2015 ANNUAL REPORT BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS, INSPIRING SUCCESS. Strategies that Support Success Grounded in the conviction that all young people genuinely want to do well, the Ramapo Approach is a set of strategies and tools designed to help young people overcome challenges and experience success. Whether on our Rhinebeck Campus or through our work in schools and youth service agencies, our staff members help create supportive environments and make sure no one gets left behind. 2 RAMAPO 2015 Supporting Success from Early Childhood to Independence For many of our partners, families and alumni, the connection to Ramapo is emotional and deeply personal. Perhaps it’s simply because we work on behalf of children who are society’s most vulnerable. Perhaps there is something more. When our children are born, we have lofty aspirations regarding parenting and how we want to be seen in our children’s eyes. When a college or graduate student comes to work at Camp ,RESPONDING, ,REFLECTING, Ramapo, they are armed with great optimism about the impact REPAIRING they will have on the children who will be entrusted in their care. When an emerging professional makes the choice to be a teacher in an urban school, they enter the classroom with an ADAPTING FOR ambitious vision for the role they hope to play in their students’ INDIVIDUAL NEEDS lives. Yet all of us—parents, teachers and anyone who works with children—discover at some point along the way, that the job we actually have is not always exactly the one we envisioned. Children can be challenging. Despite our best intentions, there ,CLEAR EXPECTATIONS, are moments when we feel ill-equipped or catch ourselves STRUCTURES & ROUTINES saying or doing things that seem incongruous with the people we aspire to be. By giving adults a richer toolbox for responding when children challenge their expectations, Ramapo enables teachers, RELATIONSHIPS & caregivers and parents to exercise patience when they might ROLE MODELING otherwise get frustrated, or to be generous when they might otherwise show anger. Ramapo helps all of us be the parents, educators, mentors and coaches that we had hoped to be when we began our journeys. In a nutshell, Ramapo helps us all THE RAMAPO TOOLBOX be the best version of ourselves. That is why Ramapo holds a special place in the hearts of so many. On behalf of the entire Ramapo team, thank you for helping us achieve another year of growth and success. Without our partners and donors, none of our accomplishments would be possible. In the coming year, Ramapo will continue striving to fulfill its potential, and help more and new people do the same. ADAM WEISS TERI GOLDBERG HOROWITZ Chief Executive Officer Board President RAMAPO 2015 3 BUILDING STRONG FOUNDATIONS The Ramapo Approach enables caregivers to ensure that children acquire the social and emotional foundations they will need later to deal with stress, overcome challenges and succeed in school. Strong relationships between children and their caregivers at the earliest stages of life are critical to healthy social, emotional and even neurological development. 4 RAMAPO 2015 Supporting Family Daycare in NYC In 2015, Ramapo launched our first workshop for family daycare providers, through support from the Edith Glick Shoolman Foundation. The pilot workshop Ramapo and Early series was held at the MARC Academy & Family Center in Bronx, NY. Feedback Childhood Education was overwhelmingly positive, with all In 2014-15, Ramapo served as a technical participants stating that they learned assistance provider for the NYC Department skills that they could apply immediately of Education’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten to their work, such as: (UPK) program. We were deployed to 25 • Building positive relationships with UPK sites to provide professional development children. and coaching to programs in which student behavior was a concern. • Establishing routines to maintain a positive learning environment. u After working with Ramapo: • Establishing behavior management 96% systems. of participants said that the “ At Ramapo’s training, I learned how to skills they learned helped them help calm children and to develop better to reach the most challenging relationships with them. I now feel like children in their classrooms. I have a plan for dealing with conflicts.” MARC Academy training participant AT HOME AND IN EARLY LEARNING SITES, Ramapo built strong foundations by: TRAINING PROVIDING 950 175 early childhood workshops educators. in 10 SUPPORTING cities throughout New 3,355 York, New Jersey parents. and Connecticut. RAMAPO 2015 5 SUPPORTING ALL STUDENTS The foundation of our work—The Ramapo Toolbox—focuses on role modeling, setting clear expectations, adapting to individual needs and responding and reflecting—key elements of inclusive environments where all children can be successful. In 2015, Ramapo provided more than 1,150 training workshops and coaching sessions for teachers and out-of-school program staff, along with more than 250 retreat programs for students and adults. IN SCHOOLS COACHING TRAINING HOSTING AND retreats at our YOUTH PROGRAMS 6,600 9,350 Rhinebeck campus for Ramapo supported teachers youth all students by: and school workers. 