Athletes for Life Foundation

The expected outcomes resulting from the activities in this curriculum are that students would increase in their knowledge and understanding of leadership along with increasing their ability to work not only independently but also in collaborative environments. In order to determine if an increase in these skills and characteristics has occurred, the program includes a pre-and post test for all participants. As this program has been created to last one semester, it is expected that up to 60 students would be able to successfully complete the course during one school year. Should a school have enough students, a before school and after school program could be run, which can result in up to 120 students per school year benefiting from this program. Additionally, this program can be used during a summer program. If given enough students, there could possibly be 60 students made up of two groups during the summer. Or there could be an early morning and late afternoon session for students in the summer.

This program has serval expected outcomes including but not limited to: decreased absenteeism and tardiness, decreased disciplinary issues including suspension and expulsion, increased academic achievement, especially in the areas of reading and English language Arts. Furthermore, there will be an increased awareness of financial literacy along with an understanding of college and post secondary opportunities. Students will also increase their public speaking skills, and there will be an increase of self-esteem and self-awareness. All of these characteristics can result in an increases pass rates in classes which will ultimately bring in an increase in on time graduation rates. For students who are system involved including the social services and criminal justice systems, these populations will benefit from learning skills they can help them move toward independence and self-sufficiency.

We have been serving the Southern California communities for 30 years, this coming September. We have been capable of meeting our goals, 1) by the support of our corporate partners 2) with the partnership with the school districts and finally, 3) by the men and women who work for Athletes for Life. It is our common belief that our programs and camps, provides leadership development for youth in middle and high school. It is designed to serve as an afterschool program that is engaging, activity centered, and increases awareness and growth in the areas of reading, writing, team building, and focus. Our programs have taken place in a classroom setting. Due to its versatility, the program can take place before school or after school. Within the program there are individual and collaborative activities along with the opportunity for community members and school counselors to take part in the program. Each day students will meet and complete assignments based on a leadership book written by Greg Bell. There are activities utilizing the Internet, students creating projects, and and delivering speeches. The overarching goal of this program is to help students build capacity in the area of leadership and team building with activities that are not sports based.

From our summer programs, we have seen 95% of our female participants go on to attend a 2-4 year university, while 85% of the male participants have gone on to university.

Next is the PASS program and the impact we feel we can have on foster care students, whom historically, have the highest absents, tardiness, lowest GPA, and not to mention drop out rate. We want to change that immediately!