ABOUT
The Bridge is a mentoring program with the primary goal of providing academic support services to remove barriers to success for students in foster or kinship care or experiencing homelessness.
The Bridge is funded by the WV School of Diversion and Transition, WV DOE Office of Student Support and Well-Being, Milan Puskar Foundation, Bernard McDonough Foundation, GKVF/CC Dickinson, Papa Johns, AEP, and individual donors.
Target Population: Youth in foster care, kinship care, or those experiencing homelessness 9th-12th grade
2023-24 School year will have caseload size of 300 students, serving 5 county school districts.
Approach:
Evidence-Based Service Delivery Model - Check and Connect, developed by University of Minnesota.
At the core of Check & Connect is a trusting relationship between the student and a mentor who advocates for and challenges the student to keep education relevant.
Core services offered, include:
Academic Success Coaching - The Bridge program is guided by the concept of ABC model (Attendance, Behavior, and Course Completion). The Bridge will ensure that the student has the highest level of support possible. Our Mentor will track attendance, behavior and course completion and respond to any areas of concern.
Educational Advocacy –Ensuring that the students' rights are upheld in the school setting; helping students access education-related support services; minimizing the effects of disciplinary actions that keep students out of school; assisting high school youth in making up credits when necessary and possible; and facilitating participation in extracurricular activities.
Student Enrichment Opportunities - Students need opportunities to flourish outside of the classroom. These experiences bring classroom concepts to life and establish a new future horizon on which students in foster/kinship care may focus. The Bridge provides student enrichment workshops, college visit field trips, and educational experiences.
Post-Secondary Education Planning - The Bridge's goal is to build the confidence, skills and supports youth impacted by foster care need to take charge of their lives and future. The Bridge works with youth to create a personal plan to graduate high school and pursue their dreams. The Bridge uses Check & Connect to give students the necessary tools to first understand and use their individual strengths and interests. Based on this, we work with the student, family, and counselors to help youth create a step-by-step plan, set measurable goals, and identify and access necessary supports to succeed.
Data is tracked in an online portal. Data metrics include Attendance, Behavioral Incidents, and Grades. Additionally post-secondary plans are measured.
Results:
The Bridge collects data on an online data app that includes student attendance, behavior, and course success to track the effectiveness of the program. To date, all the benchmarks that The Bridge created for the pilot years have been achieved.
The 21-22 School Year report yielded the following results:
We worked with 95 students and made 14,738 connections. Frequency and consistency are the key.
60% decrease in suspensions.
81% had an overall increase in their GPA
100% of the 25 seniors in the Bridge program have a post-secondary education plan have went on to pursue college, trade schools, or military OR immediately began employment.
15 pursued college
6 entered workforce.
1 Marines
3 Job Corps
Future Vision
Our desire is that this program will have a permanent place in WV schools. The Bridge is a model that can be scaled up to include all West Virginian students that have experienced a crisis in parenting, economic downturn, and the impact of the drug epidemic. We seek to support schools to become nationwide leaders in the work to ensure that students in the foster care system and other at-risk youth perform at pace or better with their peers.
Mission West Virginia also supplies holiday gifts, purchases cap and gowns (for relative children to the Bridge), arranges for prom attire, and sport/recreational activities. We try to create positive and eliminate all educational academic barriers youth may face.