A Preventive Intervention Program for Urban African American Youth Attending an Alternative Education Program: Background, Implementation, and Feasibility.
An after-school prevention program can stay afloat for urban African American teens when group mentoring, family nights, and school admin backing are built in.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ganz et al. (2009) set up an after-school program called the Village Model of Care.
They ran it for 109 urban African American teens who were in an alternative school.
The paper tells how they built the program, not whether it changed behavior.
What they found
The program could be done. Staff, parents, and school leaders stayed involved.
No scores or crime counts are given; the focus is on keeping the parts moving.
How this fits with other research
Lever et al. (2004) tried a similar multi-part plan for high-risk teens years earlier. Their FUTURES program also mixed mentoring and mental-health help, but it gave no outcome data either.
Wolchik et al. (1982) showed Teaching-Family group homes cut crime while youth lived there, yet gains vanished after they left. Village keeps the group-mentor idea but moves it from a locked house to an after-school club, hoping support lasts longer.
Schinke et al. (2006) kept inner-city minority families engaged for four years by adding computer lessons at home. Village also leans on family buy-in, showing that parent contact remains a key lever across very different formats.
Why it matters
If you run programs for teens who have been pushed out of regular schools, this paper gives you a checklist: group mentoring, family nights, and steady school admin support. You can copy the parts even without outcome data, then track your own numbers to see if behavior changes.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This paper presents background, implementation, and feasibility findings associated with planning and conducting an after-school intervention program in an alternative education setting designed to prevent the initiation and escalation of violence and substance abuse among urban African American youth at high risk for life-long problem behaviors. Evolving from earlier preventive interventions implemented in clinic and school settings, the program, entitled The Village Model of Care, consisted of structured group mentoring, parental support, and community outreach services administered to alternative education students and their primary caregiver(s) during the school year. Over a two-year intake period, 109 youth participated in the present process evaluation study. Findings from the study not only provided relevant demographic information on the characteristics of youth likely to be included in such programs but also indicated the importance of including the family in the rehabilitation effort and the need for school administrative system support for the underlying alternative education approach. The information presented in this report has a direct bearing on the planning of future prevention efforts conducted in similar settings that are aimed at reducing problem behaviors and promoting positive lifestyles among high-risk youth.
Education & treatment of children, 2009 · doi:10.1353/etc.0.0060