When students graduate from our elementary program, they continue into our middle school program which meets twice a week, after school, in partnership with Annapolis Maritime Museum & Park. Sessions focus on mental health, prevention, building trusting relationships, community building and college and career readiness topics (e.g., goal setting, career exploration, and resume development), and environmental education. Students will also connect once a week with their individual mentors. Throughout the year, students attend various field trips, including college visits and trips to the theaters and museums designed to close the opportunity gap. Staff provides weekly outreach and connection with families, in addition to quarterly family night events focused on different mental health topics.
In collaboration with school counselors, teachers, and community partners, the Charting Careers' middle school program includes:
Learning about career options
Further developing interests
Building essential life skills
Connecting participants to extracurricular activities
Character development
Weekly review of grades and homework completion
Trauma-informed strategies
Measurable program goals and outcomes include:
Increased sense of self: This occurs through various activities that facilitate self understanding, celebration of differences, and strength assessment.
Increased use of school and community resources: This occur through collaboration with Anne Arundel County Public Schools and numerous community partners. Discover Your Story staff and volunteers are solution oriented and collaborate with youth and their families to identify and overcome barriers to academic, social, physical and emotional health.
Expanded interests: This occurs because programming provides new experiences and works to create a safe climate in which youth are able to take healthy risks.
Improved grades: This occurs through participants' increased use of after school help days, Power School, and linkage to resources for challenge areas (e.g., study skills, homework completion, math).
Increased participation in positive extracurricular activities aligned with student interest: This occurs through personalized goal setting, scholarships obtained/coordinated by Charting Careers, and transportation provided through background-checked volunteers and staff.
Increased protective factors and reduced risk factors: This is accomplished by bringing in staff and partners who provide research-based, youth development programming on a variety of topics including relationship skills, healthy decision making, drug refusal skills, pregnancy prevention, etc. Protective factors are also enhanced through the provision of individual mentoring.