RADAR: Re-engaging Academically Disconnected Adolescents Respectfully
"When I'm in a shelter it's just too complicated to go to school. I don't feel like explaining my situation to people over and over."
RADAR supports homeless youth who are between the ages of 13 and 15 to reconnect with their families, schools and communities. The program provides youth with a unique community-based learning environment where supports and resources are available to help them in the following areas in their lives: education, housing, basic needs, recreation, and physical/mental health and addiction needs.
RADAR is a collaborative initiative with the following Key Partners:
- Boys and Girls Club of Calgary
- Calgary Board of Education
- Calgary Catholic School District
- City of Calgary, Community and Neighbourhood Services
- Calgary and Area, Children's Services
- Wood's Homes
- Alberta Health Services, Calgary Health Region
Who can attend RADAR?
Youth between the ages of 13-15 years old who:
- do not have stable living conditions
- are disconnected from family and community
- are not enrolled in school or have not attended regularly for significant periods of time
- may be involved with the Youth Justice system and/or Children's Services
- face substantial barriers to re-engaging in a mainstream educational setting
Why attend RADAR?
- Support to reconnect with school, family and community
- Opportunities for life skills building and recreational activities
- Support to find stable living conditions
- Support and resources for basic needs
- On-site learning supports with teachers and behavior support workers
- Support and access to resources for: addictions, mental and physical health needs
- Support for making a successful transition back to school, home and community
How can you access RADAR?
Youth are referred to the RADAR triage committee who determine if a youth fits the criteria of facing significant barriers to re-engaging with mainstream school settings and is also experiencing a lack of stability and support in other major areas of life
RADAR is located at the Renfrew Boys and Girls Club Hangar
731 13 Avenue NE
For more information please phone 403-520-1524
Re-engaging Academically Disconnected Youth Respectfully (R.A.D.A.R.)
Background to the Initiative
The R.A.D.A.R. initiative began in October 2008 with seed funding from the United Way, the Burns Memorial Fund, City of Calgary Crime Prevention Investment Plan, EducationMatters and Business Fore Kids. R.A.D.A.R. is designed to fill a gap in supports for Calgary youth aged 13-15 who are on the spectrum of homelessness and disconnected from family, school and community. These youth have an accumulation of risk factors that include: school non-attendance, criminal involvement, exposure to gang involvement and sexual exploitation, substance abuse and addictions, mental health issues, family conflict, lack of supportive adults in their lives and the influence of negative peer groups. The multi-layered needs of these youth, coupled with the developmental stage of early adolescence, highlight the importance of a coordinated and flexible approach. To this end, a group of organizations representing education, health, youth shelters, children’s services and youth justice joined together to reconnect these youth to the essential supports of school, family and community. R.A.D.A.R.’s key partners are:
§ Wood’s Homes
§ Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary
§ Calgary Board of Education
§ Calgary Catholic School District
§ City of Calgary, Community and Neighbourhood Services (Youth Probation)
§ Alberta Health Services, Calgary Health Region (Child & Adolescent Mental Health)
§ Calgary and Area, Child and Family Services Authority
§ Calgary and Area United Way
§ Burns Memorial Fund
These agencies provided in-kind contributions to supply R.A.D.A.R. youth with access to a range of professionals and services. The partners work together to develop coordinated service delivery plans to enable participating youth to have their essential needs met, find stable housing and get connected back to educational programming. While the initiative is focused on providing these direct supports to disengaged youth, the collaborative partners also hope to work to affect organizational, policy and systems level change to strengthen services to multi-risk youth over the longer term. The goal of R.A.D.A.R. is to support homeless and/or academically disengaged youth to reconnect with normative supports of school, family and community and, ultimately, to succeed.
Theory of Change
The R.A.D.A.R. theory of change is if youth 12-15 years old who are disconnected from family, school and community and at risk of entrenchment in street life, have access to individualized educational, personal and recreation supports provided through agency collaboration, then they are more likely to return to school, find and maintain a stable living environment and have positive relationships.
Who Are the R.A.D.A.R. Youth?
Between October 2008 and November 2009 a total of 50 youth were referred to R.A.D.A.R. Intake information for 40 of the 50 youth is complete. From this information we know that:
· the average age of youth referred to R.A.D.A.R. is 15-years-old
· 8% have an immigrant background
· 43% are of Aboriginal descent
· 45% of youth were on probation at the time of referral and another 18% have had previous criminal involvement.
