After School Program

The Youth Empowered for Success (YES) Program opened up many door for youth and family members of our community. YES allows them the opportunity to enter post secondary education and look forward to their future.

Support students and give thema place to go after school. You give them hope and direction.

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We seek at-risk youth in grades 6th-10th as our target audience, and accept students in K-12th grade. YES introduces a college thinking culture to students and families through earlier stages of education toact as a preventative measure rather than an intervention task.

We believe there are several elements to a fully developed adolescent and offer growth opportunities in eight areas:

• Education
• Leadership
• Community Service
• Cooking
• Healthy Habits
• Journal Writing
• Art and Culture

Our program is offered year round Monday through Friday during the traditional track school year, and three days a week during the summer break. During the traditional school year we offer tutoring and homework assessment for the first portion of YES, the remainder of the program is focused on one of the eight developmental elements listed above. We include speakers and workshops to allow students and families to get hands on experience in their growth process.

We offer one field trip per month to reward student excellence and provide visually stimulating college experiences. Students have opportunities to tour local universities and attend campus functions such as dance performances, art exhibits and sporting events. Additional field trips are offered during the summer to promote program awareness and offer enriching activities to our community.

YES program attendees are economically disadvantaged students, ranging in ages 6 to 19 years old. Many families within our community are illiterate in English and Spanish and are unable to assist their children with homework. Many families in our community do not have the resources to send their children to college or even know the requirements students will have to complete to be accepted into a four year college.

Community Health Profile

Latino students make up 95% of St. Francis Center’s neighboring schools. In addition to facing language barriers in the classroom many students in our Youth Empowered for Success Program are receiving D’s and F’s in physical education. According to the California Department of Health Services 45% of Latino 5th graders, and 57% of Latino 9th graders do not pass the aerobic capacity test. 

The effects of inadequate sporting facilities are demonstrated by the chronic health conditions that inflict a growing number of youth. According to the United Way 2007 State of the County Report, 20% of Latino youth are overweight or obese compared to 9% of White and Asian youth. Compared with Asian, African-American and Caucasian teens, Latinos have the smallest proportion that meet the daily activity requirement and rank second in the number of teens who are classified as overweight. In addition to weight problems, Latino teens face a higher risk for Type 2 Diabetes compared to non-Latino white children.

Healthy Bodies promotes personal development through several attributes including: acceptance, moderation, confidence, self-discipline, and respect.   

Cooking Club – This component provides hands on cooking workshops where students learn how to safely prepare healthy food, tips to eating a balanced diet and understand the importance of nutrition and their body.

Basketball Teams – The boy’s basketball program at St. Francis Center was initiated to prevent gang violence by promoting teamwork and healthy recreation for local youth. The basketball program provides athletes with four hours of vigorous physical activity. St. Francis Center covers all of the expenses associated with the program including transportation, registration fees, uniforms, snacks, coaching stipend, and year end team party. We have recently incorporated the program into our Healthy Bodies Component of our YES Program and look to offer a girls basketball team in 2007. All athletes must be active participants in our academic component of the YES Program.   

Exercise Activities

Success

Although our program is newly developing we have had great success within our community. We have a Valedictorian among our YES Group, increased student activities in leadership programs, increased program attendance, increased community awareness and a rise in participants’ cumulative GPA. We strongly believe that the program will widely increase our gains as time progresses and as participation increases among families. We have already seen retention increase through extended families, which is very beneficial to our community because the Latino culture is heavily influenced through family and trust.

YES will produce an improved individual and family understanding of academic achievements. YES emphasizes student and family understanding of academic achievement as a path to post secondary education. Current YES participants and parents did not understand the basic requirements to college. Latino parents were content with children attending high school because they had already achieved a level of education higher than their own. Parents and students now understand the pathway toward a college education. St. Francis, students and families work together to prepare youth for college through academic success and personal development.