WINGS Soars!
WINGS is an innovative social and emotional education program for at-risk elementary school students.
About You
About You
First Name
Adam
Last Name
Pomerantz
Twitter URL
http://twitter.com/#!/wingsforkids
Facebook URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
WINGS for kids
Organization Website
Organization Country
United States, SC, Charleston
Country where this project is creating social impact
United States, SC, Charleston
Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
After-School Provider.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Public (tuition-free)
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for more than 5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
We are working to solve poverty, which affects 44% of all U.S. children The impact of poverty on academic development and economic empowerment is devastating. Ten-year-old students from the poorest families are already 18 months behind their higher-income counterparts academically, and attendance records of fourth-grade students from low-income schools show a 38% increase in the number of kids who miss 3+days per month when compared to higher income schools. These trends continue in high school - low-income students drop out 4.4 times more than high-income students. Failure to graduate leads to lifetime income loss of $630,000 and social welfare costs of $240,000 per person. High School dropouts also experience significantly higher jailing and teenage parenthood rates than graduates.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
WINGS is an education organization that teaches kids how to behave well, make good decisions, and build healthy relationships. We do this by delivering a social and emotional learning curriculum into a fresh and fun after school program. Operating in Title I elementary schools, we serve at-risk, low-income kids 3-hours per day, 5-days per week, for the entire school year –students receive more than 500 hours of quality programing annually.
Our program meets two critical needs at the same time: 1) social and emotional education and 2) safe and enriching after school care. Research shows social and emotional education delivered in the after school setting increases academic achievement, school attendance, and student behavior. Evaluations of our program show – WINGS kids make better grades, score higher on standardizes tests, attend school more often, and have better behavior than non-WINGS students. Our students also graduate at a rate 40% higher than their peer group – WINGS works.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
Kids arrive in WINGS immediately after school. AmeriCorps members, called WINGSLeaders, serve with our kids. They are carefully recruited and trained to maximize impact. Low member to student ratios (1:10-12) and innovative activities are used for constant engagement. Our curriculum includes:
Community Unity – the first 30 minutes of each day, focused on creating a caring community, teaching social and emotional skills, and providing a nutritious snack. The WINGS Creed, our SEL objectives in kid-friendly language, is said at this time.
Choice Time – 9-week blocks of well-prepared art, music, sports, and activities that the kids select. All activities infuse academic standards and SEL objectives. Choice Time is twice per week and serves as an opportunity for collaboration with other organizations.
Academic Centers – 60 minutes Monday-Thursday where students receive academic support from WINGSLeaders and community volunteers.
WINGSWorks – weekly 60 minutes of community service activities focused on helping others and strengthening attachment to school.
WildWINGS – weekly 90 minutes of innovative games, discussions, and activities to reinforce the weekly learning objective.
LaunchPad Curriculum – designed for fourth and fifth grade students to further develop 21st century skills and to open new educational and career pathways.
Discussions – Incorporated into Mondays and Fridays, this is a time for students to demonstrate they understand the weekly learning objective.
Parent literacy and educational activities are also incorporated into our program.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
Our peers are effective education and human service organizations providing support to at-risk kids. Examples include Playworks and Citizen Schools. Our competitors are ineffective nonprofits that utilize scarce resources.
Program research and the use of data differentiate us. Studies from Yale University and the University of Virginia (UVA) provide evidence that students enrolled in WINGS have significantly higher math and reading scores, grades, and school attendance compared to non-WINGS kids. This led to a $2.8 million Institute of Education Sciences grant to UVA to conduct a four-year randomized control trial impact study on WINGS – the gold standard in evaluation. We also maintain our own online performance management system to monitor impact and to make adjustments in real-time.
Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
WINGS is an innovative social and emotional education program for at-risk elementary school students.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
WINGS is the only after school program solely dedicated to social and emotional intelligence.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Over the past the past four years we have experienced a 300% growth rate – successfully growing from one school to four. We currently serve 450 at-risk kids daily, and as we grow we will serve thousands more.
