Jump to:Page Content
You are seeing this message because your web browser does not support basic web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing and what you can do to make your experience on this site better.
The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
Program Description
Overview | The YouthPlaces Initiative is one component of Baltimore's After School Strategy, a citywide effort to increase the quantity and improve the quality of after school opportunities for Baltimore's children and youth, which is in turn a component of the city's Safe and Sound Campaign, a comprehensive effort to improve youth outcomes in Baltimore, Maryland. The YouthPlaces Initiative provides training, technical assistance, and implementation funds to after school programs (YouthPlaces) in order to enable these YouthPlaces to meet established quality standards and demonstrate the effectiveness of high quality after school programs in producing positive youth outcomes. |
Start Date | 1999 |
Scope | local |
Type | after school |
Location | urban |
Setting | public schools, community-based organization, religious institution, recreation center, private facility |
Participants | elementary, middle, and high school students |
Number of Sites/Grantees | 69 sites and 25 grantees (2001) |
Number Served | estimated at 10,000 (2001) |
Components | The YouthPlaces Initiative is one component of Baltimore's After School Strategy, which is itself part of a larger systemic change initiative led by the Safe and Sound Campaign of Baltimore and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Core components of the Baltimore After School Strategy include: the development of research-based standards for after school program quality, the establishment of a capacity-building intermediary (the After-School Institute), the leveraging of public and private funds for after school programs, accountability, and evaluation designed to take quality improvement to scale. The research-based standards are comprised of two parts. Organizational Standards address the quality of overall program infrastructure and climate in five sections: human relationships, indoor environment, outdoor environment, health, safety and nutrition, and administration. Program Standards address the quality and richness of program activities and content, including standards in six program areas: cognitive development, recreation, workforce development, artistic development, civic development, and open time. The After School Strategy is intended to promote caring relationships between young people and adults, enable young people to develop specific competencies, and offer them a sense of belonging and a place to congregate, all of which are proposed to promote safety and strong civic behaviors. These benefits are intended to lead ultimately to improved indicators of youth well-being such as school achievement, attendance/truancy, high school graduation rate, child and adolescent accidents and injuries, births to teen mothers, children's exposure to crime, and juvenile crime and delinquency rates. The Family League of Baltimore City (FLBC) awarded planning grants to 29 after school provider organizations in 1999. Planning grantees were required to assess their YouthPlaces against Safe and Sound's quality standards and to develop quality improvement plans for meeting any standards their program did not currently meet. In 2000, FLBC awarded implementation grants to 25 of the 29 planning grantees to conduct quality improvement efforts in a total of 69 YouthPlaces (or program sites). |
Funding Level | $19.5 million (total funding as of 2000) |
Funding Sources | Federal government, Baltimore city government, and private foundations: Baltimore City Department of Social Services/Reinvestment of TANF Savings, Baltimore City General Fund, Baltimore Community Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Family League of Baltimore City/Incentive Dollars, Governor's Office of Children, Youth and Families/Community Partnership Agreement, Maryland After School Opportunity Fund, Open Society Institute-Baltimore, Aaron and Lillie Straus Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, and Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation |
Evaluation
Overview | Phase one of the implementation evaluation has been completed and the evaluation is currently in a redesign phase. |
Evaluator | Policy Studies Associates, Inc. in collaboration with the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) and the Academy for Educational Development |
Evaluations Profiled | Evaluation of the Baltimore Safe and Sound YouthPlaces Initiative, Initial Report Youths' Experiences in Their YouthPlaces: Results of a Youth Survey Conduced in Thirty-Six of Baltimore's YouthPlaces |
Evaluations Planned | Future evaluation plans are to conduct three separate but related studies: (1) a tightly focused study of program quality and youth outcomes in a select number of sites; (2) a broad analysis of participation, youth and staff perspectives on the initiative, and school outcomes for participating youth in all sites; and (3) a macro-level systems study to guide future strategy development. |
