1. Community & College Going Culture:
College Going Culture Framework
BGCA Future Center
Current Status of Education:
National and Local
Community & College Going Culture:
The Boys and Girls Club Future Centers
Leadership
Purpose
Site Coordinators
Each will advise and direct three of the Boys and Girls Club future centers
Will work 2-3 times a week at each site, during afterschool hours
Will be trained by both DSF and Boys and Girls Club
BGCA Future Center Leadership
The current Boys and Girls Club staff, directors, and club members, the future centers will maintain consistent and daily hours to promote availability during the normally scheduled Boys and Girls Clubs hours
Both Boys and Girls Club staff and members will receive training prior to working in the future centers
Student Leadership
Student staffing will foster peer support for those members that may be undecided about the college process
By setting an example of a college-going environment, Boys and Girls Club members are likely to indirectly and directly influence one another
The student leadership positions will provide students with training and compensation for their time at the future centers, boosting their college-going portfolios and reinforcing their own college readiness by helping others prepare
If compensation is not possible, many of the Boys and Girls Clubs rely on their leadership training programs (Keystone Leaders, Key Club, etc.) to provide the centers with engaged and motivated students who are more than capable of helping to run the Future Centers
Due to the fact that degree attainment remains a racialized problem, both nationally and within Denver, it seems that professionals can expand educational resources into places where students of color already seek help, support, and a sense of belonging, such as a Boys and Girls Club.
Current Denver Scholarship Foundation Future Center
Cultivate a college-going environment
Support students as they prepare for collage
Provide a safe space for students to explore post-secondary options
Places a college resource center in a school
Current Boys and Girls Club
Promotes member success within the established communities of support and knowledge
The highly touted school-based college-going culture is inherently racist in both form and content. Thus is it imperative to move the application of these practices to a different environment, a community-based location; one already engaged in the cultural life of communities of color, as a means of creating anti-racist spaces for the success of students of color.
Funding
Education in the United States
Since 1980, the secondary education dropout rates of White students have consistently decreased every year, reaching a recorded low of 4.8 percent in 2008
In 2008, Black students had a dropout rate of 9.9 percent and Hispanic students had an 18.3 dropout percent
Though the overall percentage of White student enrollment in higher education has decreased from 2000 to 2009, these students still continue to enter the gates of the ivory tower at significantly higher rates then students of color
During the same nine year period, the percentage of both Hispanic and Black students rose only 3 percent, from 9.5 to 12.5 for Hispanic students and 11.3 to 14.3 for Black students
In 2008, of those students conferred a bachelor’s degree, 76.1 percent were White, 9.8 percent were Black, and 7.9 percent were Hispanic child’s education by white normative standards
Education in Denver
In 2010, 54.3 percent of Black students and 46.5 percent of Hispanic students in the Denver Public Schools (DPS) graduated on time
These groups of students together accounted for over a quarter of the dropout rates during the same year
Denver County has a total remediation rate of 54.7 percent, the highest in relation to the six other counties in Colorado that have eight high schools or more
Of the 10 DPS high schools described in the remedial education report, four of the ten have a black student population of 30 percent or higher
Individual Boys and Girls Clubs will be expected to fund the physical location of a future center within the clubhouse
Staffing the future centers will require a joint venture of all nine Boys and Girls Clubs and DSF
We suggest the creation of a joint financial entity, a Boys and Girls Club Future Center
Our research is based off of the proposed college-going model, drawn from research-supported best practices proposed by Tuitt and Sulick (forthcoming).
College Literacy: the building of knowledge regarding the college-going process;
College Readiness: college preparation through the development of a college portfolio (resume, test scores, transcripts, and extracurricular activities); and
Social Networks: making connections and building relationships with people that will help a student reach college.
Thus drawing from CRT literature, Yosso (2005) posits six forms of capital, including:
Aspirational capital: one’s ability to preserve hopes and dreams for the future in the experience of real and perceived barriers;
Linguistic capital: the skills and knowledge attained in having more than one language;
Familial capital: knowledge attained through the history and intrinsic cultural understanding as passed down by the family;
Social capital: the networks of connections and sources as provided by the community;
Navigational capital: the skills acquired as one learns to negotiate social institutions; and
Resistant capital: the knowledge and skills learned in opposition to individual and institutional inequality.
Through community cultural wealth, we will use these tenets, to build a college-going culture in a community context.
Curriculum and Programming
College Literacy
Build a college library
Work with students to explore different types of jobs and options
Engage with students in compiling a college portfolio
Provide key information relating to financial aid and scholarships
Provide students with information on how they will pay for college
Programs to help students pay for college
Programs that explore what students can expect in college
College Readiness
ACT/SAT prep study guides and testing information
College transition information/classes
Social Networks
Cohort System
Family Involvement
Mentorship Program
 In the short term, the nine clubs and DSF should allocate a specific percentage of their funds toward the creation of joint Future Center Site Coordinator positions.
Scholarships, Higher Education and Retention
By creating future centers in the local Boys and Girls Clubs, students will be privy to DSF scholarships and to the services offered by the retention managers at the local colleges and universities