SCHOOL ACCESS GRANTS FINAL REPORT Increasing opportunities for children and youth to participate in Critical Hours Programming August 31, 2012 Prepared by Casey P. Boodt M.Ed on behalf of UpStart: Champions for Children and Youth Champions for Children and Youth ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Funding for this project was awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Community Spirit June 2009. UpStart would like to thank the Calgary Board of Education, the Calgary Catholic School District, Rocky View School Division, City of Calgary Recreation, the City of Calgary Community & Neighbourhood Services, The City of Calgary Recreation Services, Sport Calgary (formerly the Calgary Sports Council) Calgary YMCA, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary and the Access 3-6 Working Committee for making this project the success that it was. UpStart also would like to acknowledge the participation of the following schools: Rocky View Schools Crescent Heights Tuscany A.E. Bowers Elementary School Crossing Park Valley View Bearspaw School Douglasdale Vincent Massey Bert Church High School Dr. Gladys McKelvie Egbert Vista Heights Bow Valley High School Erin Woods Westgate Chestermere High School Ernest Morrow William Aberhart Chestermere Lake Middle School Fish Creek WO Mitchell Crossfield Elementary School Forest Lawn High Cochrane High School Glenbrook École Airdrie Middle Glendale Calgary Catholic School District George McDougall High School Guy Weadick Blessed Kateri Glenbow Elementary School GW Skene Father Doucet Langdon School Huntington Hills Holy Cross Manachaban Middle School Ian Bazalgette Holy Family Meadowbrook Middle School Keeler Holy Redeemer Mitford Middle School Langevin Holy Trinity Muriel Clayton Middle School Lord Beaverbrook John Paul II Nose Creek Elementary School Louis Riel Madeline d’Houet Prairie Waters Elementary School Marlborough Mother Mary Greene R.J. Hawkey Elementary School McKenzie Towne Mother Teresa Rainbow Creek Elementary School MidSun Msg N Anderson Ralph McCall School Mountain Park St. Basil Springbank Community High School Mt. Royal St. Bede Springbank Middle School O.S. Geiger St. Catherine Patrick Airlie St. Cecilia Penbrooke Meadows St. Dominic Calgary Board of Education Pineridge St. Helena Abbeydale Radisson Park St. Jerome Annie Gale Jr. High Ramsay St. Luke Arbour Lake Robert Warren St. Maria Goretti Banting & Best Rosscarrock St. Mark Beddington Heights Rundle St. Monica Bishop Kidd Sherwood St. Peter Bob Edwards Silver Springs St. Phillip Bowcroft Sir James Lougheed St. Rita Cappy Smart Sir John A. McDonald St. Thomas More Cecil Swanson Sir Wilfred Laurier St. William Centennial Sunalta Chaparral Sundance Finally, UpStart would like to thank Clarence Sansom Taradale the principals, program providers CN Gunn Terrace Road and school facility coordinators Colonel Walker Thomas B. Riley for all their work and feedback Connaught Tom Baines provided for this report. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 02 1.0 Introduction 03 2.0 Project Design & Methodology 05 2.1 The Urban Model 06 2.2 The Rural Model 06 2.3 Evaluation of the Project 06 2.4 Objectives and Scope of the Project 07 3.0 Final Project Results 07 3.1 Overall Results 08 3.2 Results for the Urban Model 08 3.2.1 Project Success Working with Systems and Programs 10 3.3 Results for the Rural Model 12 3.3.1 Project Success Working with Systems and Programs 13 3.3.2 Project Cost and Cost-effectiveness 15 3.3.3 Calgary AfterSchool Evaluation Highlights 15 4.0 Project Learnings 16 4.1 Working Collaboratively with Systems 16 4.1.1 Role of the Coordinator 17 4.1.2 Use of Technology to Support Delivery 18 4.2 Community Capacity 18 5.0 Conclusions and Final Results 18 6.0 Recommendations 19 Appendix A: Data Collection Matrix 20 Appendix B: Guiding Principles for the Project 22 Appendix C: Project Success Examples: Interim Progress Report 2011 23 Appendix D: Organizations involved in School Access Grants Project 25 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The School Access Subsidy Project was designed to provide children and youth in Calgary and the area served by Rocky View Schools the opportunity to be involved in positive developmental programs and activities during “critical hours” or “out of school time.” By providing subsidized rates for school rentals during evenings, weekends and holidays, the project was seeking to increase opportunities for children and youth to engage in positive relationships with adults, developing the skills and assets that will improve their life course. Specifically the funding was used to: ➔ Reduce the school cost recovery fees of single caretaker schools when these facilities are available to rent – evenings, weekends and holidays. ➔ Increase access to school facilities for service providers and local