CITY OF PHOENIX HUMAN SERVICES DEPARTMENT

CENTRAL PHOENIX FAMILY

SERVICES CENTER

STEP-UP WITH MENTORING FOR YOUNG FATHERS

STEP-UP WITH MENTORING FOR YOUNG FATHERS

AGENCY: City of Phoenix - Human Services Department

Central Phoenix Family Services Center

1250 South 7th Avenue

Phoenix, AZ 85007-3996

PROJECT DIRECTOR:William Chipman

EVALUATOR: Nelson L. Noggle, Ph.D.

C.A.E.P.

3217 N. Margate Place

Chandler, AZ 85224

CONTACT PERSON: Anthony Valenzuela

TELEPHONE: (602) 261-8764

or

(602) 534-1250

TYPE OF PROJECT: Demonstration of the value of adding mentoring

services and free post-secondary education

stipends to an existing case-management program

targeted on low-income fathers ages 16-22.

PROJECT TITLE: STEP-UP with Mentoring For Young Fathers

PROJECT PERIOD: September 30, 1992 to February 28, 1995

STEP-UP WITH MENTORING FOR YOUNG FATHERS

Introduction

The passage from a stress-filled adolescence to self-sustaining adulthood is hard enough for most young men from disadvantaged backgrounds. When the special challenges of fatherhood--providing financial support, modeling desired behavior, and meeting new emotional needs--are added to the picture, the journey can become a perilous one.

Concerned officials in the city of Phoenix, aware of the high social costs to future generations of failure in meeting these challenges, decided to launch a program to help young fathers take effective responsibility for their families. In October 1992 the city's STEP-UP program added a mentoring component to its counseling and case management service, putting successful fathers and businessmen "in the corner" of young men struggling with the multiple roles of fatherhood. The early results of this STEP-UP Program for Young Fathers suggest that empathetic adult men with successful life experience, whether they are professional case workers or volunteer mentors, can have a big influence for good on this important population.

Program Development

The idea behind the STEP-UP initiative for young fathers in Phoenix took shape over several years. Since 1988, the Human Services Division of the city had been providing counseling services to young men needing help as part of a Hard To Employ Counseling Program. A case worker with the existing STEP-UP program routinely worked with young men referred by city and private agencies, schools, and courts, helping them deal with immediate crises in their lives and prepare for a better future. Many of the young men were able, with direction and support, to obtain decent jobs and keep them, but most of them still had trouble fulfilling their new adult responsibilities.

Fatherhood proved to be a special challenge. Many of the new fathers had positive feelings about their new role, but the requirement of providing for a family with only marginal job prospects, combined with frequent weaknesses in relationship skills, all too often led to real crises for these men. They clearly needed extra help in finding the services they needed quickly and using them effectively. A 1990 city and state-sponsored study showed, however, that though city agencies were providing numerous services to people in need, there were none specifically for young fathers.

The STEP-UP case worker and his colleagues were well aware of the financial and emotional consequences of family breakups and single-parenthood with future generations. Problems in meeting family support challenges "like a man" could rupture fledgling family relationships, in turn causing a new mother to turn to welfare and increasing the possibility of a child growing up in poverty and deprivation. These crises could also lead to anger and destructive behavior. As one of the STEP-UP case workers noted, "I had attended five funerals in the past year--I didn't want to go to any more." The need for experienced counselors who could help these young fathers use available resources and services to help themselves was compelling.

At the same time, the Human Services Division counselors knew that referrals and good case management were not always enough to make a difference. Their young male clients frequently knew the kinds of things they needed to do to improve their employment situation and career prospects but needed continuing friendly encouragement to do them. This need was especially apparent in the area of education. Although the counselors continually emphasized to their young clients the importance of additional education in meeting goals and finding a more lasting solution to their poverty, most of the young men found this course of action unattractive because of their dissatisfaction with earlier schooling and the financial barriers to further education. Many of them nevertheless acknowledged the need for more schooling or training. As one young man noted, "My biggest need [from the program] was for someone to encourage me to go to school" (Ignacio Au).

