How Supportive School Climates Help Youth Navigate Adolescence

Youth and young adults are more like­ly to suc­ceed in school when they feel safe, sup­port­ed and con­nect­ed to adults who believe in them. Cre­at­ing that envi­ron­ment is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for stu­dents who have expe­ri­enced sus­pen­sion, expul­sion or involve­ment in the youth jus­tice system.

Two orga­ni­za­tions sup­port­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion — Elev8 Bal­ti­more and Moth­ers Against Gang Vio­lence in Atlanta — are help­ing stu­dents over­come bar­ri­ers to edu­ca­tion, build strong rela­tion­ships and pur­sue their goals.

This work is part of Casey’s larg­er effort to pre­vent young peo­ple from enter­ing the jus­tice sys­tem and help those with expe­ri­ence in the sys­tem stay con­nect­ed to edu­ca­tion and oth­er opportunities.

Help­ing Bal­ti­more Stu­dents Stay Con­nect­ed to School

Elev8 Bal­ti­more, Inc. works with stu­dents, fam­i­lies and schools to address bar­ri­ers to learn­ing while strength­en­ing rela­tion­ships and expand­ing opportunities.

A full-ser­vice com­mu­ni­ty school ini­tia­tive, Elev8 part­ners with 18 Bal­ti­more City pub­lic schools and pro­grams, includ­ing alter­na­tive edu­ca­tion pro­grams that serve stu­dents who need edu­ca­tion­al set­tings out­side tra­di­tion­al schools. Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ty Acad­e­my is one of its part­ners. It helps young adults ages 18 to 24 earn high school diplo­mas or GEDs.

Elev8 CEO Alexan­dria Adams empha­sizes that stu­dents in alter­na­tive edu­ca­tion set­tings have the same devel­op­men­tal needs as their peers in tra­di­tion­al schools.

“They need safe­ty, belong­ing, strong rela­tion­ships, rig­or­ous edu­ca­tion, sta­bil­i­ty, encour­age­ment, oppor­tu­ni­ty and adults who believe in their poten­tial,” Adams says. ​“What is dif­fer­ent is the con­cen­tra­tion, dura­tion and inter­gen­er­a­tional nature of the bar­ri­ers many stu­dents have experienced.”

Stu­dents may be nav­i­gat­ing hous­ing insta­bil­i­ty, unre­li­able access to food, unmet learn­ing or behav­ioral health needs or expo­sure to vio­lence. Some have expe­ri­enced repeat­ed sus­pen­sions or fall­en behind in school cred­its. Old­er stu­dents may also care for younger sib­lings or have chil­dren of their own.

Elev8 seeks to under­stand stu­dents as indi­vid­u­als with their own strengths, aspi­ra­tions and needs rather than define them by their circumstances.

The orga­ni­za­tion calls its approach ​“accom­pa­ni­ment” — indi­vid­u­al­ized, coor­di­nat­ed sup­port that rec­og­nizes stu­dents’ strengths and needs.

Rather than focus­ing only on why stu­dents are strug­gling, staff seek to under­stand their expe­ri­ences, rec­og­nize what has helped them per­se­vere and iden­ti­fy what they need to move forward.

Social work­ers build rela­tion­ships with stu­dents, help them iden­ti­fy goals and con­nect them with resources. Elev8’s com­mu­ni­ty school mod­el com­bines aca­d­e­m­ic sup­port, health and well­ness ser­vices, fam­i­ly engage­ment and work­force development.

This approach reflects a cen­tral ele­ment of a pos­i­tive school cli­mate: Stu­dents need to know they belong and that adults rec­og­nize their potential.

Recent Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ty Acad­e­my grad­u­ates illus­trate what that sup­port can help stu­dents accomplish:

• Sev­er­al have begun career train­ing and are work­ing toward indus­try-rec­og­nized credentials.
• Oth­ers com­plet­ed appli­ca­tions for fed­er­al stu­dent finan­cial aid and enrolled in a local com­mu­ni­ty college.
• Anoth­er began a nurs­ing program.

Strength­en­ing School Con­nec­tions in Atlanta

In Atlanta, anoth­er Casey-sup­port­ed orga­ni­za­tion helps stu­dents attend­ing an alter­na­tive school stay engaged in edu­ca­tion and their communities.

Moth­ers Against Gang Vio­lence pro­vides men­tor­ing and tutor­ing, helps stu­dents improve atten­dance and sup­ports them in recov­er­ing cred­its missed because of absences or time in the youth jus­tice sys­tem. The orga­ni­za­tion also holds week­ly fam­i­ly engage­ment ses­sions and helps par­ents and care­givers nav­i­gate the jus­tice system.

“We address the whole young per­son, not just the imme­di­ate prob­lem,” says founder Teke­sia Shields.

Dur­ing the past school year, five of the 10 young peo­ple the orga­ni­za­tion served were high school seniors. Four earned diplo­mas and two oth­er par­tic­i­pants found jobs. Moth­ers Against Gang Vio­lence also employed sev­en young peo­ple in a sum­mer work-readi­ness pro­gram, where they built bench­es for a com­mu­ni­ty memo­r­i­al garden.

Though the Bal­ti­more and Atlanta pro­grams dif­fer in size and approach, both demon­strate how com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions can help stu­dents remain engaged in school and pre­pare for their futures.

Why School Cli­mate Mat­ters for Youth Jus­tice Prevention

Youth and young adults do not tran­si­tion to adult­hood in iso­la­tion. Their rela­tion­ships and expe­ri­ences at home, in school, at work and in their com­mu­ni­ties all shape their development.

That is why Casey’s approach to school cli­mate goes beyond aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance and dis­ci­pline. Sup­port­ive schools cre­ate envi­ron­ments where stu­dents feel safe, devel­op trust­ing rela­tion­ships with adults and receive help address­ing chal­lenges that might oth­er­wise inter­fere with their education.

These con­nec­tions are espe­cial­ly impor­tant for stu­dents who have expe­ri­enced exclu­sion­ary dis­ci­pline or involve­ment in the jus­tice sys­tem. Casey sup­ports approach­es that reduce unnec­es­sary sus­pen­sions, expul­sions and arrests while strength­en­ing prac­tices that help stu­dents remain engaged in school.

“We want youth and young adults to stay con­nect­ed to edu­ca­tion and have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to earn a high school diplo­ma, which is often a pre­req­ui­site for employ­ment,” says Isman­uela Denis, a pro­gram asso­ciate with the Foundation’s Juve­nile Jus­tice Strat­e­gy Group. ​“What­ev­er they want to do with their future, we want to make sure they have the tools and resources to pur­sue it.”

Elev8 Bal­ti­more and Moth­ers Against Gang Vio­lence show how that com­mit­ment can take shape. By rec­og­niz­ing stu­dents’ strengths, work­ing with fam­i­lies and pro­vid­ing indi­vid­u­al­ized assis­tance, these orga­ni­za­tions are help­ing youth and young adults build the edu­ca­tion­al foun­da­tion for future opportunities.

Learn more about the impor­tance of rela­tion­ships in a young per­son­’s life