T2-UP (Teens Team-UP) – To Stop Crime, Violence & Drugs …

This program will be a comprehensive educational workshop that will engage students in the design, development and implementation of programs that can be used to  train and motivate other students to become positive change agents.  This program is designed to advocate that students take charge and lead the efforts to make our communities better places to live and grow.

The selected students will be engaged in  a number of activities  in order to develop this program.

Outcomes

As a result of participation in T2-UP (Teens Team-UP) , each student should:

  • Be better prepared to serve as leaders in their school and the community.
  • Be better prepared to be a peer to peer educator for other young people.
  • Be a spokes person to address the issues of Crime, Violence and Drugs among young people in the school and in the community.
  • Become more knowledgeable of his or her community, and the importance of being of service to others.

Stakeholders

Students
Parents
School Staff
Business Leaders
Area Colleges and Universities

Program Implementation Phases

Phase 1 – Town Hall Meeting

  1. Students will participate in a town hall meeting to identify and discuss the issues of crime, violence and drug use and also identify potential programs and activities that they can do to address the problems.
  2. The students will be divided into working groups of no more than eight students to identify and discuss the issues and come up with suggested programs. The students will be taught to: select facilitator, recorder and spokesperson. They will also be taught to multi-vote because each working group will be required to report back to the entire group the nature of their working group and the top three programs/projects they identified.In their group  they will also be required to report on four words they would like to see included in their covenant. They will use the same multi-vote process to determine their four words for the covenant.
  3. Each working group will report out to the entire town hall assembly.
  4. The entire town hall assembly will vote and agree on the top two programs for each issue  that they agree to work on.
  5. Each working group will select two people to serve on  teams to complete the student Engagement Covenant and develop the project plans to address the issues they agreed to work on.

Phase 2 – Working Groups sessions

The working groups would be assembled to complete the Engagement Covenant and  detailed project plans.

The working groups will be taught the following:

  1. How to build teams
  2. How to develop the covenant and do the necessary research and work to develop a comprehensive project plan and budget to address the issue they agreed they would work on.

Phase 3 – Town Hall Meeting feedback session(s)

The town hall meeting will be reconvened to receive the report of the working teams. During the meeting the working team will be prepared to present their recommendations to the assembly. The assembly will have the opportunity to provide feedback, revise and then approve the Engagement Covenant and the project plan for their identified program.

Phase 4- School Reporting

The town hall assembly would report to the student body and staff the outcomes from the town hall assemblies.  There will be a reporting after each town hall meeting. These reporting sessions can be conducted in several ways:

  1. All school assemblies by class or small school
  2.  In each home room class
  3. Staff meetings as determined by the school leadership

Phase 5 – Implementation

In this phase the students will be taught and engaged in.

  1. Communicating the Engagement Covenant
  2. Completing their projects as outlined in the detailed project plan document

Phase 6 – Reporting

In this phase the working teams would report back to all stake holders. This can be done in number of ways: by class, student assemblies, staff meeting or via the internet.

Phase 7 – Evaluation

At the conclusion of the program we would conduct a complete evaluation and provide a detailed report.

Phase 8 – Celebration

At the conclusion of the program we would hold celebration events for the students and other stake holders involved in the program. This would be a town hall meeting, where  citations for each student and supporter of the program will be presented. Hold a special event for the students as determined by the students.

Communication Plan

  1. Student website – Leadership At Its Best would have a web site designed for the stake holders to keep  them advised and updated on the progress of the working group.
  2. Phone texting network
  3. Conference calling
  4. Student to student link – The working groups would establish their own way to communicate
  5. Facebook – Leadership At Its Best would have a Facebook page for this project.

Student Incentives

  • Gift cards and other prizes
  • Cash
  • Special Recognition

Learning Aids

  • Each student will be provided  a Student Engagement Learning Binder
  • Students will attend three training sessions to cover the following: how to build and work in teams, project planning and effective communication & presentation skills.
  • Students will be provided reference reading material and books