The DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative: A Cost Estimate

Of course, families who are higher in economic status are going to have an easier time maintaining their children in afterschool programs because they can afford the programs. As a result, children of low income families miss out on the experience of after school programs. Accordingly, the government must step in to ensure that these student’s opportunities in entering an after school program isn’t solely based on their families economic

Over the course of this semester, I have spent an ample amount of time serving as a mentor with Gonzaga’s Center for Community Engagement Youth Program, Campus Kids. In Campus Kids, we develop one-on-one relationships with mentees between the 4th-6th grades to assist them in succeeding academically, socially, and emotionally. Every Thursday afternoon at 3:10 PM, each of the Campus Kids mentors in our group meet up in the Center for Community Engagement in the basement of the Hemmingson Center. We spend this time doing icebreaker activities with the other mentors to get to know each other while we wait for our mentees to arrive in their school bus from the local Garfield Elementary in Spokane, WA. From 3:30-5:00 PM, we spend one-on-one time with our mentees where we engage in a variety of different activities such as playing educational games, working on homework together, sharing a healthy snack, talking about the activities we have done the past week, and exercising outside. In addition to meeting with my mentee every Thursday, I also ride in a carpool with 3 other mentors to Garfield Elementary every Friday from 11:00 AM-12:00 PM for a school visit where I get to sit in on my mentees’ PE class and provide support and encouragement for him as he works on developing his physical education. In this class, I help him out if he’s having difficulty understanding what his teachers are asking him to do, or I will help count the number of push-ups or sit-ups he has trying to reach

The educational gap between low-income children and the average American presents a serious problem that has only been perpetuated through government-funded public housing projects. Indeed, this divide eventually translates to a disparity of college acceptance rates and job placement rates. Thus, the academic success of children from low-income families directly threatens their upward mobility. A continued shift toward increased tenant-based housing would give families the opportunity to move out of their economically segregated neighborhoods and choose the neighborhood that best meets their children’s needs. Indeed, despite the Housing Choice voucher program’s current flaws, in each of the case studies, the housing choice vouchers have resulted

This summer I worked in New York City at Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), which is a non-profit organization for poverty-stricken children and families in Harlem, providing free support in the forms of parenting workshops, a pre-school program, three public charter schools, child-oriented health programs that serve approximately 13,705 children and 13,784 adults. The Harlem Children’s Zone Project has expanded the HCZ’s comprehensive system of programs to nearly 100 blocks of Central Harlem and aims to keep children on track throughout college and into the job market. The organization is made-up of about twenty two programs in total that ensure there are no gaps in-between one phase to the next. For instance if a student needs to take a year off before attending college, HCZ has created programs that will stick with the student during this time frame, in other words providing these students with a strong support group so they are held accountable to attend college in the future. The HCZ is “aimed at doing nothing less than breaking the cycle of generational poverty for the thousands of children and

The association to benefit Children (ABC) is a social service agency in Harlem New York that serves underprivileged and at risk youth and teens. The Agency itself has three major components a daycare center, an after school program and a teen prevention/ retention program. Affecting change in the lives of children from low income and impoverished communities is at the core of ABC’s mission. ABC also works to foster educational importance from infancy to adolescence while providing a safe and caring environment where children could learn and grew. ABC’s

A mentoring program has been coordinated by Millie DiStefano and high school students to mentor elementary school students each day for 30

Despite my work experience, I have yet to discover the appropriate methods that will allow for school administrators to better serve youth from disadvantaged backgrounds. The most recent statistics reveal a spike in the number of homeless and foster youth in the Los Angeles community, and I do believe that education, which still correlates with high success rates, despite the residual effects of the Great Recession, is the answer to save this community of

The new study found that the poor families of the program that chose to move to better low poverty areas inadvertently give their children extremely better odds of escaping poverty. While families that chose to stay in high poverty areas like the city of Baltimore, for example have a very low chance of escaping poverty. The families who continue to live in high poverty areas become victims of income inequality and become frustrated that they are stuck in a rat race of life, they are also anxious about getting ahead and working hard to make a change in their family’s life. Poor families living in wealthier jurisdictions endure the loss of upward mobility in the form of earnings. Ethnicity also plays a large factor in upward mobility.