An emerging consensus about meeting these needs convinced the STEP-UP staff and Human Services Division officials to add a special counseling program for struggling young fathers in early 1992. As STEP-UP program leaders looked for opportunities to add additional support to their new initiative, they learned of the US Department of Health and Human Services' request for proposals to demonstrate innovative approaches to helping disadvantaged individuals and families become self-sufficient. STEP-UP officials immediately began designing a mentoring and educational support component to their existing service program for young fathers.

Several Phoenix-based organizations were invited to join the effort and help give it shape. The Valley Big Brothers/Big Sisters (VBB/BS) agency was already doing well-regarded mentoring work with young men and women and was tapped to take the lead in developing the mentoring elements of the program. Gateway Community College, part of the local Maricopa County system, was invited to flesh out a component that would help overcome some of the financial barriers to additional education with free stipends for post-secondary education. Other project partners included the city's Parks & Recreation Department, for the recreational and celebratory events planned for the clients and their families, and the local Job Training Partnership Act agency for ready access to job training opportunities. As the program and the accompanying proposal took shape, the program partnership also invited evaluation specialists to help strengthen the program plans.

The planning work proved successful, and the Demonstration Partnership Program of HHS's Office of Community Services awarded the augmented Phoenix STEP-UP program atwo-year grant for $350,000 in the fall of 1992. A required match of the Federal funds was raised from local sources, creating a substantial capability for testing the partnership's ideas. The informal planning group became a formal partnership between the City of Phoenix and Valley Big Brothers/Big Sisters, with active participation by other planning group members under the direction of program manager Bill Chipman. Anthony Valenzuela, the original case worker, interviewed and selected two additional counselors to help with the demonstation.

The initial months of program activity were busy ones as the partnering organizations attempted to "hit the ground running." STEP-UP counselors made numerous introductory presentations to city and private agencies where suitable young men might be applying for service while, at the same time, meeting with a growing number of young fathers referred to them. VBB/BS staff, meanwhile, selected a case worker to assign to the program and began to recruit men considered as suitable potential mentors to the young fathers. Officials in the other partnering organizations, meanwhile, firmed up their own plans and prepared for active participation.

The STEP-UP initiative was based upon the premise that normal STEP-UP case management services to troubled young fathers, when supplemented with additional mentoring support by suitable adult volunteers and financial assistance for post-secondary education, would have a positive impact on a client's ability to achieve self-sufficiency and to care for his family. In order to test this hypothesis, STEP-UP assigned the young men who were being accepted into the demonstration program to one of four experimental groups--either provided with mentoring and/or educational stipends or not --and proceeded to provide them with the appropriate services.

The supplemental elements of the new program got underway slowly. The existing STEP-UP case load had almost three dozen clients who were qualified for the demonstration and ready to be mentored immediately, yet VBB/BS needed time to find and orient new mentors to their challenging roles. As an added hurdle, several of the early clients found themselves in a program group they did not like because of the experimental design; either they were forced to work with an undesired mentor or were not able to be matched with one they wanted. By the end of the program's first year, 109 fathers had been accepted into the special STEP-UP program, including 55 in the mentoring support group, but only 26 mentors had been recruited and only 16 matches had been made.

The educational and job training components, meanwhile, were experiencing a slow start of a different kind. The young fathers invariably directed their interest during counseling contacts towards near-term jobs and income; they demonstrated little interest in post-secondary course work. Attractive job training opportunities that might have captured the clients' attention, furthermore, were generally unavailable during the first year because of a lack of JTPA-funded training slots.

As a consequence of these early delays, the case managers felt considerable pressure to fill in the gaps in planned services for the clients. They threw themselves into a variety of

tasks considered necessary to market the program and make it work, performing event planning, service coordination, introductory presentations, and client coaching along with their normal case management function. This "jack-of-all-trades" role seemed necessary at the time, but it led to some later confusion about respective roles and impacts in the minds of both clients and evaluators.

These early challenges, though they hindered early service delivery, helped to strengthen the program partnership. Participation in monthly partnership meetings was high as members sought to become a fast-learning organization. Evaluative findings were shared and candidly discussed in the on-going effort to improve service delivery and client effectiveness.

