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New Attitude Part 3 STAYING ON THE RIGHT TRACK Experts agree that a common characteristic of "resilient" children is having stable relationships with one or more caring adults. Evidence cited in Safe and Smart: Making the After-School Hours Work for Kids indicates that children with the opportunity to make rich social connections during after-school hours are more well adjusted and happier than those who don't have such opportunities. In a recent study, 83 percent of school-age child-care staff in 71 programs said that some children who had been socially rejected by peers learned healthy ways to make new friends because of their participation in after-school programs. Girls in T.E.A.M., which meets until 6 p.m. on Monday through Thursday evenings, get at least three hours of focused adult contact and social activities a day. Program Coordinator Kelli Aiken says that T.E.A.M. was designed as a prevention program to decrease risky behaviors in girls by increasing confidence and competence, implementing communication and problem-solving skills, and exposing them to a variety of opportunities to grow, learn, and make healthy life choices. So why not include boys? According to Aiken, in 1995 the state conducted studies and found that 60 percent of the resources for out-of-school activities were being spent on boys, either directly or indirectly (for example, a coed basketball team that only boys played on). A statewide mandate for gender-specific services to close the gap-the only one like it in the nation- spurred a grant from the Washington County Commission on Children and Families to launch the program. Aiken sees a real need for a girls-only program, "partly because if a boy is dealing with some issues, he is more likely to act out in a visible way, whereas girls tend to turn that in. They may be the quiet ones in class, but you don't know if something is wrong with them because they turn to eating disorders or something else." Adolescent girls are also more likely to experience depression or attempt suicide than adolescent boys. Many T.E.A.M. activities stem from Developing Nurturing Skills and Nurturing Yourself, a school-based curriculum that includes student-driven activities. Each site tailors the activities to be developmentally appropriate for that age group, and the different sessions pull from a range of topics that emphasize self-esteem and personal power, empathy, praising self and others, dealing with peer pressure, and understanding and handling anger and stress. Last year the girls were paired with individual mentors at least once a week, but Aiken-like many educators-has found it difficult to carry over the mentoring relationships from one academic year to the next. Still, the girls reap many of the benefits of more traditional mentoring relationships from the regular contact and support of the adults who staff the program. The key to effective mentoring relationships lies in the development of trust between two strangers of different ages, says researcher Cynthia Sipe in Mentoring: A Synthesis of P/PV's Research, 1988-1995 (published by Public/Private Ventures in 1996). One of the most encouraging aspects of the study for schools interested in developing mentoring programs is that the mentors involved were not trained in drug prevention, remedial tutoring, antiviolence counseling, or family therapy, yet by providing friendship and support, they helped steer mentees away from drugs, fighting, and skipping school. For kids, this means that even when the Kelli Aikens and Tomas Sepulvedas of the world aren't around, the lessons and social skills they have instilled in them are still going strong. RESOURCE NOTE: Two free Education Department publications offer more information on after-school programs. Safe and Smart: Making the After-School Hours Work for Kids outlines the benefits of after-school programs, details components of high-quality programs, and provides descriptions of several exemplary programs. Keeping Schools Open as Community Learning Centers: Extending Learning in a Safe, Drug-Free Environment Before and After School provides a wealth of resources for schools interested in starting extended-hour programs, including the steps required to convert a school into a Community Learning Center, budgeting guidelines and estimates of typical program costs, ideas for financing a program, and tips for evaluating a program's effectiveness. Both publications are available on the department's Web site (http://www.ed.gov/about/pubs.jsp) or by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN.
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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