A Formative Study of Anchorage’s Promise: The Five Promises

1. A Formative Study of Anchorage’s Promise: The Five Promises Millie Cortes Capstone Project Master of Public Administration University of Alaska Anchorage April 16, 2011

2. Agenda • The Problem • The Five Promises • Purpose of the Study • Anchorage’s Promise • Formative Analysis • Findings • Challenges • Conclusions • Observations

3. The Problem • America is not being sufficiently attentive to the positive development of our children and youth. • ASD reported a dropout rate of 3.9 percent, representing 895 dropouts out of 22,772 students enrolled in grades 7-12. • Dropouts are a drain on the economies of each state and the nation. • The average annual income for high school dropouts is $19,169, compared to $28,645 for high school graduates.

4. The Five Promises • Caring Adults - Protecting young people from negative behaviors • Safe Places - Safe at home, school, & their community • Healthy Start - Adequate nutrition, exercise, and health care • Effective Education - Motivating youth at school • Opportunity to Help Others – Develop volunteers programs

5. Purposeof the Study • Determine the Promises not being achieved • Recommend program improvements

6. Anchorage’s Promise • Mobilizes the Anchorage community to build character and competence of its children and youth by fulfilling the America’s Promise Alliance Five Promises. • Kids Day Event • Partnerships with local youth programs • Community Outreach • Youth Recruiting

7. Formative Analysis • Provide staff useful information to improve programs and monitor progress • Provide data which if collected early can help re-channel time, money, and resources into more productive directions • Data Collection • Surveys • Interviews • Literature Review • Benchmarks • Program models 7

8. Promise Indicators

9. Findings: Anchorage’s Partners Level of Understanding on the Five Promises Partners’ understanding of the Five Promises is 3.09, constituting to a positive rating. 9

10. Findings : Partners’ Distribution of the Promises The promise that overall received the highest rating, 2.56, is Safe Places. 90% agreed with each of the statements under this promise. 10

11. Challenges • Caring Adults. • 85.6% of respondents agreed with the statements under this promise • Caring relationship with extended family adults – 3.00 • Effective Education • Learning to use technology – 1.52 • 33.4% agreed with the indicators under this promise • Healthy Nutrition • 41.1% of respondents agreed with the statement under this promise • 58.9% to a slight extent agreed or did not agreed with these indicators • Opportunities to Help Others • 26.3% of respondents agreed with the statements under this promise • 73.7% to a slight extent agreed or did not agreed with these indicators

12. How Important is Anchorage’s Promise to the delivery Five Promise

13. Conclusions • Anchorage’s Promise is meeting two of the Five Promises’ benchmarks. • Survey results demonstrate partners may need a better understanding of the national benchmarks. • Partner’s program activities may need to be revamped to better meet the needs of the youth. • Anchorage’s Promise needs better tools for program evaluation.

14. Recommendations • Anchorage’s Promise should: • Expand the understanding of the Five Promises and the 40 Developmental Assets among its partners. • Work together with the partners to ensure long-term relationships. • Create formal, written partnerships agreements. • Develop training modules for the partners. • Create an internal formative evaluation.

15. A Formative Study of Anchorage’s Promise: The Five Promises Millie Cortes Capstone Project Master of Public Administration University of Alaska Anchorage April 16, 2011