Living Classrooms Foundation’s Fresh Start is a 40-week program that provides individualized vocational training, academic remediation, job readiness skills, educational opportunities, life skills instruction, and work experience. Fresh Start serves out-of-school high-risk youth ages 16-19, most of whom are referred by juvenile service agencies in Maryland and Washington, DC. The majority of the youth we serve are African-American males residing in urban environments and low-income housing.

The program has been recognized since 1996 by the U.S. Department of Labor and National Youth Employment Coalition with the PEPNet Award for promising and effective practices working with out-of-school youth. The program has been operating in Baltimore City, USA, for almost twenty years and in 2007, Living Classrooms received a $1.6 million federal grant to expand the program to Washington, DC and a targeted East Baltimore neighborhood.

Fresh Start places an emphasis on gaining skills for the workplace, obtaining a GED, and helping youth develop healthy self-esteem through leadership development, team building, and enrichment activities. The program mirrors the workplace by placing students in small groups with an instructor serving as a work crew supervisor. Throughout the program, youth are challenged with hands-on carpentry projects and real world work experience, with 100% of students employed upon graduation and 81% employed and/or continuing their education after three years. The program maintains a low recidivism rate of less than 13% over three years.

Fresh Start’s best practices include a daily recognition ceremony, daily self-evaluation, a small staff to student ratio, engagement versus supervision, a student-run business, performance-based stipend, integrated educational/vocational curriculum, emphasis on outcomes, three years of aftercare services, and continuous program assessment and improvement. Furthermore, Fresh Start builds relationships with a student’s support network (i.e. his or her parent or probation officer) and addresses individualized issuesrather than imposing a “one-size-fits-all” model.

The program utilizes five interventions over the 40 weeks. During the Skills Training Program, students receive instruction in carpentry and other vocational fields. Fresh Start’s skills training module operates on a normal business schedule where youth are expected to learn and exhibit professional behaviors and attitudes. The program uses a 1:5 staff to youth ratio, allowing youth to develop strong bonds with an adult role model. The small group setting--in this case, a work crew--allows the youth to communicate effectively with one another, learn to take healthy risks, and work as a team. One aspect of the skills training program is an entrepreneurial component where students build a line of outdoor furniture and are introduced to business skills while marketing and selling these products.

Workforce Development, the second intervention, places emphasis on helping youth develop interpersonal skills appropriate to the job setting as well as to their overall success in life. As students work in small groups, they learn the importance of problem solving and communication skills in the workplace. Students are also measured on punctuality, attitude, and appearance. In the last sixteen weeks before graduation, students participate in internships through various employment partnerships.

Academic Remediation allows students to prepare for their high school equivalency diploma. A trained teacher is on site daily to help youth connect their work on the shop floor to academic skills. There is no minimum academic requirement for admission to the program, so remediation is individualized. The Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) and practice GED test are used to determine strengths and weaknesses. Through an integrated GED/vocational curriculum, students “learn by doing” using non-traditional instructional methods. These methods are then reinforced by one hour of formalized classroom instruction each day.

The Service Learning component helps students to strengthen their sense of self-value and form a positive connection with the community. Students complete service projects, such as constructing facilities for the community; participating in neighborhood clean-up; and assisting at local soup kitchens and a school for special needs children.

Character Building and Self-Awareness is addressed everyday throughout the program. Students conclude each day with a recognition ceremony to acknowledge accomplishments and improvement areas, and a self-evaluation to grade their punctuality, cooperation, motivation, professionalism, and work quality. Evaluation scores add up to a daily point total, which in turn add up to a weekly point total. Students’ weekly point totals determine whether or not they earn privileges such as off-site trips and special activities, and also influence the proportion of student money earned through the program’s profit-generating modules such as furniture production and boat-building. The ability for students to recognize the integrity of their performance is essential to ensuring that Fresh Start graduates enter the work world with an understanding of its demands.

Learn more about the Living Classrooms Foundation at http://www.livingclassrooms.org/