Lessons for life Program Evaluation
I will be evaluating the "Lessons for Life" Program at The Friendship Circle to determine if the program is meeting the intended goals.
Program Description
Program Goals
Lessons for Life 2.0 is a curriculum for the development of social, cognitive, and emotional skills and an evaluative tool for assessing the progress of students with disabilities as tracked in their Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs). The program improves and monitors progress towards these skills through the direct application of life skills in a controlled environment at the Friendship Circle’s Ferber Kaufman LifeTown facility. This facility is a community setting called the Weinberg Village. The idea is to improve students social, cognitive, and emotional skill goals through simulating these situation and skills in a real-life simulated town setting.
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https://www.friendshipcircle.org/schools/lessons-for-life-2-0/
- To modify the Lessons for Life program from focusing on group needs to playing a vital role in improving individual objectives for each student.
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- Teaching life skills while meeting the standards set in subjects established by federal and state mandates.
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- Translation of concepts learned in the classroom to real-life application
Lessons for Life fills the gap between classroom learning and real world experiences by teaching life skills and giving the opportunity to confidently assume responsibility and independence in the outside world. Below are the locations in the Weinberg Village that create these life skills experiences.
Lessons for Life fills the gap between classroom learning and real world experiences by teaching life skills and giving the opportunity to confidently assume responsibility and independence in the outside world. Below are the locations in the Weinberg Village that create these life skills experiences.
"Research continues to prove that students have a higher rate of success in comprehension skills when taught in a true-to-life setting. This is especially true for students with disabilities who are in need of alternative forms of education."
Demographics
Since 2005, the Friendship Circle has served over 10,000 students from 156 schools all over Southeast Michigan. Included in this number are thirty schools from the Detroit Public School district. The region served is primarily Southeast Michigan, including Oakland, Wayne, Macomb and Washtenaw counties.
Size of Staff
The Friendship Circle consist of 30 staff members and 24 board members. As well as over 800 volunteers.
Resources
Funding: This is a non-profit organization.
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Teachers and staff: 30 staff members, 24 board members, and volunteers.
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The Village: LifeTown is Weinberg Village, a 5,000 square-foot, true-to-life cityscape, with 11 different locations to practice real life skills.
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Materials: Lessons for Life is a curriculum that contains 17 different lessons for students to practice and learn new skills.
Purpose For My Evaluation
For my program evaluation, I will be evaluating the "Lessons for Life" Program at The Friendship Circle to determine if the program is meeting the intended goals. This non-profit organization is near and dear to my heart. After mentoring a student with special needs in high school and learning that my friendship and safety saved his life; I knew that becoming a teacher and helping others was the journey for me. While mentoring this student in high school we often went to The Friendship Circle. The success and happiness it created for him was unspeakable.
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Furthermore, my first reason for evaluating this program is to learn more about the interventions and process that is being taken at The Friendship Circle to help students successfully learn these life skills. As a teacher to many students with special needs, I hope gathering more insight on this successful program will help teach me new strategies to transfer into my own classroom. Secondly, as a virtual teacher in this area, many of my students are special needs and I hope that I can refer parents to this organization or dig deeper into their programs in hopes to replicate ideas into our own school. If in fact this program is meeting the intended goals, I hope to understand what parts of their program are successful and what interventions I can use in my own practice to help more students.
Evaluation Questions:
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How many students successfully transfer out of the “Lessons for Life” program each year?
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How is success being defined or evaluated for this program?
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What type of training do the volunteers go through to teach the curriculum?
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Do families and students feel they can transition these skills into the real world once they transition out of The Friendship Circle "Lessons for Life" program? What are the positive and negatives of the program?
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What is the average cost to run this program at The Friendship Circle?
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What other local programs are competing with “Lessons for Life?”
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How can this program reach or serve more students and families in the community?