Report Availability | Marzke, C., & White, R. (2001). Evaluation of the Baltimore Safe and Sound YouthPlaces Initiative, initial report. Washington, DC: Policy Studies Associates. Policy Studies Associates. (2001). Youths' experiences in their YouthPlaces: Results of a youth survey conducted in thirty-six of Baltimore's YouthPlaces. Washington, DC: Author. |
Contacts
Evaluation | Carolyn Marzke, Ph.D. Policy Studies Associates, Inc. 1718 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20009 Tel: 202-939-9780 Email: cmarzke@policystudies.com Eric Bruns, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Psychiatry University of Maryland School of Medicine 701 West Pratt Street, Suite 430 Baltimore, MD 21201 Tel: 410-328-3522 Email: ebruns@psych.umaryland.edu |
Program | Martha Holleman Director of Policy and Planning Safe and Sound Two East Read Street Baltimore, MD 21202 Tel: 410-625-7976 Email: marthah@safeandsound.org |
Profile Updated | June 10, 2003 |
Evaluation 2: Youths' Experiences in Their YouthPlaces: Results of a Youth Survey Conducted in Thirty-six of Baltimore's YouthPlaces
Evaluation Description
Evaluation Purpose | To gain information about the characteristics of and risk factors facing participants, as well as young people's perceptions of safety, quality, and opportunities in YouthPlaces. |
Evaluation Design | Non-Experimental: Data were collected from over 500 young people in 36 YouthPlaces sites. |
Data Collection Methods | Surveys/Questionnaires: A survey was conducted of over 500 young people (nine years and older) in 36 YouthPlace sites. |
Data Collection Timeframe | Surveys were administered in April, May, and early June of 2001. |
Findings:
Formative/Process Findings
Program Context/Infrastructure | Survey responses suggest that most youth feel safe at their YouthPlaces, but feel less safe getting to and from their YouthPlaces. Most (81%) participants live within walking distance of their YouthPlace. Youth report a high overall incidence of fighting, hurting others, and school suspensions. These behaviors may take place in a variety of locations, but also likely spill over into youth interactions within YouthPlaces. The majority of youth (59%) reported physical fighting, a substantial proportion of respondents reported that they had hurt someone physically in the past year, and more than one-quarter had been suspended from school in the past year. Participants report negative interactions among youth to be a problem in YouthPlaces. These results are congruent with results of program executive and staff surveys that conflicts among youth are a pervasive problem and that staff training on behavior management and conflict resolution are high priorities. |
Recruitment/Participation | Demographically, YouthPlace participants are largely reflective of children in Baltimore as a whole, although girls participate at slightly higher rates (57% girls, 43% boys). Eighty-two percent of respondents were African American and 10% were white. Only 30% of responding youth lived with both parents. Most respondents (88%) had participated in their YouthPlace for at least a year, and a substantial proportion have been enrolled for more than three years. These results suggest that these after school providers have the capacity to retain youth in their programs for relatively long periods. Most respondents (83%) reported that they had attended the program every day or almost every day in the last month, and 88% reported attending the program at least three days a week in the past month. Youth survey respondents participate in a variety of activities, most often arts and crafts, homework help, and team sports, and many take advantage of unstructured time to “hang out” with friends. Results suggest a relatively low level of participation in activities and opportunities likely to promote youth's mastery in specific skill areas. While these patterns require additional exploration, the youth survey results are consistent with staff survey results suggesting that in many cases, YouthPlaces offer a few activities across many different program and skill areas, rather than offering programs designed to help youth master advanced skills in a particular area. |
Satisfaction | Overall, most youth surveyed enjoy coming to their YouthPlaces, feel safe in these places, and have positive views about how staff treat youth. Only 7% voiced dissatisfaction with their YouthPlace overall. |
Staffing/Training | Survey respondents offered relatively positive assessments of staff. However, results were mixed on youth's report of individualized, personal interactions with adults in their YouthPlaces. One-third of respondents had never had a one-on-one talk with a staff member about things going on in their lives. |
Summative/Outcome Findings
Academic | The longer youth had been enrolled in a YouthPlace, the more positive their feelings about issues such as learning and attending school. |
Youth Development | Youth strongly voice that their YouthPlaces have helped them, particularly in areas related to school, enjoyment of reading, and working together with others. |