Program Description

The entire length of the program, including one month of recruitment and preparation, 3 months of local training, 6 weeks of international field experience, and 6.5 months of follow-up and ongoing support, internship placements, and social entrepreneurship implementation, is one year. Some of the senior students will decide to go to college away from home immediately following the international experience, in which case the second half of the program will be tailored specially for them.

Following the three month training period, the youth travel as a team to live within that rural community in the DR and work for 6 weeks on a community-identified development project, continuing to gain practical experience with local professionals. At-risk urban youth experience the challenges of poverty in a rural village and have the experience of being able to help. The participants also study Spanish, spend time living with local families, and continue gaining youth development soft skills.

Upon their return home, in a supportive environment of their peers and of professional program staff, youth will discuss and reflect upon issues that affect communities locally and globally, as well as themselves personally. They will be supported in designing an entrepreneurial idea for addressing a need in their own community and upon their return home will present that idea to our partner organization, Ashoka Youth Venture, for funding and implementation support.

Through direct participation in their communities, young people develope the substantive knowledge, practical skills, and organizational capacity to create lasting change. GP suspends beliefs about youths as victims and problems to imagine youths as resources. Changes in attitudes must be accompanied by changes in practices. This means sharing power in ways that enable young people to have a real voice in the decisions that affect their lives. GP students act on the concerns that affect their lives; demonstrate concrete contributions to personal, organizational, and community development; build teaching-learning partnerships that promote communication and respect across racial, class, and generational lines; and draw from diverse cultural knowledge and practice to gain awareness of their own cultures and histories in the process.

Our Goals

GP has 3 primary goals:

1) To provide a transformative experience for participating youth that will result in higher high school completion rates, college enrollment rates, better employment and lower truancy and crime rates;

2) To demonstrate that youth can lead a social entrepreneurship project;

3) To demonstrate that youth can provide a concrete benefit to their communities and have an impact as global citizens.

Goals are outcome-driven, incorporated into a Goal Attainment Scale framework and measured against baseline data. Participants are compared to a control group, school peers, and New York statistics to determine program impact. We measure the effectiveness of our activities through participatory assessments, evaluations, focus groups and surveys to identify service quality observed and perceived benefits of participation.

We have developed a set of 15 outcomes, based on psychosocial development; acquired hard skills; educational attainment; overseas community benefit; home community benefit. Indicators for success include: Increased self-esteem, leadership, and cross-cultural understanding, increased ability to identify community needs and entrepreneurial skills; rates of employment, engagement in social entrepreneurship, further education/training upon program completion; Improved attendance and academic performance as compared to a control group of their peers.

In 2009, GP will engage directly 20 youth in two schools through our yearly program. We will directly contribute to transformative experiences to 30 more youth through consulting with our partner organizations.

In 2010, GP will engage directly 30 youth in three schools through our yearly program. We will directly contribute to transformative experiences to 50 more youth through consulting with our partner organizations.

In 2011, GP will be based in four schools, serving 50 students directly through our yearly program. We will directly contribute to transformative experiences to 100 more youth through consulting with our partner organizations.

The program will impact youth as they will complete high school, increase academic achievement, enroll in college, and obtain better remunerated employment. Participants will effect change in their own communities by launching social ventures, increasing inter-generational contact and sustaining volunteer activities in their communities.

Overseas communities will also benefit through the development of community projects that increase community assets and resources.