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Basic Concepts
The purpose of our program is to occupy adolescents once the school bell rings. We plan to supervise them after school to reduce the possibility of them deviating towards at risk behaviours such as drugs, sex, alcohol, and violence and any other activity that may be harmful to themselves or others. Our program will serve to oversee these teens when perhaps they would be unsupervised otherwise.
Our program is called Beyond the Bell. We will collaborate with a centrally located high school (John F. Kennedy High School) in the Saint-Michel borough and request to use their facilities. We will reserve the time from 3pm to 9pm, each day of the week, where adolescents are welcome to benefit from our program. This program is multifaceted, where teenagers will have many activities to chose from. Upon their arrival, the teens can sign up and reserve their choice of activity. This will teach them patience and structure, which are two very important life skills.
As previously mentioned, our program is quite dynamic and diverse; we cater towards all different types of interests. For example, we offer sports in the gymnasium, arts and crafts, dancing, music, singing, cooking, computers, and video game consoles. Â In addition, volunteer tutors will be available to help the teens with their homework. On occasion, guidance counsellors will be invited, primarily to help students interested in post-secondary studies, yet surely not limited to that. Furthermore, we will offer a meal plan where they can receive an after school snack and dinner. These activities will provide an opportunity for teenagers to integrate themselves into the community they live, as they will meet other teenagers from high schools in the nearby area.
Our program is nonprofit and community based. It is a program that will benefit youth at risk, as well as their parents. It serves to occupy adolescents and keep them off the streets. Consequently, parents will benefit too, as they will no longer worry about lack of supervision for their teens. Volunteers above the age of 18 will always be present in our facility to make sure that the teenagers are supervised and everything is running in an organized manner. These volunteers will be trained to specialize in all the different activities we offer.
The goal of our program is not to be an extended version of school, but to embody a warm, friendly and fun environment where teenagers can feel at home. Our intention is for teens to have the opportunity to choose how they wish to invest their time; we want them to feel in control of their behaviours. We hope the teens will feel a part of a community, where they will be given the chance to make it their own. We will strive to instill life skills and tools, which will hopefully direct the teenagers towards happiness and success. We look forward to embarking on this journey of our program development.
Programming Theories
Beyond the Bell encompasses the Benefits Driven Model, the Motivation Based Theory and the Special Events Theory. The Benefits Driven Model focuses on the benefits and ultimately the impact that can be gained from taking part in our program. It focuses on the outputs of the program, and we are very aware of these potential benefits. The benefits that adolescents will achieve from our program, as well as their parents, are the motivation behind our program's planning, design, implementation and evaluation (Vezina, 2017). For example, our high quality program offers teenagers a safe environment after the school bell rings. It is here where the Motivation Based Theory is intertwined with the Benefits Driven Model. In addition to focusing on the benefits that our program offers, we are also aware of the needs of our clientele. According to the Motivation Based Theory, the needs of an individual motivate and drive their behaviours and decisions ( Vezina, 2017). If needs are unfulfilled, the individual will be motivated to meet those needs. In order for the higher power needs to be attained, lower power needs must first be met (Vezina, 2017). When teenagers experience a safe environment in which their physical and emotional needs are met, they can engage in higher order cognitive endeavours such as learning, creating and interacting. We provide them with a safe environment where they can develop and meet higher order needs, which perhaps they did not have the opportunity to reach prior to our program. Ultimately, we provide an environment where teens can realize the best version of themselves and reach their full potentials.
