Introduction
Black Churches Support Black Youth
Service-learning to Promote Social Justice and Mental Health
Current Study
Method
Setting
Community Advisory Board
Participants
Procedures
Recruitment and Data Collection
SMART S-L Curriculum
Targeted skill | Description | Sample intervention activities |
---|---|---|
Reach for the SCI | ||
Emotion Regulation (Stop and Calm Down) | Students: (1) describe what happens to their body when they are upset, (2) explain the difference between positive and negative emotions, (3) demonstrate a breathing technique, and (4) identify two options used for calming down. Skills developed: Affect Identification, Relationship between Feelings and Physiology, Relaxation, Cognitive Restructuring. | Student Handout and Discussion: The Relation Between Feelings and Physiology |
Identify Feelings (I can Identify my Feelings) Problem-Solving (I can Identify the Problem) Identifying Options and Goals (I can Identify my Options) Identifying and Utilizing Strengths (I can Identify my Strengths)* | Demonstrates strong feelings through a frustrating, but fun activity. It shows how people can work together for a common task and introduces the value of differences. Students identify perspectives of different actors in a problem situation, and reinforce the value in group work. Students partner up and experience the difference between options and goals in problem-solving. Students work collectively to identify individual strengths. For example, telephone game—randomly picked a letter (A–Z), thought of a personal strength starting with that letter, whispered it in the ear of the next student in line; the last student wrote the word on a poster if they heard the correct word. For Emotional Regulation row in the Description column please replace with the following: Skills developed: Affect Identification, Relationship between Feelings and Physiology, Relaxation, Cognitive Restructuring. | Crash Landing Activity—student is blindfolded and the partner can’t use hands. Team together to use aircraft pieces to create cups to collect rainwater in 4 min Emotion Identification Check-In: Strawberries -N- Lemons What’s the Problem? Working in small groups Looking at Goals—Students work together to figure out how each of them can get the most M&M candy while hands are positioned in arm wrestling form (but are not told to arm wrestle) Self-Reflection Activity: Identifying Internal Strengths |
Youth-adult Partnership Curriculum
Training, Consultation, and Fidelity
10-week Implementation
Measures
Direct Targets of Intervention (Proximal Youth Outcomes)
Youth Academic, Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Adjustment (Distal Outcomes)
Analytic Plan
Quantitative Data
Qualitative Data
Results
Mental Health Need
Feasibility
Staff Engagement and Adherence
Week: | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Day: | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Fidelityc | %c |
General procedures | ||||||||||||||
Welcomed youth and reviewed agenda | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ? | ✓ | 11/11 | 100.0 |
Did a team building exercise | No | ✓ | n/a | ✓ | ✓ | No | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No | 8/11 | 72.7 |
Reviewed material from previous session | ✓ | ✓ | ? | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 10/11 | 90.9 |
Did strawberries & lemons check-in | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 11/12 | 91.7 |
Gave overview of topic and discussed why it was important | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | n/a | n/a | 10/10 | 100.0 |
Taught students a specific skill | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No | ✓ | ✓ | 11/12 | 91.7 |
Used handouts to talk about the day’s topic | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 12/12 | 100.0 |
Service-learning based activitiesa | ||||||||||||||
Led 1st program activity | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✓ | No | 7/8 | 87.5 |
Led 2nd program activity | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No | / | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | 4/5 | 80.0 |
Led 3rd program activity | ✓ | ✓ | n/a | No | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | 2/3 | 66.7 |
Led 4th program activity | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Service-learning action-planning (SLAP) activitiesbc | ||||||||||||||
Helped students with 1st SLAP goal | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 6/6 | 100.0 |
Helped with 2nd SLAP goal | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | / | / | n/a | / | n/a | / | 4/4 | 100.0 |
Helped with 3rd SLAP goal | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | / | 1/1 | 100.0 |
Helped with 4th SLAP goal | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | 1/1 | 100.0 | |
Process-related items | ||||||||||||||
Gave students time to work on personal reflection | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No | No | No | ? | ✓ | No | ✓ | No | No | 5/11 | 45.5 |
Allowed for group discussion of personal reflection | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 11/12 | 91.7 |
Invited youth to give ideas/opinions | ✓ | ✓ | No | No | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No | ✓ | ✓ | 9/12 | 75.0 |
