Impact

Friends-Boston lives a "culture of mentoring" and we use the Boston Campaign for Proficiency's "Failure and Difficulty as Feedback" process. We know that we hold our students and families to high standards and we do the same with ourselves. This means that at Friends-Boston we consider ourselves both mentors and mentees and we want to know where we are succeeding and where we can improve. This translates into quality program measurement as well as outcomes-based management tools and procedures. Our goals are that each Achiever will:

Graduate from high school with a positive plan for the future.
Make healthy choices regarding behavior, family planning, relationships, and drug/alcohol use.
Become civically-engaged community members with critical thinking skills and awareness of social systems.
Embrace their own unique identity and value the importance of others' diverse backgrounds.

In our fourth year of programming, the oldest Achievers are in 4th grade. Indicators track progress towards long-term goals. Each Achiever will:

Develop social skills with adults, peers, and members of our community.
Improve mental and emotional health.
Learn to make good choices regarding behavior and peer pressure.
Attend school regularly and make consistent progress academically and behaviorally.
Improve health care (physical, mental, and when appropriate, reproductive).

Friends-Boston utilizes a number of tools and processes to measure our impact. According to teacher's assessments, Friend and caregiver surveys and report cards, in the 2007-2008 school year as compared with the 2006-2007 school year:

70% of Achievers are now reading at or above grade level
9 Achievers went from not reading at or above grade level in 2006-2007 to reading at or above grade level in 2007-2008
3 Achievers who were not attending school regularly in 2006-2007 began attending regularly in 2007-2008
Overal 89% of Achievers are attending school regularly
The quality of Friend-Achiever relationships (Good to Excellent) increased from 90% in 2006-2007 to 93% in 2007-2008
100% of caregivers reported a good relationships between Friend and Achiever
Quality of Friend-Parent/Guardian relationships (Good to Excellent) increased from 88% in 2006-2007 to 93% in 2007-2008

Friend-Boston is participating in a national research study about the impacts and best-practices in the field of mentoring. The National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) recently awarded $2.9M over 5 years to Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC) for a comprehensive, longitudinal study of the Friends of the Children model. The study will investigate the long-term impact and best practices in mentoring children living in high-risk environments in four major US cities.