The Barrio Arts, Culture & Communications Academy

A Culturally Tailored Alternative to After School Programs

Michele Kelley & Mayra Estrella

UIC Great Cities InstituteSeptember 16, 2008

Presentation Goals• Consider the challenges of conducting evaluation

in a real world setting; • Gain insight into the issues of program

management with emerging young adult community leaders;

• Further understanding the issues of local “parallel institutions” and “organic” program characteristics as related to program ecological validity

• Demonstrate how cultural tailoring and sustainability factor into the success of such a program.

Project Context & Positionality of Collaborator: Why am I doing this?

• “participant-conceptualizer (Elias 1994)

• Puerto Rican Cultural Center

• Cultural practices and worldview

National Academy of Sciences Report 2002

• Changing landscape of family and community life

• Resources available to young people• Societal complexity• Continuum of learning • Social stratification & disparities• Expand framework to positive outcomes

(NAS Community Programs to Promote Youth Development, 2002)

Realities of Community Youth

• High school drop out / “push out”• Perceived lack possibilities for a meaningful

future• Racism/ discrimination• Identity confusion• Family economic and social strain• Violence

BACCA Goals

• 1. To engage at-risk Latino and African-American adolescents from the Humboldt Park Community in a multi-component community arts, culture, and technology program,

• 2. To demonstrate how participation in the program decreases risk for school dropout through capturing proximal indicators of positive youth development, and

• 3. To foster community engagement, social responsibility, and extra-familial sources of support through participation in pro-social, culturally tailored program activities.

Program Structure

Scientific UnderpinningsFraming the Solution

• developmental contextualism,

• social support

• social learning

• identity development

• social marginalization/ empowerment;

Scientific Underpinnings Framing the Solution

1. positive and sustained adult-youth relationships

2. skill building, including technical/artistic/literary as well as social skills

3. youth participation in meaningful and pro-social activities with others

(Lerner, 2002,)

WHO Europe Report on Empowerment & Health 2006

The most effective empowerment strategies are those that build on and reinforce authentic participation ensuring autonomy in decision-making, sense of community and local bonding, and psychological empowerment of the community members themselves.

(Wallerstein, 2006)

Multiple Paradigms & Concepts for Youth Participation

• Positive Youth Development (Pittman)• Pyschopolitical Validity (Prilletensky 2007)• Sociopolitical Development (Watts 2007)• Youth empowerment (Wallerstein 2006)

Challenge to 1. capture process and outcomes, relate to disparate sets of

literatures, capture individual and setting level factors and the epistemic premise of interventions.

2. Deal with the “black box” of implementation3. Ethnical and power issues.

“PYD seeks to promote one or more of the following:

Bonding, resilience, social competence, emotional competence, cognitive competence, behavioral competence, moral competence, self-determination, spirituality, self-efficacy, positive identity, belief in the future, recognition for positive behavior, opportunities for prosocial development, and prosocial norms.”

(Catalano et. al., 1999, 2004 as cited in Benson et. al., 2006)

Goals of PYD

• Promoting positive relationships with peers• Emphasizing youths’ strengths• Providing opportunities to learn healthy

behaviors• Connecting youth with caring adults• Empowering youth to assume leadership

roles in programs• Challenging youth in ways that build their

competence (NCSL, 2007)

Types of Youth Participation

• Service learning/community service

• Religious participation

• School participation

• Extracurricular activities (i.e. clubs, etc.)

• Sports participation

• Artistic expression (i.e. theaters, media)

• Civic engagement

Challenges to Youth Participation

• Developmentally appropriate participation• Boundaries of participation• Meaning of participation to youth - authenticity• Creating space for dialogue and action• Support & sustainabilityThe most effective participation may not be

program driven with identified health outcomes (ESI vs. CSI)*

*Empirically supported interventions vs. Culturally supported interventions (Wallerstein 2007; Hall 2001)

Project Conceptual Framework and Scientific Basis

1. positive and sustained adult-youth relationships

• 2. skill building, including technical/artistic/literary as well as social skills

• 3. youth participation in meaningful and pro-social activities with others

(Lerner, 2002,)

Project Conceptual Framework

Program Structure

Evaluation Methods

• Descriptive survey at program entry and end of session

• Small group discussion

• Culminating Event with Youth and Community Input

• Ongoing meetings with careful notation

Challenges

• Inexperienced young program management

• Recruitment and Retention

• Participatory Evaluation process

• Unfunded time

• Outsider status

• Organizational subtext and latent goals and practices.

