MATC program helps children of incarcerated parents graduate

Lumen High School enrolls pregnant and parenting teens, providing a “learn-as-you-go” approach to learning that makes it possible for them to parent and stay in school. The school provides full-day child care, free baby supplies, mental health counseling and other supports to help get students to graduation day. All the Lumen High School students who graduate have been accepted into college, with 95% enrolling or choosing to start working within the six months after graduation.

For social service agencies, prioritizing well-being requires new procedures and a framework for understanding holistic wellness. The Full Frame Initiative has partnered with agencies in the states of Massachusetts and Missouri in an effort to bring categories of well-being into their purview. The Initiative uses five metrics—safety, mastery, social connectedness, and access to resources— to help align social systems, ranging from courts and juvenile corrections to homeless housing services, with social needs so that agencies can better assist their communities.

Oakland's First Place for Youth provides housing for recently emancipated foster children, giving them the boost they need to avoid the foster care-to-prison pipeline.

TreeHouse, a nonprofit in Washington state, achieved an 89 percent five year graduate rate for the hundreds of high school students in the foster care system it serves. This figure is a stark contrast to a 2010 statistic that found only 36 percent of foster students in King County and Seattle were completing high school. By providing the missing resources and guidance to students, TreeHouse hopes to expand the model to all Washington state counties.

Thanks to new private and public funding, school completion programs in Seattle, which enable distressed youth to achieve high school equivalency degrees, can now expand.

Freedom Summer Camp allows for convicted young men to find a sense of community allowing them to connect to the world and fuel greater desires for achievement.

As demand for career and technical education grows among high schoolers looking for alternatives to costly college degrees, companies like Stride Inc. have expanded online career training programs across the country, offering virtual career academies, hands-on practice kits, job shadowing, and live instruction in career tracks ranging from business to agriculture.

Brilliant Footsteps International Academy implemented an integrated education model that combines Islamic studies, vocational training, including barbing, calligraphy and culinary arts and hands-on STEM learning. The school uses problem-based, student-led projects to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical skills, while also focusing on gender inclusion in a region where girls are typically excluded.

The Aspirations Incubator supports rural Maine communities in creating youth mentoring programs using the Trekkers approach. The incubator gives organizations $600,000 over six years, plus extensive training in fostering belonging and developing leadership. Rather than replicating a one-size-fits-all program, each community develops an authentic program suited to local needs. A study tracking the first cohort of students from 7th grade through high school graduation showed they attended school more often, performed better academically, and enrolled in college at higher rates.

Sources of Strength is a student-led mental health prevention program operating in about 35 Maine middle and high schools, coordinated by NAMI Maine and the state CDC. The program trains peer leaders to act as "connectors" who listen to struggling classmates and guide them to trusted adults before problems escalate. Students report that peer support makes it easier to discuss struggles with someone experiencing similar pressures.