The Cycle 9 Program Coordinator will maintain regular communication with site coordinators and district administration through weekly email updates, conference calls, monthly project meetings, and scheduled site visits at each campus. Monthly project meetings will serve as an opportunity for the Program Coordinator to share TEA updates, address any campus concerns, and share best practices on program implementation. The Program Coordinator will also provide ongoing technical assistance throughout the grant. CASE will require staff at each Cycle 9 campus to attend at least two professional development workshops per semester to learn about best practices in the field. In addition, the Program Coordinator will closely monitor the activities’ set-up and schedule in TX21st to ensure that submitted site schedules mirror actual programming observed during site visits. The Data Compliance Clerk will provide a thorough TX21st training to all site coordinators and monitor TX21st to ensure timely and accurate data are entered into the database system, and to conduct data analysis to identify any discrepancies. The Family Engagement Specialist will work directly with sites and specifically monitor campus’ parental involvement activities, as well as the number of adult participants

After this past week’s lesson in regards to “Addressing Inequality in the US: Upstream Prevention,” I have a new gained awareness of government funding, educating children and making sure parents are parenting better. I agree with James Heckman’s reasoning that we must focus more on providing aid, structure and discipline towards young children long before they enter high school. Educating the young is the most effective method of addressing inequality.

My field placement in the center of Gilpin Court which is one of the oldest housing developments in Richmond, Virginia. My primary concern as stated in my community assessment is the plight of impoverished children. But more specifically for children who live in public housing because they are apart of the low-income community. Growing up my father was the director of resident relations at the Housing Authority of the city of Los Angeles they had many programs for the children that unfortunately dwindled away when they dissolved that position. Along with my field placement this is what has fueled my interest in children that live in public housing and what I can do to improve their quality of life. In my home state of California 20% of the children live in poverty specifically 1,785,000 children. (The Annie Casey Foundation, 2017) Living in poverty and specifically public housing can negatively affect a child and how successful they will become. A child’s environment can have a direct affect on development from birth. The physical quality of the household tends to severely affect infants more than adolescent children. In particular the paint in older housing developments can cause blood lead poisoning. (Vandivere et. al, 2006) Some indirect ways that living in public housing can affect children is through their parents, parents suffer from health problems, and emotional well being problems that can ultimately affect their parenting skills. Children can become nested and

Over the course of the semester, I had the privilege of spending my Monday afternoons with children at Discovery Elementary School in St. Cloud. I assisted in looking after the kids during their after-school program, Kidstop, and my responsibilities ranged from consoling teary eyes to assisting with the reading of a girl attending Spanish-immersion school. I genuinely enjoyed cultivating relationships with curious kids from numerous diverse backgrounds. Throughout my volunteering experience, I utilized teaching styles and knowledge gained in Education 111 to include diverse learners, create a safe learning environment for everyone, and communicate effectively with students.

It has been a long-time goal to increase the educational opportunities for children coming from type of household. There have been multiple attempts to implement effective practice policies in schools, these policies are essentially programs that the government will fund due to research that shows they will be successful in creating results (Pogrow, 2016). The end goal being to increase the academic achievement rates for students in general, but specifically students from low income households. It is the unfortunate reality that students from low income families do not have access to the same number of resources as middle or upper-class students. Low income families do not tend to live near high performing schools. If a majority of students in a particular school are of lower income, their attendance rates are more likely to be

Poverty is oftentimes found in cities and rural areas across the United States. Although there are some instances in which children climb out of poverty as adults, most children that grow up in poverty tend to stay in poverty. Furthermore, according to the 2015 U.S. Census Bureau, it is stated that “19.7% of all children lived in Poverty USA—that’s about 1 in every 5 children” (povertyusa.org para ). Despite the poverty rate decreasing, there are still a significant number of children that are born into poverty. With this large of a number, childhood poverty cannot be overlooked. Luckily, with the help of government-funded programs, children growing up in poverty have better chances to succeed in the future. Despite these programs, many children growing up in poverty are unable to climb out of it for many years, if at all. The effects of children growing up in poverty include not having a role model, not having access to adequate schooling, unemployment, and having a positive feedback loop as children grow up to have kids themselves.

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” – Plutarch, Greek historian Currently in the United States, there are over 16 million children growing up in poverty. Children that live in poverty are more likely to be absent from school and have a higher dropout rate than those who come from families with higher incomes. Children that live beneath the poverty line are more likely to have learning disabilities, developmental delays, and behavioral problems. These are just a few disadvantages of the hundreds that children living in poverty deal with on a day to day basis. There are ways to help these children in poverty, that is the extension of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 improvements to the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. The extension of this effective policy will ensure that parents and caregivers have the resources to support and nurture their children.