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2 Approach, Management, and
Evaluation Plan
Approach: We will use our existing relationship with this site to incorporate the new approaches and goals expressed herein to expand our influence and increase our support to the stakeholders of this school. Currently, Peacemakers is providing mentoring and tutoring at this site, along with traditional parent education and teacher professional development. With this investment, we expand our support for the parents, students, and their teachers by including a robust, anti- obesity component to our work. Please note that are on site staff are all local, residing in San Pablo and/or Richmond, and new hires to this project will be local as well, given our approach to engage those who have championed barriers similar to those faced by our clients; those who are linguistically and culturally connect to our students, and those who are rooted in the communities we serve.
Management:
There will be a Site Coordinator working in partnership with the school administration to marshal the passionate interest of our parents advocates and peer educators to bring this service to Helms Middle School. With oversight from our staff Clinicians and organizational leadership, the Site Coordinator will supervise the day-to-day activities; plan and hold special events and will use formative data to improve our operations; inform our professional development with teachers; coach our parent advocates and peer educators, and to create summative reports. Weekly meetings will be held in an every to gather data and discuss our operations.
Evaluation Plan:
The previously mentioned meetings will form the spinal cord of Cycles Of Inquiry so that we are able to constantly improve our operations and seek other partners as we re- identify needs or gaps in service. The COI/continuous improvement sessions will be held monthly, and oversight will be provided by the aforementioned clinicians and our Executive Director.
3 Project Experience
Peacemakers is making a multi-dimensional impact on hundreds of East Bay Area families’ health and wellness across multiple school districts. Our organization currently provides mentoring and parent engagement services to five schools in the Richmond and San Pablo Area:
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Helms Middle School, Lincoln Elementary School, King Elementary School, Stege Elementary School, and Coronado Elementary School. The work is primarily focused on promoting socio- emotional development for both children and parents, providing health and nutrition information, reducing truancy, and providing counseling services that offer these communities extended enrichment that meets their unique needs. The organization seeks funding and additional support to increase the velocity of its efforts for the youth, their families, and teachers from Helms Middle School in West Contra Costa School District. We are currently working on a project that combines ocean and creek play, hiking, camping, and horseback riding with restorative actions, parent-teacher training, and group/individual counseling. Peacemakers’ direct service staff is BAWT (Bay Area Wilderness Training) trained and will incorporate this education into our socio-emotional and personal development training during their wilderness and outside trips. Our work will alter the life paths of students and their families in our program by reforming their relationship with learning and where it happens, doing so in cooperation with their school district, local and regional parks, campgrounds, and other social service provider-partners. The youth and parents served by this specific project will learn the nexus between mental health, social wellbeing, and nature, leading some to advocate for conservation and environmental justice. Parent/teacher workshops and conferences held in the outdoor settings will reduce parents’ resistance to change, while also providing increased time to model and demonstrate healthier responses to challenges. During these workshops, our organization will offer daycare and healthy food options for the students of the parents, to encourage healthy living both internally and externally. In the short term, we will teach and model cultural competency, home/school communications, conflict resolution, problem solving, leadership, and healthy living strategies. Our long-term impact will be building healthier families by demonstrating the relationship between conservation and a healthy community.
4 Scope of Services
We will provide the children/students of Helms Middle School with the following services:
• Nutrition workshops, geared towards this age group
• Outdoor Adventures that provide the nexus between, social, emotional, and physical health
• Movement and Exercise Sessions, locally and regionally, that engrain wellness strategies in our students
A cadre of 10 students – 5 7th graders and 5 8th graders will be selected in cooperatnewfoundthe site and these students will become Peer Educators who will learn about nutrition, during after school hours, and they will use this information to develop presentations for classrooms, school 5 | Page
special events – such as back to school night/open house – and will also share their new found knowledge with teachers with suggestions as to how to incorporate nutrition, health, and fitness within the core curriculum as an overlay to ongoing instructional activities.
Additionally, we will leverage other resources to conduct outdoor adventures in regional parks throughout the greater Bay Area; these retreat style sessions, involving parents, teachers, and students will supplement traditional teacher-parent/student conferences, offering the opportunity to include fitness and nutrition within these bonding sessions.
Lastly, we will be using hiking and movement as the primary fitness action, using local parks, such as visits to the shorelines of Point Richmond and Point Pinole and regional parks along the delta for more extensive hiking sessions.
The following table provides an articulation of these three approaches.
Activity Number of Students
Involved
Frequency Outcome and Total
Hours
Peer Educator Training
and Coaching
10 Weekly 30 one-hour sessions,
totaling 300 hours
On Site Presentations
to Parents
10 Three times per year 3 1.5-hour
presentations, totaling
4.5 hours
Classroom
Presentations to
Students
300 10 one-hour
presentations
10 1-hour
presentations, totaling
10 hours
Presentations to
Teachers
10 Monthly for 6 months 6 one-hour
presentations, totaling
6 hours
Local hiking 90 Monthly for 6 months 6 3-hour sessions, totaling 18 hours
Regional hiking 60 3 times during school
year
3 four-hour sessions,
totaling 12 hours
Totals 460 unduplicated
youth served
350.50 hours