Brighter Futures Youth Collaborative
BLCI recognizes the importance of building the individual protective factors that facilitate resiliency in students. While our curriculum alone encourages the development of many protective factors, we believe that additional protective factors can be built by collaborating with agencies which offer students with a range of opportunities for skill building and personal development that go beyond the scope of BLCI curriculum.
The Brighter Futures Youth Collaborative , a joint project between BLCI, ARTS (A Reason to Survive), and Outdoor Outreach, is designed to provide academic, social, and extracurricular activities that will help middle school students develop the positive skills and behaviors necessary for them to avoid risky behaviors, make positive choices, and ultimately become the first in their families to attend college. By providing students with meaningful opportunities and positive role models, we anticipate that students will build additional resiliency skills through participation in:
Steps to Success Workshops
Steps to Success Workshops are weekly classes which focus on a variety of topics relevant to college access including, time management and study skills, standardized test prep, and career exploration among others. These workshops foster academic success, encourage positive peer group interactions, and help students to form positive connections with adult role models and mentors.
Outdoor Adventure Club
Outdoor Outreach provides opportunities for at-risk and underserved youth to gain confidence and self-esteem through participation in outdoor activities such as surfing, snowboarding, mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking and snorkeling. These activities foster skill and competency building, self-efficacy, self-worth and hopefulness. The formation of an Adventure Club will afford students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills under the guidance of caring adult mentors. As students plan activities and collectively determine how their club will grow and thrive, their sense of pride and ownership is developed through teaching others, learning micro-enterprise skills, and exercising strength-based, character-building leadership and teamwork. Highlights of the club will be a summer trip to Yosemite and an overnight snowboarding trip to Mammoth.
ARTS Expression Sessions
ARTS (A Reason To Survive) is dedicated to healing, inspiring, and empowering children and youth by providing innovative arts-based programs, education, and opportunities. Recent findings on public school education in the United States suggest that the emphasis on traditional, standards based curriculum is deficient in its ability to keep at-risk youth engaged and connected. To address these deficiencies, BLCI middle school students will travel to the Pat D’Arrigo ARTS Center to attend ARTS Expression Sessions and work with professional artists in the mediums of art, music, dance, and photography.
Additionally, The Brighter Futures Youth Collaborative will include:
-A student-led Community Service Club
-A Cross-cultural speaker series
-Active Parent Participation
-Tutoring
Thanks to the members of San Diego Women's Foundation for your support of this project, we are truly grateful to have you as partners!