This collegial quest for adding value led to two important kinds of innovations in the counseling and case management program. One of these innovations--the design and extensive use of a practical method for documenting and tracking changes in the attitudes and motivations of the young clients--had the effect of strengthening both the case management and the mentoring elements of the program. Members of the partnership wanted program participants to try some of the opportunities available through the program and to follow through on their plans for self-improvement, and the evaluator-developed system for rating a client's motivation and capabilities was a useful tool for all those involved in client counseling. The other innovation--a shifting of educational support for this clientele from post-secondary course work towards topical workshops and job-related training--had only modest impacts during the program but offers real payoffs in the future.

As a result of this on-going "re-engineering" of the young fathers support program, the several services achieved better coordination and the clients began to make progress towards their goals. As the importance of good father-mentor matches became apparent, for instance, the VBB/BS case worker responsible for recruiting and screening mentors moved to the STEP-UP site to improve his ability to fit mentor prospects to particular young clients in the mentored experimental group. The program began to build momentum as the young participants experienced the commitment of the case workers, began to see or hear about the better mentoring relationships, and participated with their families in the STEP-UP recreation, recognition, and other group events. A Family Camp event, for instance, provided an opportunity for families to observe healthy mentor and staff family activity in an attractive setting, leading to several early father/mentor matches.

As the value of the mentoring function began to be confirmed in the case files and by the young fathers themselves, the STEP-UP program began to attract state-wide and national attention. Though the demonstration program did not receive renewed HHS funding after its two-year term, the city of Phoenix institutionalized the program and continues its support of the mentoring component of VBB/BS today. The partnership members also continue to meet regularly to further develop the program, with the most recent activity focusing on improving access to skills training.

Organization and Funding of the Program

The Community Services Division of the Human Services Department of the City of Phoenix acted as the lead agency in the STEP-UP demonstration partnership and was responsible for the program's case management function. Counseling and case management services were performed by the 3 case workers of the STEP-UP staff. Bill Chipman acted as project manager, and Anthony Valenzuela was the lead case worker.

The partners in the demonstration venture and their responsibilities included:

* VBB/BS--design and management of the mentoring function

* Gateway Community College--planning and delivery of the educational

component

* The Parks and Recreation Department of the city of Phoenix --

planning and management of group recreational and recognition events

The Phoenix Job Training Partnership also participated in the demonstration to help identify job training opportunities and make available any funded training slots that appeared suitable.

The STEP-UP demonstration was designed and organized as a controlled experiment, with 120 young fathers who met specified selection criteria and were stratified by age, education level, and ethnicity randomly assigned to four groups of equal size. All participants received STEP-UP's comprehensive case management services, but two of the 30-man groups also received either mentoring or educational stipends and one received both. (The random assignment required by the evaluation design kept some candidates who wanted mentoring but were assigned to a non-mentored group from participating; program leaders, in order to be responsive, usually matched these men with mentors and removed them from the demonstration.)

The augmented STEP-UP program was primarily funded with a $350,000 grant from the Office of Community Services' Demonstration Partnership Program. This two year grant was able to leverage other local funding, and total funding for the project amounted to $632,764. The current program is supported by State, city, and VBB/BS and has also raised financial support from local businesses for the Family Camps and a mentor celebratory event.

Operation of the Program

The STEP-UP demonstration program was designed and operated to be more than a standard job counseling and referral program. The stated goal of self-sufficiency for the young fathers was broadly defined, with program partners and counselors seeking to help their clients achieve harmonious family relationships and healthy minds and bodies as well as adequate provider incomes. This "multi-dimensional program focus" led to a wide scope for counseling and support activities by the case managers and mentors and an adaptive operating style by the partners.

One reason for STEP-UP's success in this enterprise was the existing level of experience in the City's counseling program for young men. Counselors were already very familiar with the practice of assessing current needs and problems, helping clients develop action plans for growth, making referrals to educational and job training/vocational programs, and providing advice about the job search process and managing financial affairs.

The Step-Up demonstration introduced two new elements to this case management service: the addition to the support team of another empathetic adult as mentor and role model, and the availability of financial stipends to subsidize some post-secondary education for receptive clients. The program partners generally viewed these additional resources as extentions of the STEP-UP staff's capacity to channel client energies in constructive directions.

