This blog post breaks down and article we wrote about the REACH after-school program we ran for several years in East Harlem, NYC.
Time spent at school is a highly influential time for young students due to the long hours they spend at school. Schools often adopt strategies that foster positive development in their students such as after school programs to extend the amount of time available to implement such strategies. Unfortunately, public schools in low socioeconomic districts typically do not have available resources for successful implementation of such strategies. Reflective Educational Approach to Character and Health (REACH) is an after-school physical education (PE) program that has positively impacted low-income urban areas to provide a safe, social environment to learn and interact with coaches who facilitate character development, literacy enhancement and fitness education through sport participation.
East Harlem, where our program started, has 29% of households that fall below federal poverty levels and roughly half of the children in East Harlem were living in poverty in 2016. Common issues that arise as barriers to after-school programming are inadequate resources such as having a safe space for PA, available equipment and qualified and motivated personnel to lead the PA programs. Implementation of after-school programs in such a setting provides a breadth of positive outcomes, however, every successful program doesn’t reach the top without facing adversity. This research aimed to uncover challenges that arose while trying to implement REACH in East Harlem, New York as well as what lessons were learned that could help REACH grow in a positive direction and help guide others to avoid the same mistakes.
This study was rooted in two primary theoretical frameworks that evolved from general education into the PE setting. These were culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) (Figure 1.) and positive youth development (PYD) (Figure 2).
This study used a qualitative case study design which enables the researchers to inquire about these questions with a very specific lens over a long period of time. Boys, 4th grade through 8th grade, participated in the data collection that involved interviews lasting anywhere from 24 minutes to 1.5 hours. Students at this school were 97% black or Hispanic students and 33% of students labeled as special needs. This school also saw a 49% chronic absentee rate and only 7% and 5% of student population met the state standards on math and English tests, respectively.
The study resulted in three major findings: a) bridging community dynamics and REACH, b) needing community involvement, and c) role modelling through cultural competence.
Let’s start with the first: In order to truly bridge community dynamics, we sought to identify the community dynamics and the influence on the students to implement strategies that reflect cultural knowledge. In this setting, sadly, neighborhood violence was commonly reported as a part of the community. Through interviews, we discovered that this became a norm and members of the community seemed complacent and did not appear to think change could occur. Parks and other public places were unable to fulfill their potential to provide a welcoming environment for community members to play and interact. REACH became a safe place for students to come to and play basketball without needing to fear being kicked off the court or getting into a bad situation. Some of our students had some behavioral issues at school that interfered with attendance at REACH. Punishment typically is administered by the school admin was to take away something of value and since many boys enjoyed participating in REACH, it was used as leverage by their authority figures such as parents and teachers to attempt to persuade better behavior. This, on occasion led to a snowball effect that influenced other students’ participation since their friend was not allowed to come, they then chose to not come either. This shows the issues of removing students as punishment yet are beyond this blog…we will get back to this when we discuss restorative practices in another blog.
The students expressed a need for more community involvement. Interestingly, although we assumed at first that all students came from the school we were are, we learned that participation included boys from neighboring schools who did not attend the school that REACH was held. The students really enjoyed the service and kept coming back from the interest-based approach. Our approach did not seek just to keep the kids off the streets but to ignite enthusiasm to participate in something they valued, basketball in this case. This wasn’t simply a place to come hang out and pass time but was a place that these boys could build relationships with coaches who gave their time to teach and mentor in the spirit of sport and interpersonal development.
Young people tend to mirror behaviors and translate past experiences into their identity. Having a positive role model to demonstrate good behavior is critical in development. By understanding the culture of the boys and the culture of the school as well as the community surrounding the school, REACH was able to utilize the coaches to reach out in a way that earned their respect. Coaches cultivated a sense of connectedness with the students that translated into excitement and a thriving environment through which to grow and learn.
In conclusion, this after-school program, REACH, has affected many young lives and provided a sense of community and hope for the students by using science and theory to support their mission. This study outlines the process through which coaches/researchers took to get to the core values of the students and the community and develop their curriculum and activities around the culture that the students live in. Along the way we uncovered some barriers that should be noteworthy to other programs seeking to gain traction in an urban-intensive community and continue to provide positive opportunities for young boys to thrive.
Authors: Brian Guthrie & Risto Marttinen
Original article: Marttinen, R., Fredrick III, R. N., Johnston, K., Phillips, S., & Patterson, D. (2019). Implementing the REACH after-school programme for youth in urban communities: Challenges and lessons learned. European Physical Education Review, 1356336X19865566.