About Boost!

Boost! was created to address the social, emotional and physical needs of students and to engage parents and families, as well as business and community leaders, in the hard work of turning around New Haven's public schools.

It is a component of New Haven's nationally-lauded School Change Initiative, a comprehensive package of education reforms with ambitious goals:
•   Eliminating the achievement gap by raising test scores to the state average;
•   Cutting the high school dropout rate in half;
•   Ensuring every student is academically prepared and financially able to attend and succeed in college.

In order to reach these goals, it became clear that schools would have to address the challenges that many students face outside of school.

In its first two years, Boost! is already seeing some very promising results. Test scores in Boost! schools are rising, behavior problems are dramatically decreasing, and school satisfaction is improving among parents and students.

Boost!, a partnership among the City of New Haven, New Haven Public Schools, and United Way of Greater New Haven, coordinates programs in the schools to help make sure that every child has an opportunity to succeed. To do this, Boost! schools incorporate into the daily schedule programs that address four “domains” which have been demonstrated to contribute to children’s ability to succeed in school:
•   Physical health and wellness
•   Social, emotional and behavioral health
•   Family support and engagement
•   Student engagement/academic enrichment

Boost!’s role is to strategically coordinate programs, facilitate communication, and identify youth service providers that could fill in the gaps. Each Boost! school appoints an existing staff person as Boost! coordinator. United Way recruits and places AmeriCorps VISTA, Public Allies and Episcopal Service Corps workers in the schools to provide extra support and to help engage families.

Boost! kicked off in the 2011-2012 academic year with a pilot program in five schools — Augusta Lewis Troup School, Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School, Clinton Avenue School, Metropolitan Business Academy, and Wexler-Grant Community School, and added five more in the 2012-2013 achool year: Celentano Museum Academy, Hill Regional Career High School, John S. Martinez School, Strong School and Truman School. In 2013-14 Boost! will add King-Robinson School, Lincoln-Bassett School, New Horizons, Quinnipiac School and Clemente Leadership Academy.The goal is to bring Boost! to all 47 New Haven public schools.

Media Coverage of the Kindergarten Canvass

WTNH-TV Coverage of the Kindergarten Canvass
Education Week's coverage of the Kindergarten Canvass
New Haven Register video coverage of the canvass
NBC-CT TV coverage of hte canvass
New Haven Register canvass coverage
New Haven Independent canvass coverage

BOOST! YOUTH SERVICES DIRECTORY

As a way to improve access of community services to the New Haven Public Schools, we've produced a resource directory of family and youth serving organizations that is aligned to our four Boost! focus areas: Physical Health, Extended Learning Opportunities, Family Support and Engagement, and Emotional and Behavioral Health.

Information from this guide was provided by United Way of Connecticut 2-1-1 and the New Haven Youth Map

Boost! Directory

Please note: We are in the process of updating this directory, as well as compiling related information, for a Joint Youth Inventory of family and youth serving organizations in collaboration with the City of New Haven Youth Department, New Haven Public Schools and the New Haven Board of Aldermen. The goal is to:

Gain a greater understanding of our community's capacity to provide quality services to families and youth in New Haven and |
Distribute this information to constituents (through New Haven Youth Map, the Boost! Directory and more).

There is still time to be included.