The use of a controlled experimental design imposed some client selection criteria on the program partners. The 120 young fathers accepted into the program, though of various ethnic backgrounds (86% minority), shared several characteristics:

* Their income was below 125% of the Phoenix area's poverty level

* They were from 16 to 22 years of age

* Their employment status was weak and their incomes were very low

* Their educational backgrounds ranged from completion of grades 6

through 14, but their problem-solving skills were generally very weak

* Their trust in authority figures and institutions was low, and they

typically experienced difficulty in these relationships

* They were generally at risk of substance abuse, with 97% having 7 or

more risk indicators of substance abuse

Valley Big Brothers Big Sisters, with its long experience in matching mentors with young people, acted as the lead partner in the mentoring element of the program, adapting their well-developed model to the special needs of young disadvantaged fathers. A VBB/BS case worker recruited, oriented, and matched volunteer mentors with these new clients and continued--as much as possible--to monitor the matches for vitality and "fit".

The other resource added to the STEP-UP program for the demonstration was the educational stipend. STEP-UP case workers were interested in helping their clients achieve relatively permanent solutions to their poverty-related problems, and they usually saw education or employment-related training as central to those solutions. They viewed the $15,000 in stipend funds as a potentially important tool in their counseling.

The educational funds in the DPP demonstration grant were initially used to underwrite Gateway Community College courses on such topics as money management and communication. However, the demonstration partners soon learned that education in any form--especially classroom teaching--was given short shrift by these young men, who all too often were obsessed with "quick-fix" solutions to their new problems as family providers. They usually focused on getting attractive jobs or specialized job training, leaving the case worker and mentor counselors to suggest additional education as an important element in a realistic plan for self-sufficiency. Even the fathers who recognized the importance of more education to their dreams found it hard to look beyond the lure of an immediate paycheck.

Later in the program, as it became clear that the young clients were usually not interested in conventional offerings, educational stipend funds were used to prepare and deliver off-campus workshops on such topics as planning a child's future, avoiding legal hassles, and anger and stress management. Some of these workshops were conducted during weekend Family Camp experiences, while other evening sessions were supported with child care to enable couples to attend together.

The STEP-UP case workers continually worked to integrate these and other program resources for the benefit of the individual father. The typical pattern for STEP-UP counseling and support treatment was to first deal with the immediate client problem, then to help stabilize the individual's situation, and finally to identify and capitalize on the resources needed for real growth and development. Both case workers and counselors at various referral agencies tried, in their early discussions with the client, to help them assess their potential and develop realistic job and career expectations. As these expectations took shape, the counselors helped the young fathers plan, and then carry out, the steps towards their self-sufficiency goals. Both case workers and volunteer mentors were encouraged to take it "one step at time", beginning assistance where the client had the most immediate concern, then "co-authoring" the next step. Case managers emphasized the importance of patience in the face of obstacles and of a focus on continuous improvement in the individual's situation.

A key premise of the STEP-UP program was (and is) that the young fathers needed the right attitude, as well as the necessary abilities, to achieve their self-sufficiency goals. While the program clients were usually highly motivated to obtain attractive jobs, they frequently had difficulty in understanding the steps needed to get that job. Consequently, a good deal of the case worker's and mentor's effort was spent in trying to determine what kinds of objectives and incentives would improve a father's motivation to make step-by-step progress towards his goals. Documenting and tracking changes in client motivation, therefore, was central to the counseling work.

The form created for the management of the individual cases relied heavily upon two kinds of ratings developed by the program evaluator, Nelson Noggle. The first of these ratings--the "AIM" rating of a client's appreciation, interest, and motivation--was a measure of the individual's inclination to progress in his education, income, and family relationships. The other--the "KSC" rating of a client's knowledge, skills, and capabilities--was a measure of ability in each of these goal areas. Though these measures were largely subjective, their continual use in the case management process and in case worker and mentor discussion of client progress made them extremely useful for case management, progress monitoring, and program evaluation.

Much of the young fathers' initial unwillingness to engage in self-assessment and life planning, the counselors learned, stemmed from a widespread mistrust of authority figures--especially male ones--developed from earlier experiences with teachers, law-enforcement officers, and employers. Without at least a basic level of trust and empathy, however, both case workers and mentors knew they would be unable to extend the counseling relationship beyond the realm of jobs and income to the other factors influencing success in life pursuits. Program partners devoted considerable effort, therefore, to providing an environment of safety and friendship for their young clients. The case workers in particular strove to validate the concerns, recognize the inherent decency, and strengthen the resolve of the young men. The mentors, for their part, proved helpful in helping their mentees understand their new father and provider roles and the dynamics of their new family relationships. Many of the workshops developed for the STEP-UP clients had family unity and harmony themes, and special awards for strengthening families were a highlight of the program's Family Camps and other recognition events.