We measure impact through a series of short-term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes. In the short-term, we have demonstrated that our curriculum teaches students social and emotional skill. Intermediate outcomes demonstrate significantly higher math and reading scores, classroom grades, school attendance, and behavior when compared to non-WINGS students. These results are documented through our own performance management system and external evaluations by Yale and UVA. Our long-term outcomes are limited in number due to the number of years WINGS has been in existence, but powerful in impact – our students show a 40% higher graduation rate than non-WINGS students from the same elementary school cohort.
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
Since the 2007–2008 school year WINGS has grown from one program to four, and we have increased the number of kids we serve daily from 116 to more than 450. All of our growth has been within Charleston, SC.
Next school year we plan to launch outside of our hometown!
During the 2012-13 school year we will expand to the Atlanta region and open two schools, serving 635 kids. We will continue to push forward in 2013-14, with up to 10 total schools throughout the organization. By 2014-15 we expect to be in at least three regions with up to 12 schools and nearly 1,500 students being served daily.
Based on our preliminary graduation data, our early expansion will lead to hundreds of additional high school graduates. Moving beyond 2015, we plan to grow more rapidly to expand our impact.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
WINGS will open 2 new programs in Atlanta, continue to run our 4 Charleston programs, 100% of Atlanta funding will be secured.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Work with the Atlanta school districts to solidify support for WINGS. Based on internal criteria, we will choose two schools.
Task 2
Work with foundations that have expressed interest in WINGS and apply for state and Federal grants to secure funding.
Task 3
Recruit all staff and members and work with schools and families to recruit kids into our programs.
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Our WINGSLeaders, part-time AmeriCorps members, will be trained at least 45 hours on how to properly implement our curriculum.
Task 2
The Atlanta Director will use our reports to monitor fidelity and to ensure kids are working towards strong outcomes.
Task 3
Document the expansion journey and use our experiences to create a blueprint of successes, triumphs, and lessons learned.
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
At age 40, Ginny Deerin was recognized as a success – a political strategist and a top executive at a marketing firm. But her perspective suddenly shifted after hearing a speech by Johnnetta Cole, president of Spelman College. Cole’s message was that ‘if we couldn’t envision ourselves soaring beyond the cage – we never would. It’s up to us to fly.” Ginny realized she had lived her life as the consummate Number 2 person, limiting her possibilities - she was always working behind the scenes, never taking the lead.
Inspired to go through a period of self-evaluation, Ginny recognized the need for social and emotional skills – empathy, the ability to communicate constructively, and to listen carefully. Not only did she lack some of these skills, many others did too. Ready to lead, Ginny consulted with experts in the field and designed a curriculum. As Ginny gathered steam, she realized the real need for this programing was in at-risk populations, where maximum impact could be made.
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
We value partners from a variety of avenues. Other community based organizations, such as the Girl Scouts, Earth Force, and Junior Achievement, are frequent collaborators with Choice Time and enrichment activities for our students. Community volunteers are also strong partners, especially during Academic Center. This allows for our students to develop positive relationships with successful individuals and for them to receive additional academic support. Another strong area of partnership comes in the form of in-kind program donations.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
WINGS relies on its strong staff, Board of Directors, and community supporters. The staff is dedicated to achieving the listed milestones, in and out of their regular work days. They are then able to lean on an active and involved Board for guidance and support. As we expand, we will certainly rely on the for-profit growth experiences certain members have. The final components are our community supporters and stakeholders. Without local buy-in to what we’re doing, expansion will not be possible.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
A key need is to increase the number of advocates of WINGS – the more people who know about our program and are willing to speak on our behalf, the easier entry into new markets will be. A strong presence will help when it comes to our development efforts to support new programs. Moving forward, we are happy to offer support to complimentary organizations with aligned goals of student success.
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 | 13 weeks agoAdam Pomerantz updated this Competition Entry. |
| 13 weeks agoAdam Pomerantz updated this Competition Entry. |
| 13 weeks agoAdam Pomerantz submitted this idea. |
