CHILDREN’S AID SOCIETY – CARRERA (CAS-CARRERA) PROGRAM

 

OVERVIEW

 

The CAS-Carrera Program is an intensive, year-round, multi-year after-school program that is designed to promote positive youth development and positive reproductive health.  At-risk 13- and 15-year-olds participate in the program through the end of high school.  The program employs a holistic approach—addressing the various contexts (e.g, school, family) and needs (e.g, supportive relationships, social services) relevant to the participants’ lives—and it provides a variety of activities and services, including employment and academic assistance, family life and sexuality education, performing arts experience, sports training, and mental and physical health care.  An experimental evaluation showed that participation in CAS-Carrera led to increases in sexual health knowledge, health care and health behaviors, life skills, and academic skills.  Participation also lowered levels of pregnancies and births and increased the use of Depo-Provera for females, and made less likely the initiation of marijuana use in males.

 

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

 

Target population

At-risk high school students between 13 and 15 years of age

 

The CAS-Carrera Program, initiated in 1984, is an intensive, year-round, multi-year after-school program for high school students; program services are typically available 5-6 days a week.  The program is designed to employ several different strategies, such as: (a) employing a “parallel family systems” approach, where staff treat the teens as their own children; (b) treating each participant as if he or she has potential; (c) employing a holistic approach to providing services, whereby the services are tailored (when possible) to the interests and needs of the participants; (d) developing a continuous and long-term contract with participants, through which the teens have individual planning and tracking 12 months a year through the end of high school; (e) providing services in the community for participants and their parents; (f) practicing a non-punitive, gentle, generous and forgiving approach; and (g) reducing program fragmentation by providing a variety of services at one location in the participant’s community.

 

The CAS-Carrera model is based on seven key activities and services.  Activities include: (a) a work-related intervention called “Job Club,” which involves stipends, the development of an individual bank account, graduated employment experiences and career awareness; (b) an educational component involving individual academic assessment, tutoring, homework help, PSAT and SAT preparation, and assistance with college entrance; (c) family life and sex education; (d) self-expression through the arts; and (e) participation in individual sports, to be continued over participants’ lifetimes.  Services include (f) comprehensive medical care, including reproductive health and contraception counseling, and (g) mental health services, which provide counseling as needed. 

 

·        Length: Ages 13, 14 or 15 are eligible; participation continues through the end of high school.

·        Intensity:  The program provides services five days a week and on Saturdays during the school year.  During summer breaks, the program works to employ participants and provides maintenance meetings emphasizing sexuality education and academic skills.

·        Service Delivery Mode: Administered in urban areas in conjunction with other established community programs.  Each program is staffed by part-time employees as well as a full-time community organizer.

 

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

 

Evaluated population

A total of approximately 1200 students in New York City, Maryland, Florida, Texas, Oregon and Washington.  Forty-seven percent of the sample was black; the balance comprised a combination of other racial/ethnic backgrounds.  About one-sixth of the families received public assistance or Medicaid and did not have a working adult in the house; another third lived in families with only one of those conditions.  About half of the teens were from single-parent homes and homes that had reported family member unemployment. 

 

Philliber, Kaye and Herrling (2001) conducted a rigorous, three-year, random assignment  evaluation of the CAS-Carrera program.  This evaluation collected data from 12 sites in New York City, Maryland, Florida, Texas, Oregon and Washington, where the CAS-Carrera program was implemented for purposes of this study.  Approximately 100 students at each site were recruited and randomly assigned to the CAS-Carerra program or an alternative (control) program.  Eligibility to participate was based on the following criteria: the teens were not enrolled in an ongoing, structured after-school program; they were ages 13, 14 or 15 on July 1, 1997, (New York) or January 1, 1998 (other sites); and they were not pregnant or parenting at the time of recruitment.  On average, participants attended the program for 12 hours per month over the three evaluation years, during which the greatest amount of time was spent receiving educational support (tutoring, etc.).  By the end of the third year, the program reported a 70 percent retention rate. 

 

Evaluation data are drawn from various sources, including annual participant surveys; pre- and post-tests of knowledge on sexuality topics; attendance data; follow-up data collected by program staff; and interviews of program staff, conducted by the research team. 

 

There were a number of significant differences between the CAS-Carerra group and the control group on health habits, sexual knowledge, and sexual behaviors.  Compared to the control group, program participants made significantly greater gains over two years on a sexuality knowledge exam (e.g., information on physiology, contraception, gender differences, pregnancy), and were significantly more likely to have four or five desirable health outcomes (e.g., medical check-up last year, teeth checked in the last year, etc.), to get their health care at a place other than the emergency room, to have had a social assessment at their last exam, to have the hepatitis B vaccine and to have made a reproductive health visit. 

 

Certain other program outcomes differed by participant gender.  At the three-year follow-up, female participants were significantly more likely to have used Depo-Provera and had significantly lower rates of pregnancies and births, compared to control females.  Compared to control males, CAS-Carrera males were significantly less likely to have initiated marijuana use.  

 

Within the category of life organization and technical knowledge, CAS-Carrera participants were significantly more likely to have bank accounts, to have had work experience, to use word processing programs and to use the Internet and e-mail.  CAS-Carrera females, especially, were significantly more likely to use the computer and use it more often, use word processing programs and e-mail.  CAS-Carrera males were significantly more likely to use the Internet.

 

Examining school preparation, program participants, especially males, were significantly more likely than the control teens and control males to believe that the quality of their schoolwork had improved.  On PSAT verbal and math portions, Carerra teens were significantly more likely to have higher scores than the control group, and Carrera females were significantly more likely to have higher scores on the verbal portion.  Carrera teens were also significantly more likely to have made college visits. 

 

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

 

References

 

Philliber, S., Kaye, J. & Herrling, S. (May, 2001).  The national evaluation of the children’s aid society carrera-model program to prevent teen pregnancy.  New York: Philliber Research Associates.

 

Web Site: www.childrensaidsociety.org

 

Program also discussed in the following Child Trends publication(s):

 

Manlove, J., Terry-Humen, E., Romano Papillo, A., Franzetta, K., Williams, S., & Ryan, S. (2001). Background for community-level work on positive reproductive health in adolescence: Reviewing the literature on contributing factors. Washington, DC: Child Trends.

 

KEYWORDS: White or Caucasian; Black or African American; Adolescence (12-17); High Risk; Life Skills Training; Contraception; Academic Achievement; Marijuana Use; Illicit Drugs; Teen pregnancy.

 

 

Program information last updated 4/20/09.

		© Child Trends 2003