Age range

Website: www.youthencouragement.org

Mission/Goals: Their mission is to enrich the lives of low-income children in inner city Nashville.

Notes: The Tutoring Program provides tutoring after school, and children receive homework assistance with math and English. YES' After School and Summer Programs provide a safe place to play, relax, do schoolwork, participate in sports, develop relational skills and learn moral values. The Summer Camp provides children an opportunity to explore nature. The Basketball League conducts a program for children in public housing.

Source(s): www.guidestar.org; www.youthencouragement.org

Type of Evaluation: Non-experimental.

Summary of Available Evaluation Information: Youth Encouragement Services provides tutoring, a summer camp, a basketball league, and other recreational and cultural activities to low-income children in Nashville. Preliminary results from a recent report on the program indicate that for youth followed during the course of one year, 16% showed an improvement in math skills and 48% showed improvement in English skills. In addition, results indicate that adolescents in the YES program were half as likely to try drugs and four times less likely to try alcohol than the average Nashville teen. YES gave the same anonymous survey to their participants as that used by Nashville's Metro Health Department and compared their results to city-wide averages. A full evaluation report is not currently available.

Also available in What Works: LINKS