The hours of 3-7pm is often thought of as a critical time for students. Typically during afterschool hours, students that are unsupervised tend to engage in risky behaviors that leads to trouble. Research supports the notion that afterschool programs helps to reduce risky behaviors and promotes school achievement (Harvard, 2018). The Kentucky State University UConnect Program is based on the National Check and Connect Module. This evidence based promotes student engagement, and decrease absenteeism, and other disruptive behaviors.  Students are paired with mentors who check their student attendance and grades and connect with them to provide positive role modeling opportunities that leads to success. The Kentucky State University, UConnect Program is one such program that is charged with developing well rounded students. In partnerships with the Community Inspired Solutions, the KSU Lexington UConnect Program has 11 students currently enrolled in the program. The program met each Tuesday evening for one hour and a half. Students engaged in the following activities that promoting increasing social, civil and sustainable life skills. Field trips and parent engagement sessions are also scheduled periodically throughout the school year. This year students engaged in activities such as:

This has been a successful year! There has been a positive trend in student engagement, increased test scores/grades and improvements in program attendance as well. Recently, a grandparent stated “My grandsons have been coming to CIS for 3 years and have come a long way since that first day. They didn’t have kids to play with or talk to that lived around them.  Now, not only do they have friends to be with every Tuesday, they love coming and having a good time. This was the best thing that ever happened to them." We are proud of the work that has been conducted because of this partnership. We are currently identifying ways to sustain the program. 

Reference:

Afterschool Programs Make a Difference: Findings From the Harvard Family Research Project. 2018. Retrieved http://www.sedl.org/pubs/sedlletter/v20n02/afterschool_findings.html