Young Heroes and After-School Programs

City Year Rhode Island, a youth service and leadership development program, seeks to increase the number of middle school youth participating in out of school time programs and meaningfully engage them in their neighborhoods through community service. City Year's primary activity will be the operation of weekday after-school programs at four Providence middle schools, in collaboration with the Providence After School Alliance, plus a 6-month Saturday service program called 'Young Heroes' for students in Providence, Pawtucket, Warwick, West Warwick, and Coventry. City Year seeks to serve at least 325 youth through these programs, 225 through after school programs and 100 through Young Heroes. Progress will be measured by the number of participating youth in each program and the percentage who complete Young Heroes to earn President's Volunteer Service Awards. City Year will also track the percentage of students who express interest in continuing to serve post-program. This funding will specifically support capacity-building for both initiatives to promote ongoing qualitative development, which will occur while the programs are in operation. Such work includes theory of change and best practices research as well as the production of improved data systems, staff training, manuals, and collateral materials. NCA/NCF