Campus-community+partnership

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** Campus-community partnership: Exploring impacts and outcomes for youth, families and service-learners ** Emily Mann, Associate Academic Specialist, Northeastern University [e.mann@neu.edu]

Lori Gardinier, Director of Human Services, Northeastern University [l.gardinier@neu.edu]


 * Keywords:** Campus-community partnership, minority youth, academic success, housing projects, after school programs


 * Conference track:** K-12 civic and learning outcomes


 * Format:** Research/Scholarly paper

This research examined the impact of a campus-community partnership intending to promote academic success among youth in adjacent public housing neighborhoods. We drew on “Out of School Time” (OST) literature and used a mixed methods approach; in sharing our findings we will discuss current trends and perceptions about best practices for OST programs and implications for campus-community partnerships.
 * Summary**

The Youth Development Initiative Program (YDIP) is a small scale OST program in the Boston area that has deep community roots and far reaching university partnerships. YDIP began in 2006 and has consistently and intensively served African American youth from Boston’s public housing authority. The need for community-based after school programs for adolescents has been widely discussed in the OST literature. Unsupervised African American youth are more likely to be both perpetrators and victims of violent crime, especially during the hours of 3pm to 6pm, which has been referred to as the “primetime for juvenile crime” (Fox & Swatt, 2008). The need for OST programming for older high school aged youth is even greater, given that the focus of so many OST programs are on elementary-age youth.

This small scale, single cohort, mixed method evaluation tracked approximately 30 minority youth (primarily African American and Latino) in their participation with a campus-based OST program. Evaluation measures include youth, parent, and staff/volunteer surveys and interviews. The goal of the evaluation is twofold: to understand the relationship between program participation on outcomes, and to serve as a barometer for a second cohort intervention planned for 2013. Research questions include: Is participation in YDIP associated with student satisfaction and success? Is participation in YDIP associated with parent participation and success? How does university student engagement impact student learning or interests? What is the value-added of developing an OST program to the local and university community?

AE-Extra. (2005). //Using de facto learning theory to understand urban school mobility//. AE-Extra. October. Retrieved from http://www.unco.edu/ae-extra/2005/9/Art-3.html.
 * References**

Boston Public Schools (2010). //Boston Public School Student Drop Out Rates//. Retrieved from http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/files/final_1011dropout_complete.pdf.

Bouffard, S., Little, P., & Weiss, H. (2006). Building and evaluating out-of-school time connections. //The Evaluation Exchange, 12//(1 & 2), 2–6.

Fox, J. A., & Swatt, M. L. (2008). //The recent surge in homicides involving young Black// //males and guns: Time to reinvest in prevention and crime control//. Retrieved from http://www.jfox.neu.edu/Documents/Fox%20Swatt%20Homicide%20Report%20Dec%2029%202008.pdf

Luthar, S. S. (1991). Vulnerability and resilience: A case study of high-risk adolescents. //Child Development,// //62//, 600-616.


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