Community Skill Development Program

Objective :

The primary objective of E-KIDS’ Community Skill Development Program (CSDP) is to make the society BEST (Better Equipped Society for Tomorrow).

1. Community Skill Development Program (CSDP) - Setting the Stage

Since 1990 there has been an explosion of interest in Community Skill Development programs. The public has become aware of enormous benefits such programs can offer and policy makers see in these programs the chance to address numerous social and educational problems. Funding for Community Skill Development Program has grown substantially as a result of this heightened interest. Many cities across the country are developing major new initiatives focused on afterschool time, and a growing number of organizations across the country are researching and providing support for these programs. In a relatively short period of time, the afterschool field has grown and changed immensely.

2. What specifically is meant by "Community Skill Development Program ( CSDP)"?

Quality Community Skill Development Program are community-driven, expanded learning opportunities that support developmentally appropriate cognitive, social, physical, and emotional outcomes. In addition, these programs offer a balanced program of academic support, arts and cultural enrichment, recreation, and nutrition. Community Skill Development Program can run directly after school, or during evenings, weekends, summer vacations, and holidays.

It is important to define what Community Skill Development Program are at the outset, as the recent growth in the field has been guided by three commingling philosophies, rather than one unifying vision of how children’s time should be spent. These philosophies are referred to as “youth development," “school-age child care," and “extended day programs" or “expanded learning programs."

E-KIDS tend to be schools or community-based and faith-based organizations. Programs can be housed in various environments where students feel safe and are usually run by schools, community-based organizations, churches, synagogues, or mosques.

For the purposes of this workshop, we will use the term Community Skill Development Program to refer primarily to afternoon programs that begin when the regular school day ends and are housed in either a school or a community organization. It is important to keep in mind, though, that the recommendations for developing quality programming in the afterschool hours apply equally well to other out-of-school time programming.

3. What ages are served by Community Skill Development Program, and what kinds of activities do E-KIDS offer?

E-KIDS focuses on those programs serving elementary, middle, and high school students and even adults. The range of activities these programs offer is quite broad, and varies from state to state, and in urban, suburban, and rural environments. In general, though, quality Community Skill Development Program can be said to create a safe, healthy, and stimulating place for school-age children and youth, while providing opportunities for participation in some or all of the following activities :

  • Academic skill-building and homework help
  • Sports and recreation
  • Exploration of special interests such as art, music, theater, dance, computers and technology, crafts, games, etc.
  • Structured and unstructured play
  • Volunteer work and community service, also known as service-learning
  • Homework and remedial help
  • Cultural activities
  • College and job preparation and community internships (for middle- or high school)

In addition to the above activities, quality Community Skill Development Program also provides the children and youth they serve with :

  • Ongoing relationships with caring adults
  • An environment that strengthens social skills and character
  • Healthy snacks and/or meals to meet students’ nutritional needs
  • Safe and well-designed indoor and outdoor spaces

4. Benefits of Community Skill Development Program ( CSDP)

4.1 CSDP can enhance children's academic achievement

Participants in Community Skill Development Program :

  • Show increased interest and ability in reading
  • Develop new skills and interests
  • Show improved school attendance, increased engagement in school, and reduced dropout rate
  • Turn in more and better quality homework and can spend more time on task
  • Are held back or placed in special education classes less frequently
  • Show higher aspirations for the future, including intention to complete high school and go to college.

4.2 Helping students to catch up, keep up, and get ahead

Many students need more individualized learning time beyond the school day and year, and they need help completing their homework. They need to be able to make connections to real-world tasks and people in diverse settings to see firsthand how their education relates to their future. Out-of-school time activities should be authentic, hands-on, and inquiry-based, with core academic content embedded throughout.

4.3 Encouraging greater family connections and involvement

After-school programs can be a powerful vehicle to link more parents and families with their children’s education—at home, in schools, and in the community. Comprehensive after-school programs can also increase access to adult education, computer classes, and college and technical courses to improve the lives of parents.

4.4 Strengthening the climate of the school and surrounding community

With the broad involvement of community based organizations, civic groups, businesses, arts and cultural organizations, faith-based institutions, and families in after-school and summer programs, the very expectations of a school-community relationship can be positively changed.