This means a total of 63% of the R.A.D.A.R. youth have had some form of criminal involvement.
The average length of disengagement from school for these youth is 17 months. The degree of disengagement varies among the youth but most have not had regular attendance for more than three school semesters.
40% of youth referred were accessing homeless shelters, couch surfing and/or living on the street at the time of referral. 70 % of all youth referred have at some time in their lives experienced homelessness. 24% of youth were living at home; 10% were living with extended family; 10% were living in a group home; 6% were at the Calgary Young Offenders Centre (CYOC); the whereabouts of 8% was not known at referral; and, one (2%) was living in a foster home.
Living Situation at Referral
|
|
# |
% |
|
Living in Shelter/Street |
20 |
40 % |
|
Living at Home |
12* |
24 % |
|
Living with Extended Family |
5** |
10 % |
|
Living in a Group Home |
5 |
10 % |
|
At CYOC |
3 |
6 % |
|
Unknown (AWOL) |
4 |
8% |
|
Living in a foster home |
1 |
2% |
|
Total |
50 |
100.0% |
96% percent of the youth referred to R.A.D.A.R. have some history of involvement with child welfare, including those identified under the Protection of Sexually Exploited Children Act (PSECA). Thirteen out of 50 youth (26%) have no current involvement while 36% are permanent guardians of Alberta Children and Youth Services.
School board information was available for 47 of the youth. Thirty-three (70%) of these are registered with the Calgary Board of Education; 13 (28%) are with the Calgary Catholic School District; and one is outside Calgary’s districts.
* Two youth are under permanent guardianship orders but are currently living at home.
** Two youth are under permanent guardianship orders and currently living with extended family.
Snapshot of the Findings
An evaluation of R.A.D.A.R.’s pilot phase was completed in December 2009. Findings from this evaluation indicate that the combination of R.A.D.A.R. programming and supports is effective to engage, stabilize and reconnect at-risk youth to community schools and stable residential settings. During its first year of operation (October 2008 – November 2009), working with limited staff, R.A.D.A.R. received referrals for 50 youth. Of these, sixteen youth participated actively (in attendance more than 50% of the time) in R.A.D.A.R.’s educational programming, fifteen were supported to find and maintain stable residential placements, twelve took part in recreational programming and six were connected to other supports.
Of the remaining youth, there were a number who engaged sporadically and then disengaged. Over the next two years, the R.A.D.A.R. staff and committees will explore further why some youth engage and others don’t, and they will work to build strategies to more effectively connect with those who don’t. At the end of the first year, the addition of a recreation worker and two transition workers to the staff team began to strengthen the ‘outreach’ component of the initiative and is expected to increase R.A.D.A.R.’s capacity to support youth not yet ready or inappropriate for R.A.D.A.R.’s educational programming.
Perhaps most significantly, R.A.D.A.R. supported six youth, all of whom were seriously disengaged from school, to successfully transition back to community school programs. Four of these youth are attending classes more than 80% of the time; all have maintained safe and stable places to live; and, none have been criminally charged or breached probation. Considering the history of these youth and their multiple risk factors, it is unlikely that these six young people would be experiencing these positive changes without the supports provided by R.A.D.A.R.
Information to strengthen program delivery and the collaborative process is being captured and used by the committees and staff to support continuous improvement. R.A.D.A.R.’s primary challenge at the program level will be to maintain sufficient engagement (in both quantity and duration of supports) with participating youth to make a positive difference in their lives. The challenge for the collaboration is ensuring the right partners come to and stay at the table at the same time that the Executive Committee stays focused on affecting systems level change.
R.A.D.A.R. now has a complete team of staff and is fully funded for three years by the Safe Communities Innovation Fund, the City of Calgary, the CBE, the CSSD and an anonymous funder. If you are interested in seeing the full evaluation report, it can be downloaded here.
“My life is going really good. I’m living in a group home and everything, going to school everyday. It’s pretty good.
It’s cool that Courtney (transition worker) keeps track of what I am doing and stuff… Without R.A.D.A.R. I think I
would still be doing the stuff I was doing before… stealing cars, doing drugs and not going to school… I think I
was ready to make some changes but there was no way I could have gone straight into a community Junior High…
R.A.D.A.R. is a good school, more supportive and they actually talk to you, they don’t assume stuff.”
(transitioned youth, Nov. 18/09).
