The Impact of Academic, Social, and Emotional Programming for Disadvantaged Youth

Abstract

Houston Independent School District (HISD) and 8 Million Stories (8MS), a non-profit organization dedicated to "transform[ing] the lives of vulnerable youth through education, skills training, employment, and authentic relationships," have joined forces to form The HISD REAL Program. The HISD REAL Program stands for Reimagining MY Education and Life. This project aimed to develop a systematic process and analyze the status of the HISD REAL Program. The mixed methods approach analyzed, synthesized, and triangulated quantitative and quantitative data gathered from stakeholder survey responses and organizational documents. Themes, commonalities, and discrepancies were determined from the data, which resulted in five findings and six recommendations for the program to make long-term improvements.