Program Recruitment/Retention

Students and parents are recruited through the Durham Housing Authority (DHA) in the Cornwallis Road Community. New families are informed about the program, and enrollment takes place in August and early September. In the enrollment process, we empower the parents and address expectations of attendance and attitudes. Students sign an agreement to abide by the centers’ rules and to work to the best of their abilities. Since there is no cost for the program, parents must also sign contracts that children will attend as required. Recruitment, retention and work ethics are supported by an external and internal rewards system. Work is encouraged and rewarded through weekly and monthly incentive fun trips, through Student of the Month recognition and through monetary rewards which can be used to buy items in a school store.

Barriers; such as, geographic and financial distance are minimal since our learning centers are located on-site in the Cornwallis Community we serve. Students arrive after school on their assigned buses, and spend the afternoon in the centers. A daily snack and community dinners are included in the program.

Our Youth Life Learning Center Programs incorporate the U.S. Department of Education five proven attributes of effective dropout prevention programs*:

  1. Program design-Supplemental after-school programs with low student/teacher ratios. 
  2. Educational climate-Safe orderly, non-threatening environments that contain staff that builds cultural sensitivity and “family” atmospheres. 
  3. Service delivery/instruction- Student-centered instruction, which identify at-risk students as early as possible so that appropriate intervention can be implemented. 
  4. Curriculum- A combination of academic and work-based learning. 
  5. Staff/teacher culture- committed staff that holds children to high academic standards. 

*This philosophy is based upon the research of E. Gregory Woods of the Northwest Educational Laboratory, which tabulated the characteristics of effective dropout prevention programs. His research established the five common attributes of effective programs adopted by the U.S. Department of Education.