To continue in the realm of the Benefits Driven Model, our program not only provides a safe environment, but it can positively impact adolescents in many other ways. For example, our program promotes the health and well being of adolescents. We provide healthy snacks in appropriate portions as well as a nutritious dinner to educate our clientele about healthy nutrition and eating habits. Secondly, we have caring and committed staff members at all times to supervise the teenagers. The staff members will be approachable, engaged, interested, model positive behaviour and act respectively towards all the teens. These staff will be trained in all the specialized activities we offer, and they will be culturally competent and aware of the different social factors that can affect the teens. We will implement a low staff-to-teen ratio to ensure that each teen receives the attention they need. The proper organization of our staff members will benefit the teens, as it will teach them about positive relationships. They will constantly be exposed to model behaviours like kindness and respect, and hopefully this will translate into their everyday lives and strengthen their familial bonds. Thirdly, we offer varied activities that build on teens' strengths and preferences. Our diverse programs that meet their diverse needs will allow participants to engage in all sorts of activities and give them the opportunity to create new experiences, as well as try something new. This will positively impact them, as it will build their self-confidence, self-esteem and self-efficacy, since it allows them to try something, which perhaps they never would have tried before; our intention is to make them feel like they can d.o anything and not be afraid to try something new. Lastly, our program is affordable and accessible. This will benefit our clientele, as perhaps they would otherwise not have the means to participate in this form of activity, thereby increasing the likelihood of them engaging in at risk behaviours. Indeed, these are just a few of the ways in which adolescents can benefit from our program and there are many more in practice. To sum, every single aspect we implement into our program is driven by how it can positively, or perhaps negatively, impact our clientele. Beyond the Bell strives to be as efficient and effective as possible.
The Special Events Theory will also be incorporated into our overall program theory. As its name suggests, this theory offers a special event to customers or guests that is an opportunity for leisure, social or cultural experience. It follows a flow-chart format, and it can occur monthly, bi-monthly, annually, etc ( Vezina, 2017). As part of our fundraising technique, our program plans to implement an end of the year special event that focuses on the theme of multiculturalism. Cooking is one of the many activities that our program offers, and each week teens will learn to create dishes that are representative of different cultures. For example, on an Israeli week, a specialized staff member will have a cooking class devoted to making Israeli salad. On an Italian week, the cooking class will be devoted to making a gnocchi dish. Of course, this naturally coincides with the Benefits Driven Model, as we see how it benefits adolescents. By embarking on this cooking journey, teenagers will learn to appreciate the fine dining of different cultures. This activity will broaden their cultural horizons and perhaps reduce any preconceived prejudices. At the end of the year, our special event will ensue. This will take our weekly cooking activity a step further. On one particular day in our facility, we will set up many booths where the teens will put their meals on display. They will decorate their booths according to their culture's colours, and perhaps they will play music pertaining to their culture as well. This event will be open to the public where, for a small admissions price, parents, family members and friends will come and get to taste foods from different cultures. They will get to learn about the different rituals, and listen to the unique tunes. Evidently, the kinks of this event will be ironed out through a thorough flow-chart format. We will formulate a Gantt chart, which is a useful tool to plan our special event ( Vezina, 2017). This annual event will act as a great fundraising opportunity to raise money for our facility, such as sports equipment, a sound system, a couch, etc. In addition, it will emphasize the theme of multiculturalism, which we feel is extremely important, as it promotes diversity and keeps us open-minded. We hope that the teens will take pride in all that they learned throughout the year, and the community will be able to see their progress as well as the benefits of this program. There are many ways adolescents can benefit from this special event, and we plan to make it as prosperous as possible.
Needs Assessment
Beyond the Bell is a program targeted for at risk youth between the ages of 12 and 18. We plan to operate our program in the Saint-Michel borough, located in the East of Montreal. According to the YMCAs of Quebec, there are no current YMCA centers in our targeted area, with the nearest one situated in Hochelaga/Maisonneuve area ("YMCAs of Quebec", 2017). We acquired this information through a spatial analysis, and we used resource inventories as our needs assessment strategy. We looked at the YMCAs situated on a map, and saw that there was a lack of services being offered to our particular clientele. This is one reason why we propose the need for our program in this domain to supervise teenagers once the school bell rings, as we believe that teenagers' needs are not being met. To continue, a 2014 sociodemographic profile of the Saint-Michel area, provided by Montreal en Statistique, allowed us to acquire a lot of information to help us recognize other needs in this area. First off, this region has a prominent combination of low-income families with a high youth population. There are approximately 10 000 youth members between the age of 12 and 18 ("Montréal en Statistique", 2014). In addition, crime rates as well as single spouse families are abundant in this area ("Montréal en Statistique", 2014). As of July 2014, there were 8845 single spouse families that represent 25% of the population ("Montréal en Statistique", 2014). The median income for families in Saint-Michel is $44 000, but there are certain families that have lower incomes ("Montréal en Statistique", 2014). Moreover, 40% of the population have non-Canadian heritage, with a Haitian background representing 13% of the total international community ("Montréal en Statistique", 2014). Our program definitely acknowledges these statistics about the Saint-Michel community, and for that we have manifested our theory of change. We will request to collaborate with a centrally located high school (John F. Kennedy High School) to use their facilities. We will reserve the time from 3pm to 9pm, each day of the week, where adolescents are welcome to benefit from our program. According to Statistics Canada, after school is the peak time for youth crime, in 2008, 20% of youth crime reported by the police was between the hours of 3pm and 6pm on weekdays ("Statistics Canada", 2015). It is for this reason that Beyond the Bell will run between 3pm and 9pm. We extended the time to 9pm because we wanted to maximize the amount of time that teens can spend at our center to reduce the chances of them participating in at risk behaviours.
