Recently, my husband and I attended the Annual Training for Life dinner for Bolder Options, an activity-based one-on-one youth mentoring organization based in Minnesota. Bolder Options works to build self-esteem and promote healthy behaviors in youth through running and biking, academic goal setting, and volunteerism. The video shown below highlights the key components of Bolder Options, which include empowering youth to focus on the positives in life. In the video, Dr. Peter Benson, CEO of Search Institute, names Bolder Options as “one of the best in America” in helping youth to achieve their goals. ACET has been contracted to evaluate the program and document successes since 2005.
This video from the National Medical Report describes Bolder Options in detail and was played at the Annual Training for Life dinner this year:
ACET has just published its latest newsletter! ACET’s biannual newsletter features company news, research and evaluation activities, and an article written by a member of the ACET team. In addition to being environmentally-friendly, there are many advantages to distributing our newsletter electronically, including the ability to reach a larger audience by providing recipients with a convenient way to share our newsletter with colleagues. Furthermore, we can measure the utility and use of each issue – something we evaluators love to do!
An article from the Philanthropy News Digest recently highlighted a report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT project. Recent studies have found that there is a correlation between students who are proficient in reading by the end of the third grade and a “child’s success in school, life-long earning potential, and ability to contribute to the nation’s economy.”
The article specifically highlights the data regarding disparities in reading proficiency rates in low-income families for varying ethnic groups. The report states that “two-thirds of fourth-graders overall and four out of five fourth-graders from low-income families are not proficient in reading…disparities in reading achievement persist across economic, racial, and ethnic groups.” The article goes on to discuss thoughts and recommendations on the report.
Recently, I attended the Combined Discretionary Grantee Meeting in Washington D.C. with The Wayside House, Inc., a chemical health organization dedicated to providing treatment for chemical abuse exclusively to women. They received a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children & Families Children’s Bureau, to create a residential family treatment program. The program, Incarnation Family Connections (IFC), is a family treatment program with housing options. IFC enables parents and their children to live in a safe environment for a period of not less than six months. IFC provides onsite substance abuse treatment services and children’s early intervention services that are designed to provide comprehensive treatment that supports the whole family unit. ACET was contracted to evaluate the IFC program, implement a quasi-experimental design to measure impact, and contribute to cross-site evaluation efforts.
This video, which describes Wayside House and its programs in detail, was played for a national audience at the Grantee Meeting: