By Anubha Sharma | Project Leader
Angel Xpress Foundation’s Free Learning Center Program – The “UBER for Good”
Angel Xpress Foundation (AXF) was founded in 2012 to address an education system that produces graduates who struggle with literacy and employability. Tapping into existing skill sets in affluent Mumbai communities, it pairs volunteers with children and youth at free pedagogical centers.
The founders believed they could make a difference and break the cycle of extreme poverty that was being perpetuated by unequal opportunities by finding access for first generation learners (40% of Mumbai’s 24 Million residents live in slums) to educated adults that could tutor and mentor them to become responsible and capable adults. We started with 18 children in 2012, In 2018-19, we worked with 2000+ students through 500+ volunteers.
Over the past seven years, AXF has passed through the following stages.
AXF currently has 35 people on roll with 10 full or close to full time dedicated team members who manage various aspects of the program. In addition to this AXF has a team of nearly 40 volunteers who have taken up leadership roles to manage the learning centers in their neighborhoods.
A typical AXF center has a center manager + a co-manager/administrator/on rolls teacher who coordinate with the AXF central team for administration, running of centers and logistics. Besides this subject mentors are created who act as local trainers and supervisors for curricular implementation at centers, they maintain direct contact with the curriculum team. The center management teams can be paid or voluntary.
The AXF central team provides training and guidance to the center head/admin teams for day to day running of centers. Resources as well as constant support for generation of new volunteers and donors Is provided through various PR and marketing activities. There is considerable investment made into volunteer engagement at both the central and center levels to ensure skill development and retention.
The central team handles logistics for dispersion of offers, opportunities and material procured centrally. Pedagogical support is provided by creating curriculum and assessment material and conducting regular training with volunteers for curriculum implementation, lesson plans, assessments and classroom management.
Program description: The AXF Free Learning Center Program is an attempt to engage and aggregate the affluent Mumbai community in support of children from their neighborhood slums to reduce in equality and address lack of opportunity in our society.
AXF works with the socially conscious educated who are keen to give back and trains them to become effective teachers and nurturers who along with AXF appointed managers serve as volunteer teachers to support the FLCs. In a city starved of space where most people end up spending time crowded into tiny rooms, our classes are held in parks giving an opportunity to the kids and volunteers to come out of closed spaces, creating a fresh and open learning atmosphere.
Under this program we provide the following interventions for school going children from slums
Daily one hour lessons for 7 to 15 year olds from June till March yoy - skill based approach to coaching in English and Math (continuing since 2012), a life-skills curriculum to be implemented via storytelling and activities once a week will be added in 2019-20. Kids typically join the AXF program between ages 7 to 10 and continue year on year usually at least till grade 9. They typically drop out in grade 10 to attend all subject tuitions to prepare for their boards.
New additions to the program in 2018-19
Youth Engagement Program (YEP) – for 15 to 18 year olds – Standard 10 exam coaching has been introduced under this program along with career and academic counseling. For students in grades 11 and 12 there are soft skills workshops on weekends, culminating with a 100 hour job readiness program in collaboration with Antarang Foundation. This program was piloted in 2018-19 and will be adopted by more centers with older children in 2019–20.
Social/Emotional Learning (SEL) – a therapist-facilitated life skill training for wholesome development of personality by developing ability for logical and collaborative thinking, and a responsible and empathetic mindset for 13/14 year olds has been piloted and will be added to more centers in 2019-20.
AXF is an optional choice for kids and parents alike, we are happy to have an over 80% attendance and re-registration rate year after year as well as deep engagement with the community through several PTAs through the year.
The program also includes a daily healthy snack, curriculum material for every child and teachers handbooks for volunteers, a tshirt for every child and volunteer every year, several outings for fun and learning, workshops on important issues like health and hygiene, good touch bad touch, medical dental camps are organized in collaboration with local organizations. Exposure where possible is provided to yoga, sports, meditation. Redistribution drives for clothes shoes toys further bridge the divide.
We decided to go beyond English and Math because It has increasingly become evident that teaching only literacy and numeracy are not enough for our children to face the challenges of the 21st century. Having sustainable development goals as part of its agenda, AXF goes beyond literacy and numeracy to include life skills and social-emotional learning to its curriculum in a bid to develop
10 crucial Life Skills listed by WHO for children in the 21st century form the basis of our program
We believe many mental health and social problems can be addressed at a basic level through this intervention.
Project period: The Free Learning Center program has been running since 2012. Each program lasts 1 academic year- An academic year begins in June and ends in April, however the program continues year after year with same students.
Location (s): 17 Locations in Mumbai, India - http://angelxpress.org/our-work/at-centres/)
Who are the beneficiaries: Urban slum-dwelling children and youth from low income families, volunteers (largely stay at home mums) and active retired who put their skills to good use, corporates who want to make a difference.
Expected impact:
For Students: Our interventions help students acquire an objective based approach to learning that builds their interest in as well as their capacity to learn. The various activities and workshops at our centers as well as the nurturing attitude of our volunteers help a child gain a wholesome childhood experience and a potential future of responsible adulthood and sustainable livelihood.
For Volunteers – A chance to use skills in constructive pursuits, acquire new ones, become competent and socially relevant, form close connections with the co volunteers and to receive love, appreciation and acknowledgement from their students and the community.
We estimate adding 500 new students to the program annually. We hope to scale to 2500 students by March 2021 and to 3000 students by March 2022 in the overall Free Learning Center Program.
Students are tested and divided into ability groups through baseline testing and assigned to subject volunteers. Besides the centrally provided training, volunteers are trained guided and supervised by center heads and subject mentors locally.
Impact is measured via biannual assessments and qualitative feedback on behavioral aspects from teachers and parents. Data for employment and progress to higher education will also be collated for students graduating from the youth engagement program to establish link to sustainable livelihood.
We are presently digitizing our backend through an erp/crm solution software that will allow efficient data capturing and will enable us to tract impact more effectively.
We have tied up for pedagogical inputs in English and Math as well as for our train the trainer processes from the University of Worchester, one of the world’s foremost teacher training colleges.
Funding required over the program period:
While the program is self-sustaining and can continue long term at the community level, AXF needs to make investments to create an end to end support system for the volunteering groups which includes access to standardized policies, curriculum material, system and leadership training and guidance, backend for reporting, teaching resources and give away for beneficiaries like books, bags, uniform, opportunities for outings, volunteer engagement events like trainings, meetings, annual day etc.
The total spend anticipated over the next 3 years is projected at 5.1 cr, of which spend on the franchised centers (centers operated by citizen groups) is expected to be in the region of INR 2.65 Cr. This program can be made infinitely scalable with very little additional investment into program spend.
Corporate engagement and credibility:
We’ve forged CSR partnerships with conscious organizations such as Larsen & Toubro, Voltas, Raymond, Kangaroo Kids, Matrix Entertainment, Being Human and Bank of Baroda among others.
We’ve received awards and grants from Women’s Economic Forum, Linkedin for Good Foundation and Millennium Alliance - a conglomerate of FICCI, ICICI Foundation, US Aid and UK Aid among others.
We are also seeking strategic inputs for scale and processes from The SP Jain Institute for Management and The Tata Trust.
We seek renewed contributions from our donors for the academic year 2019-20
Links:
By Aparna Saboo | Project Leader
By Anubha Sharma | Founder
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