Georgia Refugee Youth Program 2008-2009 service analysis

Define Issue:
Given the current economic climate, it is pivotal that government resources are used to maximum efficiency. The purpose of this analysis is to determine the overall effectiveness of contracted Youth Program Services for the past year.

Description:
The State of Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS) Refugee Program funded a Youth Program for refugee children. This included an after-school program for 10 months of the year and a summer camp for 2 months.

GEORGIA REFUGEE
YOUTH PROGRAM
2008-2009 SERVICE ANALYSIS
Funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
Georgia Department of Human Services
Division of Family & Children Services
Refugee Programs Unit

International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Refugee Family Services (RFS) provided Youth Programs for refugees who have been living in the United States (US) for 5 years or less. Both agencies conducted an afterschool program and a summer camp program.

IRC served youth ages 12 -21 and RFS served youth ages 5 13. IRC's students were mostly high school and RFS students were elementary and middle school.

From 09/30/2008 09/29/2009 a

total of 817 school-aged children

were new arrivals: males = 428,

females = 389. The largest groups

were Bhutanese and Burmese.

Within both programs a total of 402

(unduplicated) refugee children

were served, males = 208 and

females = 194. These services were

provided to refugee youth living in

DeKalb County primarily in the cities

of Decatur, Clarkston, and Stone

Mountain.

The number of

potentially eligible refugee children

that could have been served in the

Refugee Youth Program for the past

5 years = 2,902.

Funds Allocated:

Table 1

Total IRC RFS
Total IRC RFS

Afterschool Program Cost per Unit = $125.00

Units

Funds

Units

Allocated Allocated Expended

1,719.82 $214,978.50 1,638.82

600

$75,000.00

519

1,119.82 $139,978.50 1,119.82

Summer Camp Cost per Unit = $300.00

Units

Funds Allocated

Units

225

$67,000.00

225

120

$36,000.00

120

105

$31,500.00

105

Funds Expended $204,853.50 $64,875.00 $139,978.50
Funds Expended $67,500.00 $36,000.00 $31,500.00

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Graph 1
Youth Program Expense Comparisons

$36,000 $75,000

$31,500

$139,978.50

Total cost of Summer camp Total cost Afterschool

IRC

RFS

Total Social Service (SS) Funds available for contract year, 2008 - 2009 was $ 1,876,155.00. Total SS funds spent in Youth Program was $272,353.50, which equaled approximately 15%.

Program Participants:

New arrivals (school age children)
Children Served

Table 2
Total Males 817 428
402 208

Females 389
194

Program Analysis:
Although the performance outcome goals are similar, the programs offered by IRC and RFS vastly differ.
IRC offered a 3-hour, five-day-a-week afterschool program throughout the school year to 75 refugee youth. The program featured intensive tutoring, a state of the art computer skills lessons, English Language Instruction, college preparation and vocational and career workshops. Certified teachers from Graham Consulting worked in collaboration with the IRC educational team, and provided tutoring session's specific to standardized testing on a weekly basis. The Summer Camp curriculum operated based on weekly vocational topics; field trips and extra activities centered on these themes.
RFS afterschool program served 112 elementary and middle school refugee children. All students received homework help. Those with extra academic challenges also received one to one tutoring services in English. Most children were transported by van to and from site. The RFS Summer Camp served 56 refugee children. Many of the students attending the afterschool program also attended the summer program so there was a continuum of learning. During the 2009 RFS Summer Program, "Drop Everything and Read" (DEAR) Program, 88.6% of the students enrolled increased their total reading abilities as measured by a pre and post assessment.
Methodology/Benchmarks:
This analysis was comprised from the following sources: The Annual Comprehensive Monitoring Review, the Service Provision Guidelines Performance Expectations/Outcomes and the Trimester Reports.

Performance Outcome Results:

Graph 2
Afterschool Program

88.00% 87.00% 86.00% 85.00% 84.00% 83.00% 82.00% 81.00% 80.00% 79.00%

86.73% 82.23% Attendance Rate

85.00%

83.78%

IRC

RFS

Goals Met

Graph 3
Summer Youth Program

100.00% 98.00% 96.00%

100.00%

96.22%

96.36%

94.00%

IRC

92.00% 92.93%

RFS

90.00%

88.00%
Attendance Rate Completion Rate

Recommendation:
Although, these services primarily focused on promoting academic success, it also assisted refugee students to become acculturated to the United States Education System. These services benefitted not only the refugee students, but their parents and teachers as well. Therefore, it is recommended that the Georgia DHS Refugee Programs Unit continue to fund the Refugee Youth Program, as it provided an invaluable service to the community.

2008 -2009 Refugee Youth Program Analysis

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