Beyond the Bell will implement certain need assessment strategies in order for our program to be successful and provide our participants with activities and services that are truly needed. The first strategy will be the use of a public forum that will be conducted at the end of every school year. We plan to communicate with several schools in the Saint-Michel area in order to initiate these guided discussions. Teachers will meet with us for a few hours to discuss their students' behaviours. Through this annual public forum, our intention is to gather baseline information about the youth at risk in the area. It is necessary for us to meet with the teachers, as they spend a great amount of time with the students; they know them best. Due to the immense amount of time teachers spend with their students on a weekly basis, we believe teachers can help us determine the factors that influence students to engage in risky behaviours such as drugs, alcohol, fights, hooky and more. We admire teachers' academic prowess, and we believe teachers can help us develop activities that will engage students and provide them with the structure they need for success. Through these public forums, we hope to absorb as much information as possible, which will help us create the most efficient and effective program possible.
Our second needs assessment strategy to collect data will be a social survey. This strategy will be implemented at the beginning of each school year, in order to offer the appropriate services to current students and prospective participants. Beyond the Bell volunteers will deliver presentations in several local schools in the Saint-Michel area to provide information about our program. This also acts as an opportunity to answer any questions the teenagers or teachers may have about our services. Following the presentation, we will distribute a survey for the teenagers to fill out while they are still in class (see appendix A for the sample survey). An additional survey, along with a brochure of Beyond the Bell will be given to each student to bring home to his or her parents. In some cases, parents are aware that their children partake in risky behaviours, yet they do not have the resources to handle the situation in a healthy manner. In this survey, we will ask parents what they feel is the motivation behind their children's risky behaviours. We will also ask them what solutions they believe will help their teens avoid engaging in risky behaviours. We want our program to benefit the parents of the participants as well, so we will ask what they hope to gain from our program. We want to know what type of after school care they want for their children. Some of the information we hope to gather from the teenagers is the following: What do teenagers do with their free time after school hours? Do the teenagers in the Saint-Michel community participate in afterschool activities? If so, what kind of activities are they involved in? What skills do they wish to learn that are not taught in school? Have they taken part in any risky behaviour?
       After conducting our needs assessment, we hope to learn what teenagers would like to do with their time in an afterschool program. We really hope that we can offer a program that satisfies their needs. Our desire is to implement services that people want to use, which they do not currently have. The information acquired from our needs assessment will serve to understand the different cultures and environments that teenagers are exposed to, thereby allowing us to design an efficient and effective program in a safe space. Lastly, we want to gather information that will help us understand our clients' motivations and intentions to potentially partake in our program. We will use the needs assessment to design the ultimate program and make sure that our teens become better supervised.
Client Description
Our target population is youth at risk between the ages of 12 and 18 from the Saint-Michel area. We define at risk youth as any teen that is behaving in a rebellious manner in an academic environment, at home, or in the community at large. The literature further explores this definition. Girard (as cited in DeVries 2016) defines youth at risk as "young people whose background places them 'at risk' of future offending or victimization due to environmental, social and family conditions that hinder their personal development and successful integration into the economy and society". The characteristics of our population are important to consider throughout our program. Their rebellious nature has triggered this population to withdraw from ordinary youthful activities. Our purpose is to cre.ate a program that will engage the youth of Saint-Michel to become capable and contributing members of society. We wish to supervise them during the hours beyond the school bell to avoid the potential of them participating in risky behaviours. We welcome these adolescents to our community center with open arms, and hope that we can help promote a more prosperous adolescent development.
