Virginia

Public Information, Collaboration, (Wise Guys, Sneakers and RAP: Community Outreach to Teens) (Prince William County)

Description/Goal

In 1998, Barbara Nye, a veteran child support worker, grew increasingly concerned about the number of girls her own children knew who were showing up in her office as child support clients. With the blessings of her Director, Nancy Hill, she contacted the Assistant Superintendent of Schools responsible for programming in Fauquier County. She volunteered to talk with pregnant girls taking family life education courses about what she had seen as a child support worker and to provide them with information on child support. This was the beginning of RAP (Responsible Adolescent Program), now in its second year - just one of the volunteer youth education programs of the Manassas District Office of the Virginia Division of Child Support Enforcement.

Using staff volunteers, the Manassas Office has added to its mission reducing the future need for child support services through outreach to youth. Volunteers in all the school outreach programs are expected to maintain required productivity in their usual child support caseload in addition to their volunteer work in outreach programs. As with RAP, many of the programs are the result of initiative taken by concerned child support workers.

RAP is presented each year to some 1600 students in 9th and 10th grade health classes and early childhood development/life management skills classes in Prince William and Fauquier Counties, VA. Presentations are made in a single class session. Generally, both young men and young women are in the classes. No special consent is required because parents have already consented to the classes.

A film or video captures students' interest. Through case studies, overheads, interactive activities and writing assignments, students learn about paternity establishment, child support awards and support enforcement. Nye also tells the teens about the experiences of girls who have come into her office and describes the reasons guys give for “knowing” they are not the father.

Wise Guys targets young men ages 14 through 17, starting at the middle school/junior high level. Working together in 1998, child support agency volunteers and volunteers from a community organization, Interfaith Caregivers, found an existing curriculum which covered many topics the group wanted to address with young men. The Wise Guys curriculum they selected was developed originally by the Family Life Council of Greater Greensboro in Greensboro, North Carolina and had enjoyed success there.

Wise Guys is offered as an after school program to young men, starting in 7th and 8th grades. Students must elect to participate in the program and their parents must agree. While open to all young men, guidance counselors refer some students to the program. Among the program's goals:

• To empower young men with the knowledge and information they need to make sound decisions.
• To encourage respect for themselves, as well as others.
• To help young men understand the importance of male responsibility especially in the area of sexuality.
• To help young men improve communication with their parents, peers and others.

Topics addressed include personal and family values, communications, dealing with your masculinity, dating violence, abstinence, goal setting, sexuality. An important goal is to make young men aware of their many options. Workbooks cover the curriculum and “homework,” designed to provoke thought about these important topics, is assigned each week.

Working in teams - one male and one female on each - volunteers conduct 10 weekly sessions of about an hour each covering a different topic each week of the course. With 10 volunteer teams offering the classes, 400 to 500 young men participate in the program each year. Currently eight of the volunteers are child support workers and two are from Interfaith Caregivers. Interfaith Caregivers administers the program.

Sneakers is a comparable all-girls program which reaches 400 to 500 girls per year, 25 kids per session, with four sessions run concurrently several times each year. It, too, is based on a pre-existing curriculum developed by Florence Crittendon Services.

Results

While a formal evaluation has not been conducted in Virginia, Wise Guys did find that teen pregnancy went down by 30 percent in Greensboro, NC where the program originated. (Other factors may have contributed to the drop.) In Fauquier and Prince William Counties, VA, community agencies talk about the impact the school programs have had; their directors mention them in community meetings. Kids have heard about the programs. Parents call to ask for them in their kids' schools. Also hoped for: a decline in the need for new child support cases.

In addition to providing information to 2,000 to 3,000 students per year using child support volunteers, the school outreach programs have brought more involvement with the community. The community knows who they are; the reputation of child support enforcement has been enhanced.

The Manassas District Office of the Virginia DCSE has built strong networks with social service agencies, through these school based programs, other youth outreach programs and participation in fatherhood initiatives. They are teaming up with both private and public agencies on projects, jointly seeking grants. They can now refer noncustodial fathers to programs which can help with parenting, job search, job training, and financial management.

Location

Prince William County is suburban. Fauquier County is a combination of suburban and rural areas. The Wise Guys program originated in Greensboro, NC. The Sneakers program utilizes a curriculum developed by Florence Crittendon Services based in Baltimore, MD.

Funding

Manassas District DCSE has no special funding for these projects. Most of what they do is volunteer staff time - in addition to maintaining required productivity. Interfaith Caregivers received a small grant to purchase the curriculum and workbooks and to cover administrative costs.

Replication Advice

Gaining the interest and cooperation of the schools is crucial. Contact the Superintendent or the person in charge of curriculum. Alternatively, it is possible to contact particular teachers within a school who may invite speakers to their classes. It helps to have a good curriculum.

“It is important who you put in the programs,” says Nancy Hill, District Manager. “They must have the ability to relate to and communicate with young people. They have to be people who do not go out and preach. One of our volunteers, Colby Poteat, is two years out of college. He is young enough to relate to these young boys. Barbara Nye has children in college. She relates to the kids, too. The volunteers must be outgoing, comfortable talking about the subject, comfortable around kids. You can expect kids will ask sexual questions. You should also pick people who are good workers.”