I Am Empowered - I am the National Urban League

The Project Ready 2.0 Curriculum

The curriculum is comprised of three major components: 1) Academic Development, 2) Social Development and 3) College Culture and Awareness. More importantly, for each component there are a set of explicit student outcomes which are guided by an Individual College Development Plan (ICDP). Our post-secondary success approach explicitly integrates academic preparation for college and success after high school with positive youth development in order to better serve young people in the 21st Century. Project Ready is a unique and comprehensive approach to building the academic, personal, social and leadership assets of African American students.

Middle School Transitions

The Middle School Transitions component prepares and supports middle school students in making the move from middle to high school, an especially vulnerable time for adolescents. We recognize the need to begin post-secondary success opportunities and supports earlier in adolescence in order to smooth the transition from middle school to high school and maximize the impact of the program. The Project Ready Middle School Transitions model started as a pilot serving over 100 5th-8th grade students in three Urban League affiliates:

Chicago Urban League
http://www.thechicagourbanleague.org/

Milwaukee Urban League
http://www.tmul.org/

Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle
http://www.urbanleague.org/index.php/departments/education

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

In 2010, the National Urban League expanded Project Ready to include a component focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It started as a pilot at three Urban League affiliates who have successfully operated effective college access or preparation programs in the past, or have successfully operated STEM programs for middle or high school age youth. The goals of this expansion are to ensure that urban students have the necessary supports and opportunities available to them in order to succeed in STEM-related class work, and to expose students to STEM-related careers, including the fields of health, digital media, green jobs and robotics. The STEM pilot operated in there affiliates:

Urban League of Rochester
http://www.ulr.org/education_youth_programs.php

Urban League of Greater Chattanooga
http://www.ulchatt.net/programs

Urban League of Springfield
http://www.ulspringfield.org/programs.html

Service Learning

The Service Learning enhancement affords eight Project Ready sites the opportunity to participate in community service and development projects paired with meaningful reflective and developmental instruction. Service-learning programs adopt youth development frameworks to engage young people in a mix of formal instruction, service activities and reflection. At their best, these programs provide meaningful service activities that benefit both participants and their communities, fostering life skills, critical thinking, a sense of efficacy and self-worth, and responsible attitudes and behaviors.
 

Mentoring

Through Project Ready: Mentor, at least 440 young people will each receive at least 182 hours per year of individual, group and virtual mentoring. Read more…