Planned goals with youth for next session | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No | 3/11 | 27.3 |
Allowed students to co-lead activities | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | No | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | 11/12 | 91.7 |
Youth Dosage
Service Project: Students Expressing and Addressing Inequities
Acceptability
Theme | Frequency | Examples | Example quote |
---|---|---|---|
Staff | |||
Tools for Successful Implementation | 25 | Training and consultation; More staff; Cheat sheets; Better quality of youth-adult partnerships; Demonstration and celebration of service-learning projects | “I thought that was good because it’s a good time for us to discuss. I like it because it felt collaborative … I felt like it was an open door for us to think about other things that we could do better.” (Female 1) |
Shaping Perspectives of Societal Differences | 23 | SMART: Solutions to Addressing the Achievement Gap (Understanding and addressing racial disparities) Researching data about youth’s own school academic statistics and resources to address the achievement gap | “Yeah and the academic as well because they were able to see those numbers where we’re struggling at…I think they were able to come up with an actual service-learning plan…to fix some of those specific issues.” (Female 1) |
Valuing and Including Youth | 16 | Promoting Youth Voice – Developing a Common Vision; Planning Demonstration & Celebration Activities (e.g., Writing letter to business owners/mangers requesting donations for food and school supplies); Community service projects | “I’ve always been for youth-adult partnerships. I’ve always felt like youth have something to contribute, we need to listen, we need to let them be more involved…” (Female 2) |
Challenges to Implementation | 13 | Multiple roles; Not feeling prepared; Too many changes; No prep time built in; Slow to start; Kids knowing each other | “There was turnover happening all at the same time. We lost a supervisor all at the same time. So people were just filling in the blanks.” (Female 1) |
Coordinating Systems | 11 | More involvement from administration; Improved communication between all staff and administration; Support from parents | “I feel like having support from parents and administration is important…I think the kids when they see that we’re all making a big deal of it, I feel like then they’ll come and there’s an expectation to be a part of this now. (Female 1) |
Tools for Positive Youth Development | 12 | Trust Fall; Reach for the SCI – Emotional Regulation and Problem-Solving Curriculum; Strawberries N’ Lemons | “Reach for the SCI kind of teaches them to be more in touch and in tune with themselves, but also how to work with others…problem solving together…”(Female 1) |
Youth | Intervention activity | ||
Value and Inclusion | 9 | Check-In (Strawberries & Lemons) Team Building Exercises (Marshmallow activity) | “We had all used teamwork…they were encouraging us to work.” (Female 2) |
Shaping Perspectives on Personal and Societal Differences | 47 | The Human Race | “Just to know certain things that are going on because of different kind of race…So, like, black people, we’ve got the lowest percentage against whites… Some people might feel disrespected or, you know, yeah.” (Female 4) |
Applying Knowledge, Skills, and Strategies | 50 | Reach for the SCI | “I learned to control your emotions.” (Female 4) |
Personal Development and Self-Efficacy | 35 | Demonstration/Celebration Community Service Project (CSP) Presentation | “I have learned to have confidence in yourself.” (Male 1) |
“Fun” Promotes Engagement | 23 | Jeopardy | “More things that are interesting like something that we are learning but make it fun. Like we could play some stuff like sports as an activity.” (Male 2) |
Program Satisfaction | 13 | Demonstration/Celebration CSP Presentation | “I think it was useful because some of us may not have knew so it probably was useful.” (Female 3) |
Promise
Baseline (BL) | Post-Test (PT) | Follow-up (FU)b | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Outcome | N | Mean | SE | N | Mean | SE | N | Mean | SE | Contrastsc |
Youth self-report | ||||||||||
Community Belongingness | 21 | 62.61 | 3.08 | 19 | 61.50 | 2.88 | 15 | 62.10 | 3.66 | |
Social Responsibility | 20 | 27.71 | 1.23 | 19 | 26.46 | 1.15 | 15 | 25.68 | 1.04 | |
Academic Motivation | 20 | 64.75 | 1.84 | 19 | 62.82 | 2.25 | 15 | 59.57 | 2.16 | |
Emotional Symptoms | 21 | 6.10 | 0.32 | 19 | 3.60 | 0.60 | 15 | 3.78 | 0.75 | PT, FU < BL |
Conduct Problems | 21 | 3.21 | 0.37 | 19 | 2.63 | 0.53 | 15 | 2.54 | 0.60 | |
Peer Problems | 21 | 4.04 | 0.21 | 19 | 3.02 | 0.43 | 15 | 2.55 | 0.46 | PT, FU < BL |
Prosocial Behavior | 21 | 5.60 | 0.28 | 19 | 6.93 | 0.49 | 15 | 7.60 | 0.54 | PT, FU > BL |
Parent report | ||||||||||
Social Skills | 21 | 85.73 | 4.30 | 19 | 91.17 | 4.74 | 15 | 84.70 | 4.26 | |
Externalizing | 21 | 8.06 | 1.25 | 19 | 8.70 | 1.23 | 15 | 8.01 | 1.60 | |
Internalizing | 21 | 6.22 | 0.97 | 19 | 6.63 | 1.15 | 15 | 7.04 | 1.35 | |
Staff report | ||||||||||
Social Skills | 21 | 85.38 | 4.02 | 19 | 89.78 | 3.41 | – | – | – | |
Externalizing | 21 | 7.49 | 1.22 | 19 | 7.16 | 1.63 | – | – | – | |
Internalizing | 21 | 3.82 | 0.82 | 19 | 2.77 | 0.70 | – | – | – | PT < BL |