While the STEP-UP demonstration was designed in large part to test the additional value that a volunteer mentor could add to the counseling relationship with a troubled young father, the actual course of program events muddied the impact of the mentors' contribution somewhat. Because of the multiple roles played by the case workers early in the demonstration and their initial involvement with the clients beyond case management, the respective contributions of case manager and mentor to client progress is difficult to determine. The three case workers were clearly critical, it is clear, to whatever successes the STEP-UP demonstration achieved. Case files and various testimonials indicate that most of the clients thought the world of these men. The case workers' understanding of, and empathy for, their young clients was a big factor--as one of them repeatedly noted, "If I can do it, anyone can." Perhaps even more important to the progress of individual fathers, however, was a role that both the case workers and the better mentors played--"the guy on their side"-- constantly helping the young men help themselves.

The program's agency partners met on a monthly basis to--in the evaluator's words--"celebrate and fix" elements of the program as appropriate. Since each of the parent agencies was highly experienced in performing its unique function, these meetings quickly grew into collegial exchanges of ideas and suggestions about how to improve the value of the several services to the young fathers. As evaluation data became available, the partners engaged in frank "crosstalks" about the implications of the findings and jointly initiated refinements in the program design.

Among the more important of these modifications were:

* A refocusing of the recruitment and preparation of mentors

Initial recruitment efforts were handicapped somewhat by the

small number of existing "big brothers" who were considered able to

relate effectively to the predominantly minority case load. Some who

appeared suitable, furthermore, proved unwilling to work closely with

young males with criminal records. The Big Brother/Big Sister staff, in

their efforts to increase the number of suitable mentors, had STEP-UP

staff present actual client profiles and to potential mentors to help orient

them to the clients and their culture. The orientation of the selected

volunteers was revised, as well, to better prepare them for effective

relationships with this group of young men. Also, as the importance of

close STEP-UP/VBB/BS coordination became apparent, VBB/BS officials

decided to move the case worker assigned to the mentoring program to

the STEP-UP sites. Finally, the partnering organizations allowed the more

effective men to mentor more than one young father at a time.

* Shifting educational support from academic instruction to topical

workshops and job-related training

When STEP-UP partners learned that the subsidized educational

offerings at Gateway College were not being used by the program

clients, they asked Gateway officials to plan and conduct a series of

workshops on topics chosen to meet expressed client needs. These

workshops were somewhat better attended, though not at a level

adequate to collect data about attendance, topics learned, grades, and

education-related impacts. Gateway staff eventually proposed an

education-supported apprentice program as an appropriate response to

the needs of this job-focused clientele.

Impact of the Program

The STEP-UP initiative to demonstrate the effects of mentoring and educational assistance in a case management environment was expected to result in several kinds of positive outcomes in the lives of its participants:

* Employment/occupation improvements, as measured by the number

and percentage of fathers obtaining stable full-time jobs

* Income improvements, as measured by average hourly wages

* Educational improvements, as measured by such indicators as average

grade level completed, high school graduation/GED completion,

completion of job training, and enrollment in post-secondary education

* Family improvements, as indicated by the quality of spouse and child

relationships

* Other relationship improvements, as indicated by the level of gang

involvement

* Health improvements, as indicated by changes in substance abuse (as

per pre/post survey)

* Motivation, as indicated by changes in the observed levels of AIM

Though relatively little in the way of impacts could reasonably be expected during a project of such short duration, the STEP-UP partners observed some tangible results of their support activities. In the employment area, 44% of the mentored fathers and 32% of the non-mentored fathers obtained jobs sometime during the project period while only 9% of the clients in each group lost jobs. As a result of this progress, the average hourly income of the mentored fathers rose by $2.67 and of the non-mentored fathers by $2.36.

In the area of family relationships, the case workers and mentors also noted some favorable results. Fully 53% of the mentored fathers, and 42% of the unmentored ones, were observed to have strengthened relationships with their spouse or significant other. A few clients, in fact, became engaged or married during the program, including 11% of those with volunteer mentors ( vs. 2% of the unmentored clients).

