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 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 reduced the likelihood of pregnancy and childbearing and increased the use of Depo-Provera (a contraceptive) for females, and reduced the likelihood for males’ initiation of marijuana use.

 

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

 

Target population

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

 

The CAS-Carrera Program, started in 1984, is an intensive, year-round, multi-year after-school program for high school students; program services are typically available 5 to 6 days a week.  The program operates according to several key principles, 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 plans tracked 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 includes 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 by a full-time community organizer.

 

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

 

Philliber, S., Kaye, J., & Herrling, S.  (2001).  The national evaluation of the Children’s Aid Society Carrera-model program to prevent teen pregnancy.  Research Report.  New York, NY:  Philliber Research Associates.

 

Evaluated population: A total of approximately 1200 students in New York City, Maryland, Florida, Texas, Oregon and Washington were evaluated.  Forty-seven percent of the sample was black; the balance comprised a number 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 one or more unemployment family members. 

 

Approach: Approximately 100 students at each site were recruited and randomly assigned to the CAS-Carerra program or to 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 were drawn from various sources, including annual participant surveys; pre- and post-tests of knowledge on sexuality topics; a number of drug-use outcomes; attendance data; follow-up data collected by program staff; and interviews of program staff, conducted by the research team. 

 

Results: 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 with the control group, program participants made significantly greater gains over two years on an exam covering sexuality knowledge (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 have gotten  their health care at a place other than the emergency room, to have had a social assessment at their last exam, to have had 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.  No other drug outcomes (ever using alcohol, marijuana, or cocaine, and initiation of alcohol and cocaine use) were significant for either gender.

 

Within the category of life organization and technical knowledge, CAS-Carrera participants were significantly more likely than control students 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, and to use word processing programs and e-mail.  CAS-Carrera males were significantly more likely to use the Internet.

 

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

 

Philliber, S., Kaye, J. W., Herrling, S., & West, E. (2002). Preventing pregnancy and improving health care access among teenagers: An evaluation of the Children’s Aid Society-Carrera Program. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 34, 244-251.

 

Evaluated population: The sample included 484 adolescents (268 females and 216 males) between ages 13 and 15.  Fifty-six percent of participants were black; the remainder were Hispanic (42 percent) or some other race/ethnicity(2 percent).  The majority of participants lived in single-parent homes, and 21 percent of participants lived in a household with no working adult and received public assistance. 

 

Approach: Children were randomly assigned to the Children’s Aid Society’s Carrera Program, or to their usual youth program (which, at most sties was the was the agency’s regular youth program that included recreational activities, homework help, arts and crafts, or only drop-in privileges at the agency).  All children were followed for three years.  Odds of current sexual activity, use of a condom together with a hormonal contraceptive, pregnancy, and access to good health care (check up frequency and quality) were assessed.

 

Results:  The program had a retention rate of 79 percent for the full three years.  Analyses were split by participants’ gender.  Females in the Carrera program were less likely to be sexually active, less likely to say they had had sex when pressured, and less likely to have experienced a pregnancy than were participants in the control group.  Though condom use was fairly similar for participants in the Carrera program and the control group, females in the program were more likely to have used a condom combined with another highly effective method (for example, a hormonal method of contraception) the last time they engaged in sexual activity.  Males in the Carrera program were no different from the control group in sexual and reproductive behavior.  Both males and females in the program were more likely than controls to have received good primary health care.

 

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.

 

Philliber, S., Kaye, J. W., Herrling, S., & West, E. (2002). Preventing pregnancy and improving health care access among teenagers: An evaluation of the Children’s Aid Society-Carrera Program. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 34, 244-251.

 

Web Site: www.childrensaidsociety.org

 

KEYWORDS: Males and Females (Co-ed); Black or African American; Hispanic/Latino; Adolescence (12-17); High Risk; Condom Use and Contraception; Academic Achievement; Marijuana Use; Illicit Drugs; Teen pregnancy; After School Program; Tutoring; Other Physical Health; Reading/Literacy; Mathematics; College Enrollment/Preparation; Employment/Earnings; Other Self-Sufficiency.

 

 Program information last updated 2/23/2012