Youth in the Project READY program out on the San Francisco Bay by their Huckleberry case managers.
As a grantee of the California PropelNext initiative, a three-year grant underwritten by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Huckleberry has piloted Project READY. Modeled after our juvenile justice program, Huckleberry Community Assessment & Resource Center (CARC), Project READY (Reconnecting, Educating, and Achieving Dreams for Youth), ensures that 8th graders with behavioral or truancy issues successfully transition to high school and avoid contact with the juvenile justice system.
Academic support and intensive one-on-one case management, combined with parental support and education, can reduce rates of school failure and arrest among youth with multiple risk factors. To achieve the goal of transitioning youth to high school while avoiding contact with the juvenile justice system, the program works with youth from the summer before 8th grade through the first semester of 9th grade, with the most intensive services offered during 8th grade.
On April 19, 2018, the CA Board of State and Community Corrections Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant Program awarded substantial funding totaling $446,000 to Project Ready! A key component of the new, two-year grant will be program evaluation – measuring student success in school and social-emotional learning.
