Our project covers the topic of the integration of children and after-school programs. As we were doing our research on children and after-school programs, we came to find out that after-school programs benefit both children and their parents by offering some kind of structured program for children to attend after school while their parents are working. We found that there are many after-school programs set up throughout the country, which offer their services to many children. In our community, the most popular after-school program is the Boys and Girls club. Our local club members varied from different races, cultures, and socio-economic status. Because of this, we felt that the Boys and Girls club was a perfect place to start out project. Everyone thinks that all children know what number to dial when there is a fire or someone is hurt, but do all children really know? Also, what about other situations where children are in danger such as abuse, neglect, and exposure to violence? Most children don't know what to do in those cases. Child Protective Services and agencies of the such are considered to be taboo areas by many people still which tells us that our children are not being taught how to utilize their services. Also if a child has been exposed to violence their entire lives then they probably do not know that it is wrong therefore not knowing whom to call. This is why we chose our project. For our project, we created a laminated sheet of paper, which we called "The Lifesaver". The Lifesaver is designed to be put up on the refrigerator. On The Lifesaver, there are lists of emergency and non-emergency phone numbers. Non-emergency numbers include fire departments, police departments, 24-hour crisis lines, victim witness, child protective services, mental health, adult protective services and educational numbers.

Statement of Need

In today's society, we are seeing more violence in our families and children. Each year we are seeing more and more cases of domestic violence and child abuse. The number of cases may be rising because there are more cases actually happening or because more people are choosing to report them. In many cases of domestic violence and child abuse, the victim may be scared to report the crime or may not even know where to begin the process. We believe that if victims, especially children, have more knowledge about what to do when they are being abused, neglected, or they are witnessing domestic violence, they will not be afraid to make a phone call and more can be done to help them. We believe that by having these phone numbers easily accessible, it will help make the victims take the first step by making a phone call.

Description of the Intervention

The first part of our project involved interviewing children who participate in the Boys and Girls Club, volunteers at the club, and administrators at the Club. We talked to each of these three groups about what services the Boys and Girls Club had to offer. We touched a lot of other ranging from the relation of the Club and children staying out of trouble to the description of the families involved in the Club. When first thinking about our project, we thought about how we could distribute The Lifesaver to as many families as possible. A first thought was to involve the schools. Due to political reasons, we were unable to do that. We then decided to start some place small so that our project was actually feasible. Even though we had to choose a small place, it had to be a place with great significance, so The Boys and Girls Club was the perfect place.

We then actually completed The Lifesaver and brought it to the Boys and Girls Club's administrators for approval. They were very supportive and had a lot of positive feedback to offer. They did also have some negative feedback as well. They felt that just because a child had the number for child protective services, the chances were slim that they would pick up the phone and make the call after their parents abused them. We realized that could be the case, but hopefully we could help at least one child. We also felt the phone numbers included in The Lifesaver could be beneficial to the parents as well.

Evaluation of the Intervention

After completing The Lifesaver and distributing it to The Boys and Girls Club as well as some friends and family in the community, all we could do was hope that we had help at least one person. We realized that we probably would never know if we actually helped someone or not, but we know that at least we tried to help. We think that our project could have been more effective if we were able to involve the local schools or even businesses. We also realized that we could have made another Lifesaver, which could have been more geared towards high school students or even college students. We also wondered if the children actually put their Lifesavers on the fridge or if it got thrown away. We know that some families look towards agencies such as Mental Health and Child Protective Services as sort of taboo areas and would never want that phone number hanging on their fridge. From our perspectives, we thought that our project went rather well. We really won't be able to see how many families have their Lifesavers accessible in their houses or even how many people will actually use them. All we can do is hope.

Reflections on the Project

We were a little disappointed about the school involvement in our project. We couldn't believe that they wouldn't even let us put them in the counselor's office. We knew that our society still doesn't like to talk about abuse and domestic violence so carefree, but we never knew to what extent that was true. We think that this project could be more successful if the community were involved more. We also think that until society says it is okay to explain to your children about agencies such as Child Protective Services and Mental Health, it will be hard for some families to hang those phone numbers on the fridge. We hope that we helped at least one family or one person. We also hope that someday The Lifesaver will catch on to the rest of the community and can help many other families.

References

Halpern, R., Barker, G., Mollard, W. (June 2000). Youth programs as
Alternative spaces to be. Youth & Society, 31 (4), 469-492 

Hirsch, B., Roffman, J., Deutsch, N., Flynn, C., Loder, T., Pagano, M. (2000). Inner-city youth development organizations: Strengthening programs for adolescent girls. Journal of Early Adolescence, 20 (2), 210-231

Oden, S. (1995). Studying youth programs to assess influences on youth development: New roles for researchers. Journal of Adolescent Research. 10 (1), 173-184.

Wilder, S. (1997). Boys and girls clubs are a direct hit. Parks & Recreation, 32 (12), 48-50.

Youth Programs. Homework Centers [6 paragraphs.] Available http://www.pickens.k12.sc.us/academic/aftrschl.htm

Maureen Pierce, Personal Interview. October 26, 2000

Male Staff, Personal Interview. October 30, 2000

Rachelle Lanham, Personal Interview. October 17, 2000

Female Staff, Personal Interview. November 2, 2000

Personal Interview with kids at the club. October 30, 2000 

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