As mentioned in the Needs Assessment portion of this paper, according to a 2014 sociodemographic profile of the Saint-Michel area, 40% of the population have non-Canadian heritage, with a Haitian background representing 13% of the total international community ("Montréal en Statistique", 2014). Many immigrants settle in the Saint-Michel community, making it an area that is quite diverse. We acknowledge the issues that can arise with diversity, as differences within a population can almost always cause conflict. Differences in culture, race, ethnicity, religion and language naturally exist in areas predominantly comprised of immigrants, and this leaves room for racism, ignorance and intolerance in regards to those who are different. These aspects are all characteristics of one's identity, and disregarding someone's identity can create personal issues. For example, racism, anti-Semitism, and negative prejudice and discrimination can arise in the neighbourhood, causing uproar and creating a chaotic environment for the adolescents in the area. It is therefore one of our goals to show these adolescents the benefits of living in a multicultural neighbourhood where they are surrounded by diversity.
As previously mentioned, as of July 2014, the median income for families in Saint-Michel is $44 000, but there are certain families that have lower incomes ("Montréal en Statistique", 2014). Indeed, our population is considered to be of a lower-class status. These adolescents were not born into wealth and were exposed to struggles from a young age. Moreover, as mentioned above, as of July 2014, there were 8845 single spouse families that represent 25% of the population. ¼ of the population is raised by one parent, which means that there is only a single source of income ("Montréal en Statistique", 2014). According to Statistics Canada, individuals from low-income households are more likely to partake in criminal behaviour ( "Statistics Canada", 2015). Indeed, this is something that we recognize and are hoping to ameliorate this statistic. Youth are very impressionable, and we recognize how important it is to model good behaviour in our program's facility. We will make sure to stress how important it is to refrain from making assumptions about our clientele, and to take the time to learn about their upbringing. We will make sure to satisfy their needs and respect their social statuses.
An important characteristic of our population, which we need to consider, is the stigma and stereotypes associated with teens from Saint-Michel. These adolescents are constantly being victimized by society. Society is known to put down members of the lower-class population, children of a single parent, and an immigrant neighbourhood since they do not fit the "ideal" standard (Appel, Weber & Kronberger, 2015). This standard is often unattainable, yet it is acknowledged, accepted and even emphasized by the greater society, and that is what enforces this standard. Our target population of youth at risk is associated with a negative connotation, an undesirable preconceived notion, which we hope to change. Because these teens are associated with this "bad reputation", they begin to attribute to the stereotypes and act in that manner. However, it is so incredibly important that we acknowledge the fact that our population is perhaps expected to fail in life, yet we will let them know that we believe in them; we know that they will not fail. We will strive to end the stigma and keep these teens off the streets. That sense of self-accomplishment will help us get through to the teens and make them want to continue working to better themselves and remain out of trouble. We will accept our population for who they are, and acceptance is important, especially in this circumstance, because this population constantly often feels rejected by society; we, however, will accept them.
According to Erikson's stages of life development, our target population is in the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage (Mcleod, 2017). It is during this stage where teenagers are trying to acquire their own identity and understand their role in society. Children are trying to assert themselves and become more independent, and are beginning to look at the future in terms of career, relationships, families, housing, etc. The individual wants to belong to a society and fit in, and it is during this stage that the adolescent will re-examine his identity and try to find out exactly who he or she is (Mcleod, 2017). It is possible that the adolescent can undergo an identity crisis because they have difficulty establishing their role in society; they do not know what role they want when adulthood arises (Mcleod, 2017). We understand that these teens need to have proper role models, especially throughout this life stage, in order to help reduce the stress and come to a decision regarding their identity. Since their parents are often unavailable between the hours of 3pm and 9pm, these adolescents remain alone and unsupervised, lacking any guidance to establish their identities. Our program will provide the essential role models, which our population does not necessarily receive at home. Beyond the Bell will provide the youth at risk with endless opportunities to discover themselves and hopefully help them achieve a healthy development.