Through collaboration between Target Stores and the Tiger Woods Foundation, teachers and youth leaders help youth explore and identify their passion in life. Through hard work and inspiring activities, Start Something helps your youth build core values and inspire positive leadership qualities within each participant. This free program has a strong focus on goal setting and role modeling. The 10 session curriculum can be delivered offline or online. Participants who complete the program will have the opportunity to apply for scholarships in order to continue to pursue their dreams.
2. Purpose/objective of your Initiative
The purpose of the program is to assist youth, ages 8-17 to identify their dreams and give them the tools to begin to reach their goals. In the concluding activity, each participant presents their action program to demonstrate their commitment to reaching their personal goal.
3. Main Partners
Many organizations have become partners in making the program available to their members, including:
- National Alliance of Black School Educators
- Communities in Schools
- National Association of Elementary School Principals
- Illinois Association of School Administrators
- Texas Association of School Administrators
- National Middle School Principals Association
- Christian Community Development Association
4. Main Beneficiaries
Key benefactors are youth, between the ages of 8 and 17. today, there are more than 80,000 youth involved and we anticipate the number to be near 200,000 by the time of the conference. These youth are involved in the program through:
- Their school
- 4-H clubs
- Boys and Girls Clubs
- YMCA
- YWCA
- Urban League
- Scouts
- Faith-based organizations
5. Main Contributors
Start Something is funded by the community relations department of Target Stores and the Tiger Woods Foundation.
6. Essential Elements
The essential elements include
- Full program contents:
- Start Something, by Earl Woods
- Curriculum Guide
- Certificates of completion
- Incentives for participation
- Online tools
- Curriculum
- Interest Survey
- Career exploration database
- Teacher Forum
- Volunteer zip code search
- Teacher/youth leader
7. Main Factors of its Success
The main factors of success include:
- Tiger Wood¹s image (youth look up to him)
- Target image (commitment to education and building community)
- Interactive, hands-on curriculum
- Scholarship potential
- No cost for program
- Grassroots marketing efforts
8. Assessment/evaluation process and evidence of strength
The following measures have been put in place to evaluate the strength of the program:
- Online Teacher Forum to collect daily feedback
- Request for feedback from teachers upon completion of the program
- Informal sampling of teachers requesting feedback on program
9. Number of years the program has been in existence and growth since inception
Start Something is in it¹s second year. In 2001, 25,000 youth participated. Today more than 80,000 are enrolled and we anticipate 200,000 before the 2003 program launches in March 0f 2003.
10. Impact
The impacts of Start Something are as follows:
- Thousands of youth will identify their dreams and build plans to reach them
- $300,000 in scholarships will be awarded in increments from $100 $5,000 to assist youth in reaching their dreams
11. Potential Replication and Scale of the Initiative
Start Something has been designed for replication. Teachers and youth leaders can order the self-contained curriculum packaged for face-to-face group delivery or have their group take it completely online.
12. Name and contact information for an underwriter who validates the application
Quentin Lawson
Executive Director
National Alliance of Black School Educators
310 Pennsylvania Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20003
Work: (202) 608-6311
Work fax: (202) 608-6319
E-mail: qlawson@nabse.org
Dean Kephart
2919 Benton Blvd
Minneapolis, MN 55416
(612) 922-6796
(612) 926-8272 fax
dkephart@mn.rr.com