Project Source CODE

Mission Statement:

Our mission is committed to providing computer hardware, programming, networking, technical theory, IT management, website development, computer circuitry, systems analysis and database management to students in the District of Columbia to empower and enhance their ability to perform quality Information Technology (IT), taught by our highly qualified IT professionals, while simultaneously building strong relationships that will help guide them along their paths to success and foster a commitment that will promote necessary social and technology skills needed to rejuvenate hope in a better future.

 

Executive summary:

Why We Exist

Project Source Code is a unique program that focuses on inner city youth and the inequalities they face as a result of lack of resources and positive role models. This program provides the opportunity for our young people to immerse themselves in Information Technology (IT), taught by our highly qualified IT professionals, while simultaneously building strong relationships and choosing mentors that’ll help guide them along their paths to success. Our mission is to foster a commitment that will promote necessary social and technology skills needed to rejuvenate hope in a better future.

Project Source Code seeks to break the cycle of poverty and eliminate the repetition of low educational attainment, criminality, and further development of destructive habits. Children subject to impoverished environments lack opportunity and most of the services available to them lack the intensity and duration to alter their life trajectories. Our relationship-based program addresses the needs of these vulnerable children, empowering them to move beyond their circumstances, avoiding becoming products of their environments and instead, model and contributing citizens.

 

WHAT STUDENTS WILL LEARN:

• Computer hardware
• Programming
• Networking
• Technical theory
• IT management
• Website development
• Computer circuitry
• Systems analysis
• Database management

Our Unique Model

We identify the most poverty-stricken areas in the Washington DC metropolitan area and proactively select students with the most significant barriers to future success. After an interview process, we determine an Information Technology track tailored for each student based on a combination of their interests and our recommendations. We provide each child with the necessary tools and hands on training to achieve the IT goals established for them until the completion of their programs. We also provide highly trained, open minded mentors with extensive IT backgrounds and a genuine interest in helping our children in need.

 

The Problem:

Between 2007 and 2012, the number of children living in poverty increased by over 20% to 16 million.3 Black and Hispanic children are more than twice as likely to live in poverty as those who are White, non‐Hispanic. Children growing up in areas of concentrated poverty face the absence of critical resources needed for healthy development.

Extreme obstacles, such as generational school failure; parental substance use and incarceration; violence in the home and surrounding community; and teen pregnancy create a cycle where children fail within education, behavioral health and foster care systems, and too frequently land in the justice system. These entrenched generational challenges cause day‐to‐day barriers impeding children’s success in school and their success participating in traditional youth programs and services.

 

 

 

Strategy:

SELECTION Process:

 

	We will be partnering with schools and child welfare agencies to identify children struggling to overcome extreme risk factors without long-term support.
	To make our selections, we look at past behavioral issues of each child and evaluate them based on risk factors that most likely lead to long-term negative outcomes.

 

 

COMMITMENT: We commit to children from ages 8 – 18

• Select the highest risk children as early as possible.
• Commit to children through high school and stay involved to assist with career and post-secondary goals.
• Provide a salaried, full-time, professional mentor for each child.
• Spend 16 hours a month with each child, teaching them IT Skills and creating long-lasting bonds.

 

SUPPORT:

• Teach concurrent sessions of differing IT skills, encouraging children to rotate between sessions to determine which areas most interest them.
• Develop a learning plan for each child, based on their interest, designed with activities intended to ensure the achievement of his/her own developmental milestones
• Engage children in recreational, cultural and community service activities that enhance their talents and skills
• Build a relationship with families and connect them to basic‐needs resources, enabling their children to thrive
• Adapt the program during the adolescent years to meet older children’s peer‐oriented youth development needs

 

Core Program Elements:

1: SERVE VULNERABLE CHILDREN

Identify high‐risk children based on risk factors shown by research to be most predictive of serious long term negative outcomes. We select children for our program who are most in danger of school failure, gang and drug involvement, teenage pregnancy, and criminal behavior.

2: CREATE AND SUSTAIN ONE‐ON‐ONE RELATIONSHIPS

Research indicates that the single most important factor that fosters resiliency in high‐risk children is a caring and consistent relationship with an adult. Project Source Code provides each child in our program with exactly such a relationship with a salaried, professional mentor (Friend).

 

3: CONCURRENT IT LEARNING SESSIONS

We will conduct short learning sessions in various areas of Information Technology, allowing children to rotate between sessions and determine which areas most interest them. From this, we will tailor the child’s learning and mentoring program based off of this assessment.

 

4: COMMIT FOR THE LONG‐TERM

We are committed to providing services for children from 8 to 18 years old or through their graduation. We keep this commitment even when children move or change schools within our service area.

5: EMPLOY PROFESSIONAL MENTORS

We will hire full‐time, trained, salaried IT Professionals and mentors with experience and talent for working with high‐risk children. With their diversity, education, passion, and commitment, they will be the heart of our program.

 

6: PROVIDE MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES

We design unique experiences for each of our children that enable them to explore and develop their diverse talents and interests, expand their worldviews, and learn vital relationship and life skills.