5. Benefits Of E-Kids CSDP

5.1 Support children's social development and their relationships with adults and peers

Children who participate in after school programs behave better in school, have more developed social skills, and show more self-confidence as a result of the caring relationships they develop with staff and other students in the program. After school participants are also in smaller classes and can take advantage of the extra time with teachers.

5.2 Support positive goals

CSDP can also lessen risky behaviours, such as drug, alcohol, and tobacco use, by providing young people with positive and healthy alternatives.

The after school hours are the time that students are most likely to experiment with drugs, alcohol, and tobacco and engage in other unsafe or dangerous behaviours. When these kids have a place to go that is staffed by caring adults, they are much less likely to engage in this kind of unhealthy behaviour. The middle school years are a time when kids are particularly vulnerable to peer pressure. By simply giving these kids an alternative, after school programs can help steer them in healthier directions.

5.3 Quantum Opportunities

High school freshmen were randomly selected from welfare families in four cities to participate in The Quantum Opportunities after school and graduation incentives program. An US research study says that boys left out of the program were six times more likely to be convicted of crime, and boys and girls left out were twice as likely to drop out of school and 50 percent more likely to have children before graduating. Kids in the after school program were twice as likely to continue their education beyond high school.

5.4 Strengthen schools, families, and communities

As you will see in the Exploration section of this project, a key part of developing an after school program is soliciting participation from many segments of the community. When this process succeeds and communities come together to address the need for Community Skill Development Program, new family-school-community partnerships can form, benefiting all involved. Research has shown that the when families become more involved with schools, the students in those schools do better. The creation of Community Skill Development Program has spurred such changes in communities across the country.

5.5 Create true "community schools" that serve the entire community, not just school kids

Once communities come together to address the need for Community Skill Development Program for children and youth, they are more likely and able to address the needs of other members of the community as well. Instead of just serving children and youth, schools can become a center for adult services as well, providing an array of services in response to community needs. For example, a school might host an adult sports league or provide classes in parenting.

6. Why has demand for Community Skill Development Program increased so significantly?

There is a strong and growing demand in this country for quality Community Skill Development Program. This demand is partially in recognition of the good that Community Skill Development Program can do for children and youth, but it is also a direct result of fundamental changes that have taken place in the way families work and live.

The proportion of single-parent families and of families with two parents working outside the home has grown dramatically in the last few decades. According the research nearly two-thirds of school-age children and youth live with a single employed parent or two parents who are both employed. These families need supervision for their children beyond the hours of the traditional school day, and particularly between the hours of 3:00 p.m., when dismissal occurs, and 6:00 p.m., when most parents arrive home from work.

7. What is the role of technology in Community Skill Development Program?

In an ideal world, there would be enough money for all students, in school and afterschool, to have access to computers for research and academic enrichment. In reality, resources can be scarce, and, while some computers might be available, there might not be enough to go around. Still, students love to use computers, and access to them can be a strong marketing tool, as well as a powerful enrichment tool, for your program. Think creatively; in Community Skill Development Program, you might be able to take advantage of smaller groups or more flexible schedules to make computers available to a few students at a time. In this way, students might have opportunities that are unavailable during school hours or at home.

Bear in mind that, like television and videos, computers are only educational tools when students are given clear goals for their use, and when they are supervised closely by adults. Given this caveat, E-KASP can be enhanced and  find ways to use technology creatively to excite and engage students. Lessons address student needs as we’ve outlined in this section.

7. Are kids being "over-scheduled"?

Do Community Skill Development Program expect too much of students? Several recent studies and news articles discuss a growing concern among some parents and educators that children are being asked to do too much, too soon.

When children’s afternoons are filled with classes and sports and trips and other organized activities, these parents and experts say, kids have no time to just be kids and family life is squeezed out. Research has confirmed that children today do have less free time and participate in more structured activities than children in the past.

Undoubtedly, some children are being burdened with a schedule that places too many demands on their time, and parents are right to question whether a schedule of too many activities  no matter how good each individual activity may be creates too much stress on the child and the family.

On the other hand, we live in a country where 25 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. It is safe to say that the children of families who live below the poverty line are not being exposed to the same level of extracurricular activities as the children of wealthier families. After school programs may be the one place where disadvantaged children can have access to the kinds of activities and opportunities their more advantaged peers take for granted, such as trips to museums, dance classes, musical instruction, and organized sports.

