GED Plus
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7 Palmer St. Roxbury 02119 Telephone: (617) 541-2639 Fax (617) 541-2660 Email: gedplus@aol.com |
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Providing Real Opportunities for Maximizing Innovation and Success through Education (PROMISE) NEEDS YOU!
We need your help! Volunteer to be a PROMISE mentor and share your experience with GED Plus students.
The GED Plus PROMISE Mentoring program prepares GED Plus students for achievement in the workforce and educational environment. PROMISE matches volunteer mentors with GED Plus students to focus on relationship building, goal setting, and career exploration activities.
Learn More | Apply | Spread the Word | PROMISE FAQ
GED PLUS MISSION : To equip young adults with the necessary academic qualifications, social and work-related competencies, and support systems necessary to achieve economic self-sufficiency and to reach their long-term personal, educational and career goals. The GED Plus Program promotes empowerment of inner city youth through academic, legal, social, and career services, support and guidance. We confront the mitigating circumstances and poor choices that caused students to drop out of high school and encourage these young adults to look beyond the ABE class and the GED credential towards being happy, fulfilled and productive members of society. GED Plus provides a non-judgmental learning environment where students build confidence, expect more of themselves, and can make mistakes and still recover within our programmatic safety net.
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS :
• Out of School Youth, ages 16-24
• Must live in the Boston
• Must be a member (or become a member of Youth Opportunity)
PROGRAM APPLICATION PROCEDURE :
• Telephone conversation with the Director regarding eligibility/status
• Completion of application forms
• A TABE test, formation of an individualized service plan and an orientation to the services available here
• Enrollment when space is available or wait list, if necessary
• Completion of an essay on the first class day
CLASS TIME and LOCATIONS:
Youth Opportunity is located in Dudley Square , 2201 Washington Street
Egleston YMCA is located in Egleston Square at 3134 Washington Street
• Mornings, from 9AM to noon at Youth Opportunity: 3 days a week
• Afternoons from 1 to 4 PM at Youth Opportunity, 4 days a week
• Evenings fro 6PM to 9PM at the Egleston YMCA, 4 days a week
OTHER SERVICES :
• Individualized services with a case manager
• Employment and career exploration assistance
• Referrals to legal, medical, housing, mental health, substance abuse, Department of Youth Services, Department of Social Services, Department of Transitional Assistance, Parenting and Domestic Abuse services
• Application assistance for training programs, colleges and financial aid
• Financial assistance for parenting youth through the Family to Family Program
• Official GED Practice Tests
• GED testing registration and transportation to test
FUNDING : GED Plus is a Massachusetts Department of Education / Adult and Community Learning Program. Additional funding comes from Youth Opportunity Boston, the Neighborhood Jobs Trust, the Mayor's Office of Jobs and Community Service Community Human Services Program, the Yawkey Foundation and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay .
UNIQUE PROGRAM ELEMENTS :
• Our present curriculum is based on The Mass. Dept. of Education's Adult Basic Education Curriculum Frameworks and employs math and writing journals, work binders, portfolios of best work , validation of student personal language while recognizing the need for professional presentation , teamwork in grammar-attack games , emphasis on the reading/writing connection , nutritional challenges , role play, devising math problems and worksheets for fellow students, and discussing the origins of the urban setting and how climate affects culture.
• We are a collaborative effort across city neighborhoods, drawing not only on the population of students in those neighborhoods and associated with those collaborators, but also on the services provided by each of the agencies. Examples: students from Greater Egleston Community High School, of which ESAC was the founding agency and Community Academy , a school for “difficult” students, sponsored by DYS in its partnership with Roxbury Youthworks.
• The educational approach of GED Plus is a combination of group and one-on-one instruction, with a focus on reading comprehension, critical thinking, writing, mathematics, social studies and science. Students are asked to use reasoning, investigative skills and journaling in all subject areas. What is different in our classes is the amount of individual attention afforded each student when daily classes have less than 10 students at each session.
• We combine structure, standards, flexibility and student accountability as the foundations of our student requirements. We consider individual student circumstances in regards to attendance and participation. For instance, one who is working fulltime may attend only 2 days a week; someone who is in violation of DYS rules and must go to lockup for a short period of time will be provided “homework” until he/she returns to class. Other flexible/structured aspects of the program are:
• Three choices for class time – morning, evening, afternoon.
• Two choices for neighborhood location within the city. This factor is especially important for those who live in geographical gang areas.
• Special attendance goals, as requested
• Rolling Enrollments
• Students are self-paced, and not locked into academic terms.
These policies encourage student decision-making and responsibility for self.
• GED Plus staff assists GED students with the test application process, teach test-taking strategies and provide transportation to the testing sites, citywide. On test day, they offer notes of encouragement, and then follow-up conversations on how the testing went. Annually, the program holds a graduation ceremony to give public recognition to the progress and accomplishments. In other words, we support the students at every step along the way.
• Our academic outcomes statistics speak of our success in several areas. GED Plus has produced 118 graduates in 8 years. Our “pass rate” for enrolled students undergoing GED testing has been 70.5% in the last three years (nationally 66.5%). While we contracted to produce 12 graduates last year, we actually had 29.
• Our classes are oversubscribed, with ongoing wait lists. Former students refer their friends, siblings, and neighbors to our classes.
• GED Plus students are prime examples of city dwellers who fit the profile of oft-quoted statistics: They may have failed the MCAS, were either excluded or dropped out of high school, are living below the poverty line, have been victims and witnesses to the violence, and fear for the lives of those closest to them. Our student population encompasses the most at-risk youths in our city as seen in the following statistics from the 2003-2004 GED Plus year: lack of basic skills (37% completed ninth grade or less), court-involved (56.4%), pregnant and parenting (38.7%), residents of public housing (37%), and homeless (9.6%). At the same time we also have a very high rate of graduation and post-secondary education. Our graduation rate last year was 46.77%. Of our 29 graduates, 13 have proceeded to higher education.
HISTORY : The GED Plus program is a collaborative of four non-profit agencies: ESAC (Ensuring Stability Through Action in the Community - lead agency), Roxbury Youthworks, Inc. (RYI), Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses (FDNH) and Youth Opportunity Boston. The program grew from mutual participation in the Common Ground Project from 1995-97, which was supported by Management Consultant Services/Boston Foundation, the Department of Public Health, and the United Way of Massachusetts Bay . This citywide initiative supported 18 community-based organizations to expand their organizational capacity by collaborative approaches to meeting human service needs. Establishing the GED Plus partnership in 1997 was a natural progression of the shared philosophy and commitment to build new models of integrated coordinated service delivery through mission driven collaborations and open, inclusive management practices. Our new partner this year is Youth Opportunity Boston. The collaborative is governed by an advisory committee comprised of the executive directors of each of the agencies, ESAC board members, community delegates and the director.
This Project is supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education. This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Massachusetts Department of Education or the federal government.