Kids On Track is designed to promote educational success as well as to keep kids away from gang involvement and drug use.  The multi-component program
is offered 4 hours per week, almost year-round, during the critical hours of 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. at various elementary school sites.  The participating mentees are 8 to 11
year-old children who have been identified by teachers and administrators as
students who could benefit from having mentors. Each site has mentors and
mentees, plus On Track staff members and AmeriCorps members working together
in a synergistic manner.   Mentees are matched up, one-on-one to outstanding teen mentors who have been screened and trained by the On Track directors, however,
all the mentee/mentor matches are always under the guidance and leadership of
On Track staff members at the school site and at special events.  The 4 hours of services include helping the mentees with homework prior to the arrival of the mentors, then presenting
youth asset building and character development lessons, and finally providing physical activities and
playtime for the mentees and mentors.

Given the comprehensiveness of the curriculum, it is more accurate to view On Track’s training component as a behavioral life skills intervention including such topics as refusal skills, “anger management,” communications skills, decision and goal setting skills, cultural and media awareness, and other social skills.  It also reflects the perspective associated with “introspective” approaches to prevention which guide youth in reflecting on their own attitudes and behaviors, and to consider whether they are consistent with the outcomes they would like to achieve.  Behavioral life skills and an introspective orientation have been found to be important to designing effective prevention programs for youth in high-risk environments.  The program model required the youth to actually participate, reflect on the subject on hand and act upon it – all characteristics that EMT’s recent National Study of High Risk Youth Programs found to significantly correlate to decreased substance use.  “Programs that actively engage youth in thought provoking and meaningful activities that encourage connection-building are likely to produce positive effects.”

Finally, the self-reports and observations of mentors, mentees, and their parents provide evidence that the program has strengthened protective factors and positive skills in intended ways.  As noted in the introduction to this report, findings of the pre-post outcome questionnaire indicate significant or near significant positive change for mentees in self-efficacy and self-control, important protective factors that are central to the intended outcomes of the conflict resolution curriculum.  Mentors attained statistically significant positive change in self-efficacy.  These positive outcomes are amply supported in the self-report of the mentors and mentees and the observations of their parents.  Some of the most dramatic positive outcomes for both mentors and mentees were the increase in self-reported family communication, which was large and statistically significant for both groups.  These outcomes relate most directly to the curricular and mentoring components of the program.

In final summary, the evaluation activities support a conclusion that Kids On Track…Through Mentoring is a strong, well-supported program model that is extremely well-received by participants.  From the standpoint of formative evaluation, it meets the standard of a model program, clearly designed, clearly supported, and performing extremely well.