In the education areas, there was considerably less impact. Relatively few young father clients completed job training courses, additional schooling, or G.E.D. courses during the demonstration program, far too few to collect and analyze data about attendance, grades, and material learned. The average grade level completed by all client fathers increased only one-tenth of a year. In the several educational areas as well, however, mentored fathers did marginally better than their unmentored peers.

The value to the young men of the better counseling/mentoring relationships in particular can be seen in a comparison of the outcomes experienced by fathers with mentoring relationships rated "good" or "fair" with those of unmentored fathers. Fully 73% of these successfully mentored fathers were employed at the end of the demonstration versus 48% of the unmentored control group. They gained an average of one-half a grade level versus no control group gain at all, and 71% improved their family relationships against only 41% of the unmentored control group. The fact that all of the four experimental groups showed progress in almost all areas reflects well on the case management and coaching provided by the STEP-UP case workers, but the value of good coaching and mentoring relationships can also be discerned in these results.

These results were largely corroborated by the participants themselves in a concluding survey. The young father clients viewed the program as being especially helpful to them in obtaining jobs, and they generally felt the mentors to be most helpful in resolving family problems. The mentors tended to agree, considering themselves to be of most help in the area of family relationships.

The STEP-UP demonstration also had some salutary effects on the agency partners and the Phoenix community. As a result of their experience in the STEP-UP demonstration program, the Valley Big Brothers/Big Sisters staff has revised and strengthened its recruitment and case management practices for minorities and young adults and has shared its experience with other BB/BS programs around the country. The Maricopa Community College system also learned more about meeting the needs of this population and is now considering more practical offerings that link educational course work with apprenticeships in such occupations as building maintenance, banking, meat cutting, welding, and machine operation.

City officials agree that its STEP-UP program was itself strengthened through its involvement in the Federally supported demonstration program. The value of its case management model--balancing client referrals with the extra coaching needed for effective counseling--was validated by the participating fathers, both in the wide-spread appreciation of the case workers and by the documented progress in many of the participants' lives. Finally, the city of Phoenix recognized the value of the mentoring initiative, and both the city government and local corporate sponsors have continued financial support beyond Federal demonstration funding in order to continue special support for this population of disadvantaged young fathers.

Program Replication

STEP-UP program leaders consider their support program for young fathers to be readily replicable in other communities. Indeed, several other cities in Arizona and elsewhere have already contacted the partnership about adapting the model to their own needs.

Communities and agencies interested in establishing their own young father mentoring program will find it helpful, first of all, to have an existing base of counseling talent and knowledge on which to build. The Phoenix demonstration indicates that social workers with case management skill, knowledge of the resources needed for educational growth and employment opportunities, and unlimited patience are central to an effective program.

In planning an adaptation of the STEP-UP program, program designers should also consider:

* Balancing coaching and counseling with referrals

The counselor's ability to satisfy immediate client needs through timely referrals to useful resources is essential for building the trust upon which effective counseling--and productive adult relationships--is based.

* Taking adequate time for recruiting and training mentors

Perhaps six months of start-up time should be taken to recruit mentors likely to be successful with the client population and to prepare them for their roles and responsibilities, so that client mentoring interests can be served with minimal delays.

* Providing adequate child care and transportation funding for family involvement

The inclusion of wives and children in some of the mentoring and celebratory events can be helpful to the fathers' development. Program planners should ensure that program budgets allow for plenty of family participation in key events.

* Employing creative alternatives to traditional classroom education

Given the young fathers' focus on early employment, educational links to the workplace will prove attractive. Paid apprenticeships in jobs of interest to individual clients, with tie-ins to demonstrably relevant educational courses, are a strong option. The STEP-UP staff also suggests a "home-based parent support" program in which peers, mentors, and case managers provide useful training to young parents in the home.

* Holding a Family Training Camp at least annually. STEP-UP counselors found this event to have a powerful influence on the clients. Young fathers, most of whom were part of a gang culture, noted that "this is a place where you don't have to watch your back," and rivals frequently found that they could become friends in the safe, accepting, turf-neutral environment of the Family Training Camp. The Camp also acted as a showcase for the better mentor-client relationships, modeling the desired behavior for the newer and less trustful clients.