6,850 participants from more than leaders. 150 schools and organizations. 6 RAMAPO 2015 Ramapo’s Impact: Keeping Students in School In 2015, the Children and Youth Services Review published an evaluative research paper on Ramapo’s work in NYC schools. Key findings included: u Schools that Ramapo serves have a higher risk profile than NYC DOE schools due to higher percentages of Special Education students. u While all NYC DOE schools experienced fewer behavior incidents during the Creating Inclusive Programs time period assessed (2011-2013), Ramapo schools decreased 23% more Outside of School Hours than the DOE schools. Similar Last spring, four NYC out-of-school-time decreases were recorded with regard programs participated in Ramapo’s Inclusion to suspensions (see graph below). Cohort funded by the Pinkerton Foundation. Over the course of three months, through a DECREASED SUSPENSIONS combination of supervisor workshops, staff 70 workshops and coaching for staff members, these organizations focused on building their capacity to include youth with special needs. 60 Through this cohort, participants learned WITHOUT RAMAPO strategies to coach their staff in managing /School e 50 challenging behaviors, and developed individualized plans to support the needs of Averag 40 young people in their programs experiencing challenges. Number of Students Suspended Number of Students Suspended WITH RAMAPO 30 2010–2011 2011–2012 2012–2013 “ By using the tricks and tips we learned from Ramapo, we gave a child a second chance u Each additional coaching session in the program. It has made a difference, provided by Ramapo significantly reduced behavior incidents and suspensions and he has been doing really well.” the following year. Out-of-School Time Director, NYC RAMAPO 2015 7 CAMP RAMAPO Ramapo created lasting change by: HOSTING summer camp programs for 509 campers. PROVIDING CREATING need-based scholarship support to 55% LASTING of all camper families. SERVING CHANGE campers from Based on our 250-acre campus in Rhinebeck, NY, 15 our longest running program—Camp Ramapo— states and uses the Ramapo Approach to provide young 3 people with opportunities to build supportive countries. and nurturing relationships with peers and adults. Ramapo campers take healthy risks and learn new skills through adventure-based activities, and experience success that carries over in the months and years beyond camp. 8 RAMAPO 2015 A Camper Parent’s Journey: The Benefits Beyond Summer By Vivian Ducat and Ray Segal Raising Oscar, our son on the autism spectrum, we were constantly on the “lookout for environments where he could feel welcomed. We found Camp Ramapo 15 Camp Ramapo’s Impact: years ago when both a social worker and Supporting Socio-Emotional a family therapist from Oscar’s preschool recommended it to us. That first year we Skill Development were hoping for a small A longitudinal study of children who move towards increased attended Camp Ramapo between 2007-2013 independence. demonstrated the impact of Camp Ramapo Before Ramapo, Oscar on socio-emotional skill development. had tried day and weekend The study included data from 1,678 campers. camps—even programs The data indicated that Camp Ramapo can supporting children with improve socio-emotional skills for campers disabilities —and had only after one year of attendance, as well as offer been successful in getting continued improvement with additional thrown out of many years of intervention. places. At Ramapo, he got an opportunity CHANGE IN SKILLS FOR CAMPERS OVER 7 YEARS to grow and learn from other campers, both 25 Pre Post those like him as well 20 as typically developing peers, and he learned Oscar (left) in his kitchen 15 a vocabulary that in the Bronx with his roommates and former 10 became a springboard to Ramapo counselors, independence. Jackie and Chris-Allen. 5 After 15 years at camp with increasing responsibilities each year to work around 0 Relationships Self Control Self Help Communication Attitude campus, Oscar now lives in an apartment with two former Ramapo counselors as roommates, and holds down several jobs and volunteering “ My child’s experience at camp is always commitments. Since his final day at Ramapo exciting and positive. Not only does she have in August 2015, Oscar hasn’t slept a night in our fun, she learns new things about herself, her house or relied on our cooking. That small siblings and the environment. She holds on move towards increased independence during his first summer at Camp Ramapo has become to the skills she learns and that makes her a a quantum shift for what’s possible for Oscar’s much happier child.” Camper Parent, summer 2015 life, today and in the years to come. “ I first went to summer camp” at Ramapo when I was seven, and have very positive memories.