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The Promise of an Accumulation of Care: Disadvantaged African-American Youths’ Perspectives About What Makes an After School Program Meaningful

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Abstract

African-American youth growing up in dangerous, deprived homes and communities are at great risk of developing impaired relationship capabilities, which disadvantages them further in the workplace and in their personal lives. While after-school programs have well-documented positive effects, researchers have called for better understanding of improving youths’ engagement in services and their constructive relationship skills. Here, we report on a project using participatory action methods to engage poverty-level African-American youth in developing a leadership development program they would find most meaningful. Stand Up Help Out (SUHO) gave youth three layers of caregiving experience: receiving care from instructors, giving and receiving care from peers, and providing care through constructive community action initiatives and mentoring elementary school children. Findings were that: (1) participation and retention of youth in SUHO were considerably higher than national averages; (2) youth reported that SUHO made it possible for them to have better relationships as friends, romantic partners, and in academic settings, and they looked forward to being better parents, (3) youth developed positive peer relationships despite a context of mistrust and gang violence, (4) youth actively sought out relationships with caring adults and identified what was most meaningful in those relationships, and (5) youth deeply valued the opportunity to develop their ability to care for others.

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Notes

  1. In this regard, the Stand Up! Help Out! program actively seeks to develop long-lasting mentoring relationships, as youth are eligible to return to subsequent programs. Youth who are not currently apprentices are encouraged to come back for additional supports, such as assistance with resume-writing, letters of recommendation, etc.

  2. SUHO instructors and interns thus had much more education and specific training in counseling, compared to most after-school program instructors, whose highest educational credential tend to be high school diplomas (Halpern 2006).

  3. In concert with codes of ethics and human subjects regulations, confidentiality is protected by using pseudonyms and disguising potentially identifying information.

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Acknowledgments

A previous version of this study was presented at the Illinois Society for Clinical Social Work, Jane Roiter Memorial Lecture Series, in December, 2011, and we are grateful to the Society members for their support and most thoughtful questions and comments. We also thank After School Matters and the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority, funders of our After School Programs, the Loyola University Chicago Faculty Development Program for leave time and Summer Stipend award funds for this research, anonymous reviewers of this manuscript for their most helpful comments, the Doolittle, Donoghue, Robinson, and Reavis Schools that hosted our programs, and most of all, the youth of SUHO, who provided continual inspiration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Aurora University School of Social Work, 347 S. Gladstone Ave., Aurora, IL, 60506, USA

    Jeffrey J. Bulanda

  2. Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work, 820 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Katherine Tyson McCrea

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  1. Jeffrey J. Bulanda
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  2. Katherine Tyson McCrea
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Correspondence to Katherine Tyson McCrea.

Additional information

A previous version of this study was presented at the Illinois Society for Clinical Social Work, Jane Roiter Memorial Lecture Series, in December, 2011.

Appendix

Appendix

Student-led Program Evaluation

Teens work in pairs and interview each other, using the following questionnaire.

  1. (1)

    How would you describe this program to someone?

  2. (2)

    Why did you decide to join this program?

  3. (3)

    Why did you decide to keep coming to it?

  4. (4)

    Talk some about your favorite part of the program.

  5. (5)

    Talk some about a part of the program you did not enjoy.

  6. (6)

    We would like feedback on each part of the program.

    1. (a)

      What about the mentoring with the kids did you enjoy or did you think went well?

    2. (b)

      What about the mentoring program would you change?

  7. (7)

    Do you feel you learned from this program?

    • If yes, what?

    • If no, why do you think you didn’t learn anything?

  8. (8)

    Did you learn anything about yourself (or your capabilities) from this program? Can you give examples?

  9. (9)

    Give feedback to the instructors: Tell them how they are doing a good job and what they need to work on.

    Instructor 1 (will be named in actual interview)

    Instructor 2 (will be named in actual interview)

  10. (10)

    Do you feel the instructors helped you? If so, how?

  11. (11)

    Talk some about the After School Matters team—that is, you and your peers. Do you feel everyone worked together? Were there ever any problems with the team?

  12. (12)

    Did you feel like you were able to make decisions and contributed about the activities you participated in? Can you give some examples?

  13. (13)

    Did you have any opportunities to be a leader in the program? Talk some about your experiences.

  14. (14)

    What skills did you contribute to this program?

  15. (15)

    On a scale of 1-10, where 1 means you were not interested at all and 10 means you were always involved in the program, how interested would you say you were in this program?

    1. (a)

      Why did you give yourself that rating?

  16. (16)

    Why do you think that some apprentices had poor attendance at the program?

  17. (17)

    Has the program influenced you and your goals outside of the program?

  18. (18)

    Give one way for this program to be improved.

  19. (19)

    What would you like to do in the next program? Ideas for documentary topics? Other activities? What would you like to learn?

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Bulanda, J.J., McCrea, K.T. The Promise of an Accumulation of Care: Disadvantaged African-American Youths’ Perspectives About What Makes an After School Program Meaningful. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 30, 95–118 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-012-0281-1

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