The Youth Athletic Enrichment Program is an After School
Program working in collaboration with the Detroit Public Schools
Office of Health and Physical Education.
It was awarded a Skillman grant which funded
programming and the development of an active, on-going sustainability
initiative that included public and private funders. Programming
and its processes have been undertaken for six months; and it
is evident that the culture of the Detroit Public School is changing
under the leadership of its new School Superintendent. Therefore,
the way BLPBF does business with DPS has to change from old processes
to new. The roles and responsibilities of the Executive Director,
Assistant Director and Project Director have been expanded to
fast track the organization into a new project management paradigm.
The schools are now divided into clusters and Executive Directors
for Student Achievement lead the clusters. Clusters work to develop
the stakeholders' environment in the communities surrounding
the elementary, middle schools, high school and speciality schools
that are part of the cluster. Prior to this structure, YAEP had
standing with individual principals in each of the schools where
its program operated. The cluster approach will require YAEP
to have a coordinated presence in each of the 24 cluster activities
to maintain its investment as a major stakeholder in the lives
of Detroit children.
Additional school youth coordinators will need to be hired
to enable the Directors to relinquish their roles as school youth
coordinators and develop and implement strategies to form alliances
with the new Student Achievement Executive Directors; to shift
school youth coordinators from an individual school concentration
to a cluster approach and to manage that transition; to cultivate
a volunteer base from within the cluster; and train school youth
coordinators, board and staff in volunteer recruitment and maintenance.
The shift has additional ramifications for leveraging organization
opportunities for BLPBF such as fund development.
Programs
Series One: Self-Awareness and Development
-Who Am I?
-Character Development
-Health and Nutrition
Series Two: Combating Negative Influences
-Pressures of the Streets
-Male & Female
-Drug Use and Abuse
Series Three: Respecting the Past and Looking to the Future
-Respect for the Elderly
-Leadership and Discipline
-Business and Entrepreneurship