clubs, creating new and additional opportunities for underserved children and youth to be involved in positive cultural and recreational activities. The project was successful not only increasing access to “critical hours programming” but it also has shown that the provision of a subsidy, utilizing a sliding scale, and implemented through a school access coordinator is a cost effective way to ensure that all children and youth have access to programs not only after the school bell rings but also during the evenings, weekends and holidays. Cost savings due to receiving a subsidy to those providing programs range from $150,000 – $300,000 on an annual basis and have allowed for approximately 2,300 more hours of programming on an annual basis. In addition to being cost effective, access to rental subsidies for community groups, clubs and service providers has allowed for the provision of: ➔ A total of 19,966 hours of programming in 22 schools across four communities throughout the Rocky View School Division and throughout 93 schools across Calgary. ➔ A total of 400 programs that served 14,659 children and youth. In addition, results from the ongoing evaluation of Calgary AfterSchool (CAS) programming1 reveals that: ➔ CAS AfterSchool programs are attracting children and youth who did not previously participate in afterschool programming and some kids continue to participate year after year. ➔ CAS AfterSchool programs succeed in improving friendships and social skills for both children and youth. ➔ Engagement in community significantly increased for kids in junior and senior high school, as well as increases in volunteering at school; and, ➔ Leadership opportunities, such as serving as a team leader, captain etc., significantly increased for kids in elementary school The collaborative approach that was used to implement the project has revealed that: ➔ The capacity and infrastructure exists to sustain the provision of critical hours programming after 6 p.m., weekends and holidays, as well as the hours of 3 – 6 p.m. throughout the school week in both the urban and rural settings. ➔ The incremental costs associated with this practice are negligible and if a ready source of subsidy funds were available on a regular basis this practice could be sustained in both the urban and rural settings. 1 2011 Calgary Afterschool Evaluation Highlights (March 2012). City of Calgary Family and Community Support Services. Guyn Cooper Research Associates Ltd. Accessed from http://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/CNS/Documents/cas/evaluation_executive_summary_2011.pdf 3 The project has also been successful in influencing the systems involved so that the potential exists for a more coordinated and intentional approach to making facilities and programs accessible to children and youth during the critical hours. Specifically, the learnings derived over the course of this project have been used to: ➔ Develop a new booking model for public use access in the newly opened P3 Schools in Calgary in the fall of 2011 that will allow priority access for minors before 8 p.m. ➔ Inform a public engagement process to examine how public use space and time is currently being allocated to ensure the right space is being used by the right groups, at the right time. ➔ Explore facility improvements in terms of safety features and accessibility in the rural communities so that increased community usage can be offered. ➔ Maximize Rocky View School Division school usage, with targeted focus on community partner programs and clubs with little or zero cost (e.g. Boys & Girls Clubs; Brownies; Cub Scouts). ➔ Reduce the current cost absorbed by Rocky View School Division school budget to enable community use of school facilities. Finally, there is strong agreement and acknowledgement among all of the stakeholders involved in this project regarding the need to keep the importance of critical hours programming at the forefront of the community and policy- makers. It is vital the project stakeholder groups continue to collaboratively work together and enable the development of the infrastructure and system networks required to support critical hours programming as an integral component of how communities can come together to support their children and youth to be successful in school and life. Based on these results and findings, it is recommended that UpStart: ➔ Continue to partner with the Calgary AfterSchool, Calgary Community and Neighbourhood Services, Calgary Catholic School District, Calgary Board of Education and the City of Calgary Recreation Services to implement the project within the City of Calgary and provide subsidies to service providers, groups and clubs for the provision of critical hours programming in city schools. ➔ Continue to work with the systems involved to fully articulate the operating model and principles