ready-for-life youth initiative

In the spring of 2012, Bienestar added a new program to its Listos Para Vida Youth Initiative to help complete our comprehensive youth program offerings from birth through adulthood with Education Navigation.

Education Navigation is a program for teenagers and young adults between the ages of 14 and 20 who live in a Bienestar apartment. The pilot program was developed by an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer and was developed to respond to resident parents’ requests for better access to post secondary education information, scholarships, and careers.

In January 2012, nine students ranging from freshman in high school to freshman in college attended the 1st of 10 weeks of classes for the new post secondary preparatory program. For the first five weeks of classroom time, the students did interactive activities and had discussions with the facilitator about career exploration and how access and responsibly fund their education needs.

Thanks to partnerships with Portland State University, Portland Community College, the Audubon Society, and Kaiser Permanente the students were able to receive very enriching presentations in the subsequent weeks of class. Representatives from these institutions came to Bienestar to give riveting presentations about the varied careers and educational opportunities in their respective fields. Students were enraptured at all the options that they had not necessarily thought of previously.

Every week had a consistent attendance of 9 participants though we had about 12 regular students. The first week of class and the last week of class saw time reserved for pre and post assessment tests. The first week the test helped gauge the level of knowledge and interest of the students present, and the final week helped gauge how much each student had learned. Impressively, many students who were not able to attend many classes still managed to improve their scores showing a commitment to the information even in their own personal time. The test asked questions about different college degrees, levels of financial aid, community college, the difference between public and private university, and basic banking themes of debit and credit. For the pre assessment, the average score was 67%. Upon the post assessment, the average score was 89.6%: a 22.6 point difference. 100% of participants improved their scores over the pre assessment, with 5 scoring a 98% or higher.

Bienestar staff is pleased with the outcomes of this program and look forward to reporting on its further development including a postsecondary education Individual Development Account program planned to begin in the fall of 2012.

Links:

• Bienestar youth programs and services