For the two-thirds of school-age children and youth whose parents’ work schedules make them unavailable during the afterschool hours, Community Skill Development Program may actually cut down on the stresses of over-scheduling. Instead of having to patch together myriad activities, parents can send their children to a single program that provides an array of activities, and where down-time for the children is built in to the day.

Perhaps in an ideal world, all children would be able to go home after school to a nurturing and attentive family member or caregiver who would make time for them to participate in a wide range of activities. The social and economic realities in this country, however, mean that this cannot be so for most school-age children and youth. A good afterschool program — one planned with care and attentiveness to the needs of the students they serve — provides one of the best options available to these families.

8. Key principles of CSDP

8.1 Structure with Flexibility

One of the most important things to remember in designing a curriculum is that children need a balance between structured activities (such as building a model of a bridge with a group of classmates, or working with a partner to write a scene for a play) and unstructured time, where they are free to choose their own activities and partners. Most school days are highly structured, and kids need some time, particularly in the afterschool hours, to unwind and follow their own inclinations. Time spent in unstructured activities will help them to focus on the structured activities we offer.

8.2 Variety of Activities

When it comes time to plan activities, we provide a wide range of opportunities for learning. Include a mix that develops academic, social, physical, and emotional skills, while giving your students the chance to develop hobbies, skills, and interests they might not otherwise be able to explore. Community service projects and other hands-on activities can help students cultivate positive character traits, and enhance their sense of community. The afterschool hours provide an ideal time and place to get students excited about learning to pursue their own interests, and it helps them develop self-confidence as they explore new talents in areas that may not be addressed by the regular school curriculum.

E-KIDS makes sure the activities we offer are fun and engaging, no matter what they are designed to teach. Most kids are tired after a long day at school, and they will be best able to absorb the content of a lesson if it looks more like play and less like a traditional classroom lesson.

8.3 Students Choices

We structured our program so students have daily choices about how they will spend their time. This encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning, and allows the program staff to better meet the needs of all their students.

8.4 Provide Opportunities for Student Input

By working with students to develop curriculum activities, we will allow them to develop a sense of ownership of the program, develop responsibility, and select activities that reflect their interests as they help plan and lead activities.

8.5 Pay Attention to the Particular Needs of Our Program

A thorough knowledge of the needs and desires of students, staff, families, and community will allow fine-tuning activities for the best possible fit with unique population.

8.6 Pay Attention to the Budget

Make sure activities work within the budget allotted for the program.

8.7 Pay Attention to Time, Environmental, and Staffing Constraints

We make sure activities work within the time allotted for the program, and for the environment in which it will be performed. There should be a sufficient number of qualified staff to meet the requirements of the activities.

9. Major Challenges for implementing community driven project

9.1 Major Challenges

As can be seen in Figure, finding qualified staff continues to be the prime challenge for school-age providers. Finding space, which in the past has ranked high on the list of concerns, still is seen as a challenge, but less so than finding funding and training staff.

9.2 Parents’ Expectations

9.3 Project Goal

10. Our Approach to counter the challenges

CARSDA follows the following five components work together to produce a high quality Community Skill Development Program.

10.1 Goals

The goals for individual projects and lesson are clear, rigorous, and supported across the program in structure and content.

Every E-Kids Program has Age Appropriate, Structured, well defined Learner Objectives and Learner Outcome for individual lesson plan.

10.2 Leadership

Leadership is experienced, well-educated, has longevity at the current site, uses effective communications, sets high expectations, and has a bottoms-up management style.

E-Kids has the experience of providing quality innovative fun filled education across all age groups of students from different sectors in a society and leader in the innovative skill development initiatives.

10.3 Staff Trainer

Staff Trainer is experienced, has longevity at current program, relates well to students, models high expectations, motivates and engages students, and works well with leaders, colleagues, and parents.

E-Kids adopts and practice the concept of “Train The Trainer and Test the Learner” and provide 100% result oriented quality outcome to the learners. We recruit manpower from respective villages in order to bring job opportunity to the local community at the same time we will train them and make sure the quality is not compromised with award winning assessment methodologies.

10.4 Program

Program aligns to the day school, provides time for students to study, learn and practice; includes motivational activities, frequently uses technology, science and the arts to support youth development, student learning, and engagement.

10.5 Evaluation

Evaluation uses both internal (formative) and external (summative) methods. Evaluative information and data accurately measure goals; results are applied to continuous program improvement.