LEAP’s school-based site gives New Haven children an extra “Boost!”

For 20 years, LEAP has been a leader in out-of-school-time programming in the Greater New Haven area.  Through our distinctive multi-tiered mentoring model, we engage young adults to provide at-risk children with academic instruction designed to close the achievement gap; and to lead them in social enrichment activities that are safe, wholesome alternatives to risky behaviors. 

Our signature community-based sites have always brought together children who are neighbors, yet attend different schools.  In the fall of 2010, a new and exciting dimension was added to the LEAP program.  As part of New Haven’s school reform efforts, Dr. Reginald Mayo asked LEAP to pilot a school-based program at Wexler-Grant Community School.  It was so well received during its first year, we have returned for a second year.  Compared to our traditional neighborhood sites, the school-based site gives us added “perks”:

• Unlike our community-based sites which are grouped by age (6 to 12), the school-based site groups children by grade – Grades 1 through 6.  Therefore, the Wexler-Grant children stand to do better in school because they are all working together on the same schoolwork, assigned by the same teachers, in familiar surroundings. 
• Since the program starts at 2:15, immediately after school, Wexler-Grant parents don’t have to worry about transportation from school to site, and they can pick their children up at 5:15 after a solid three hours of LEAP’s quality programming.  (Traditional sites start at 3:30 and end at 6:30.) 
• LEAP children enjoy the benefits of Wexler-Grant enrichment activities, such as African dance, Drama, and Girl Scouts.
• Since this school-based site was a first for us as well as a pilot program for New Haven Public Schools, it was only fitting that we pioneered our RBA (Results-Based Accountability)™ data collection effort here. Wexler-Grant was our first site from which we collected the report cards and other academic records that enable us to track our students’ progress.  Since we have a relationship with school personnel, we are able to directly access the in-house records without having to rely on parents to convey them to us. 

Wexler-Grant’s challenges as a Tier 3 turnaround school in the New Haven School Change Initiative have become LEAP’s challenges.  And we meet them!  According to Michelle Mitchell, Boost! coordinator at Wexler-Grant:

• Our daily homework assistance, educational activities and resource activities, such as “DEAR Time” (=Drop Everything And Read”)  help to increase the quality of Wexler-Grant’s afterschool supportive programs. 
•  Our reading-based curriculum serves to enhance and improve children’s reading scores, grades and test scores.
• Our Academic Coaches and Senior Counselors provide the Wexler-Grant children with much-needed mentoring, and expand the network of caring and supportive adults in their lives. 

LEAP feels privileged to connect with Wexler-Grant as a Boost! school by adding a high-quality afterschool academic and enrichment component to the “School engagement/Extended learning opportunities” domain of Boost!’s wraparound services. We strive for the same goals as Boost! and the New Haven school system –to keep kids in school, and to promote success in college. We, too, are well aware that college success begins with elementary school success – and that school success begins with the best programs that address the “whole child”: intellectually, physically, emotionally, socially, and globally.