Program Strengths

• Youth had strong reactions to the cultural and community context of their experiences

• Highly skilled and committed teachers and staff

• Built on existing community assets• Integrated and shared resources and

social roles of leaders and participants.• Prosocial norms and ethos inspired by

community history and experience

Lessons Learned: Youth Outcomes

• Most prevalent and persistent issues from surveys and group discussion:

No improvement- Poor sleep - High degree of worry every day

Some improvement- Making sense out of what is happening in their

community- Favorable attitude toward community - Belief they can make a difference

Lessons Learned: Youth Outcomes

• Confidence in discussing issues with other adults, neighbors and youth

• Appreciation for skills they developed• Increased understanding of complex community

issues, e.g. gentrification, race relations• Being able to ask for help; and give assistance

to others. • Considering community history and culture in

their own sense of self and future

Lessons Learned: Programmatic

• Involvement of more senior staff for admin.• Consensus of program weaknesses- more deliberate about recruitment, standardize

interview content and expectations- work with parents - outreach- identifying why youth drop out of program

• Creativity and Contribution appealed most to youth; also learning about their culture & community

• Youth want variety and choice; Socialize

Organizational ClimateGroup-based belief systems:-inspires change-strengths-based-beyond self

Core activities:-engaging-active learning-quality

Relational Environment:-support system-caring relationships-sense of community

Leadership (& Staff):-inspirational-talented-shared-committed-empowered

Opportunity Role Structure:-pervasive-highly accessible-multi-functional

Setting Maintenance &Change:-learning focused-bridging mechanisms-external linkages

(Maton, 2008)

VIDEO

Prepared by BACCA students

Group Discussion

• “…every Monday we have participatory democracy, he goes and interview people (teacher), I did that for a couple of days, I didn’t go hang out and I did not really get to talk to people… getting to know everyone I feel I’m part of the community, rather than just living there.” – (MATON: Core activities) (PITTMAN: Connection)

• “I’m not thinking the worst about people. You can interview people, you learn people are human beings, they have their own stories. Something that changed within me-- I forgot where people come from.” – (PITTMAN: Character)

Group Discussion

• “There’s all these assumptions about the community, right, but is not until you go out there and ask people, which is what I do in radio. It’s not until then when you get the real story. It’s not until then that you get true testimonies from people that live in the community so it’s definitely change my perspective.” – (PITTMAN: Contribution)

• “I always thought that HP was a great community and some people just don’t understand HP, they think there’s gentrification and gangs, people like to think about the negative thing/issues, but it is a good community.” – (PITTMAN: Membership and belonging)

Group Discussion

• “all you hear in the news is bad, bad bad, they make us see like that”

• WHY? “That’s what makes the money. That’s what makes big headlines, ex youth gang killed someone.”

• “I think is because racism and displacement our neighborhoods are depicted as slums the way you change things is putting lights on the streets…. displacement.”– (MATON: Group-based belief system), (PITTMAN:

Confidence, Connection)

Group Discussion

• “people talk to you and make you feel appreciated…” • “Authenticity of space instead of space in public school,

Batey understands the issues you bring, public school has an agenda.”– (MATON: Relational environment)

• RADIO: “being able to use the equipment to conduct the survey or conduct an interview was new to me and definitely something that opened my eyes to what it is, it opened my eyes to the difficulties. Also, to how easy it is like before doing it even thinking is a big deal.” – (PITTMAN: Competence)

BACCA: Culminating Event

BACCA: Culminating Event

BACCA: Culminating Event