CYA’s Re-Engagement programming launched in 2021 with funding from the United States Department of Education’s Governor’s Emergency Education Re-Engagement (GEER) program, and in partnership with Latin American Youth Centers/Maryland Multicultural Youth Center (LAYC/MMYC), The Urban Alliance, Hillside Work-Scholarship Connection (HW-SC) and Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS).
The program originally targeted 9th – 12th grade students at key high schools who had been identified as at-risk and had been chronically absent during the first semester of the 2020-2021 school year – the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the initial 3-year engagement, CYA leveraged mentors, canvassers, community leaders and nonprofit partners to connect with more than 750 disengaged students. Of these students, CYA was able to achieve the following:
Make physical and/or virtual contact with more than 750 students and their families to identify how and why they became disconnected from school.
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- Barriers included becoming homeless during the pandemic, moving to a new jurisdiction, and lack of technology access and understanding.
- Re-Engage more than 60% of contacted students back into regular education through:
- Making 1:1 connections with the schools in communities where families had relocated (both inside and outside of PGCPS).
- Making connections among GEER & county partners to support families facing homelessness.
- Enrolling students in GED classes both online and in person for the completion of non-traditional education programs, and making connections to PGCPS alternative high schools for the completion of traditional diploma programs.
- Creating, Hosting and Supporting technology pick up and swap out days at participating GEER & CYA 21st Century School locations.
- Hosting individual and group tech sessions to help families navigate zoom, google classroom, school max, and more.
- Connecting families with affordable connectivity programs from Comcast, Verizon and others.
- Develop critical support partnerships to incentivize and support lasting re-engagement during distance learning including connections to the Prince George’s County Public Library System, Prince George’s County Parks & Recreation, and Prince George’s Community College.
- Onboard nearly 10% of re-engaged families into CYA core programming including virtual tutoring.
- Capture critical data for PGCPS and the US Department of Education regarding barriers families faced to staying engaged in school during the pandemic.
With the conclusion of the initial funding, Community Youth Advance continues to maintain partnership with GEER and community partners to ensure lasting re-engagement success. Within CYA core programming we have also implemented early warning indicators in our data tracking that help us identify students who may become disengaged based on number of absences or tardy days, as well as maintain close connections with day-school teachers to identify students who are not engaging in classroom work. CYA also routinely monitors progress and report cards, and holds monthly parent meetings to support parent engagement and active participation in students academic success.
CYA mentors also play a key role in re-engagement, often identifying early warning signs and serving as trusted resources for both parents and students to seek support within CYA programming or through our network of partners.