometimes getting involved with gangs. We found that the reason for this was
often lack of support at home and in education as well as not having a positive environment to
socialize in. The program's name will be U.N.I.T.E (you and I together everyday). The
population will serve high school students ages 13-18. The population affected by this program
will be the teenagers that participate, the families who have children attending the program, the
teachers, and even the community. The questions will be geared towards finding out about the
children's self esteem, school performance, discipline, and motivation to continue school. There

will be a separate evaluation sheet for the child that is participating, the child's teacher, and the
child's parent. They will all be asked to answer questions that address the above-mentioned
themes in the form of a 1-10 scale.
Introduction
The problem that this program will address, as explained above, is widespread in very
low-income areas and when some children do not receive attention and encouragement. The
school district that this program will be operating in includes 2 high schools, 3 middle school, 5
elementary schools, one preschool, and two head start programs. This program is specifically
geared towards students at the high school level. This program will start out at only one high
school but we hope to advance to both of them soon. If the program expands and does well we
may even be able to develop programs for younger kids as well. The program will be composed
of 3 departments: Big Buddies, tutoring, and recreation Each department will provide specific
enforcements to high school students in order to keep them in school and out of trouble. Big
Buddies will provide them with a mentor, tutoring will supplement their school work and give
them one on one help, and recreation will give them a safe and fun environment for socializing
with their peers. The measures for evaluation will be the students will get increasingly better
scores in each category. The successes of the program as a whole will be evaluated by at least
90% of the students that are participating are showing improvements.
Stakeholders
There are many stakeholders in this program that will play a part in the evaluation. They
may help create it, administer it, and view it or a combination of the three. These stakeholders
include funding sources such as the LOreal Women of Worth Grant board, the Job Creation and
Alternative Activities for At-Risk Youth Grant board, and even the families that are paying fees

for the children to participate in the program. Other stakeholders include partner organizations
such as the school board, superintendent, principal, and teachers of the school the program will
be in. Stakeholders also include people working directly in the organization including the
director, managers, staff members, and even volunteers. The outside community that will be
impacted by the program will also be part of stakeholders. In regards to large bodies of people,
such as the volunteers, families, and other community members, only influential or very active
persons will be selected so that the process does not involve too many people.
Program Description
The purpose of our program, U.N.I.T.E., is to serve students at risk for dropping
out of high school. One goals of our program is to provide students with the capability
and desire to stay in school and ultimately graduate with an upstanding report. In
addition, families will also be involved by being informed of their students progress in
the U.N.I.T.E. program. Working with families will help the need we are aiming for, that
need being a successful individual, not only through high school, but also for the rest of
their life. Students who participate in our program will be expected to be self-sufficient
and play a positive role in society once completed. Activities in the U.N.I.T.E program
will be sure to be designed to teach values and character, community service to mold
individual in playing a role in assisting community. Activities in our program help give at
risk youth avenues and opportunities to improve, while at the same time illustrating
encouragement by building self worth. These activities include tutoring sessions, outdoor
games such as soccer and basketball, and activities that will require team effort working
together as a group. We will also have a group of college students who will come in and
be a mentor to these high school kids and this group is called the Big Buddies program.

They will help tutor the high school students and help run the activities. In regards to a
logic model, we know certain resources are needed to operate our program. Through the
activities that we provide, our program can successfully deliver positive results for a
successful outcome of the students time.
Evaluation
In our evaluation we would use a qualitative design and it would be a longitudinal
study, as this program is created to improve at risk youth over a period of time, and is a
process and experience they go through as they learn their strengths and weaknesses of
themselves. In our qualitative design we would conduct interviews with the children,
parents, and teachers of the children that are not showing improvement. The questions for
the evaluation will include: Are the children's grades improving? Do the children seem to
enjoy school more? Are children presenting signs of improved self-esteem? Are children
presenting signs of improved motivation? Do children look at adults as positive figures more
often? Do children respect class rules and school policies? The evaluation will be designed
so that the children will be able to assess themselves and will be assessed by the teachers
and their parents. The students will be asked to read statements and answer questions about
their self-esteem, respect for authority, enjoyment of classes, and peer interactions. The
teachers will be given a similar evaluation form that will assess the children's functioning in
school in regards to school performance, self esteem, discipline, and peer interactions. The
parents will also be given a similar sheet that will allow them to assess the childrens self
esteem, peer interactions, discipline, self-esteem, and interest in school work. This
evaluation will be given to each party when the children first start the program, every month

for 3 months, and then every three months for the remaining of the time they are in the
program.
Implementation
The initial step in implementing U.N.I.T.E. is for the director to design a training
program for the staff, and then create activities and procedures for the Big Buddies, tutoring,
and recreation programs. All of which should take approximately two months to complete.
The design for these programs will include throughput and output data such as the activities
that will be used to execute services, and the units of these services that are expected to be
delivered to the clients. Once this is completed, the director will recruit and hire
departmental managers, followed with recruiting and hiring staff members. The hiring
process should be done in three months. The departmental managers are now responsible for
the recruiting of volunteers. The next step would be to acquire the supplies and equipment
needed to provide the services of U.N.I.T.E. The director and the department managers will
handle this. After all supplies are received, everyone including staff and volunteers will
prepare to move into the facility. Preparing the facility will take up to three months. Once
the facility is ready, staff training will begin. The director will train the department
managers, and then the department managers will train the staff members and volunteers.
Training all employees must be done within a month. Once every individual is trained, the
facility should be ready for occupation and U.N.I.T.E. will be announced to local high
schools with the help of the stakeholders, director, and department managers. This will lead
to the recruiting of clients and the collection of input data concerning them. The department
managers are responsible for gathering the input data and reporting their findings to the

director. All employees will now be responsible for carrying out services and the program
evaluation will take place by the director and evaluator.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Proposed Evaluation
The strengths of this evaluation would be that we could help find childrens strengths
and weaknesses. We would also be able to find out what students are having trouble in
school and this evaluation would help us figure out what exactly they are having trouble
with and how we can help them. In addition, after students discovering their strengths and
weaknesses through our program, we will evaluate them and work in taking measures to
improve their overall self for a better and brighter future towards success. Since our program
is a longitudinal study, our strengths and benefits include having plenty of time to work with
students to better their outcome once they leave the program. However, being a longitudinal
study can act as a weakness, as it is a very time consuming process. In addition, securing the
student in participating can also be an issue, as this involves repeated contact with
individual. Since each there will be multiple evaluation form for each child this further
complicates the process since you will also have to contact the parent and teacher. One other
weakness of this study is that a 1-10 scale can be relative depending on the person who is
filling it out.
Budget
For the salary the director makes around $65,829, and the recreational, Big Buddies and
tutoring department managers makes $32,346 a year. All of these employees work 40 hours a
week. Then the 5 staff members that help run the activities make around $19,000 to $26,457 a
year, and work part time hourly based roles, which do not exceed 35 hours.

Two grants will help to provide funding for the organization. The LOreal Women of
Worth Grant will provide $36,000 and the Job Creation and Alternative Activities for At-Risk
Youth Grant will give $400,000. The first grant will be divided so that each department (Big
Buddies, tutoring, and recreation) gets $12,000. The second grant will be allocated so that the
Big Buddies department receives $75,000, the tutoring department receives $185,000, and the
recreation department receives $140,000. This money will be used for supplies, the amount of
space (square feet) that we will rent from the school for the program, and salaries for managers
as well as a percentage of staff and director salaries. It may also be used for the future expansion
of the program outside of the school we are currently operating in.