Alabama Cooperative Extension Services Case Study
Organization: Alabama Cooperative Extension Services
Program Name: Emerging Relationships
Funding: Family and Child Development budget from Cooperative Extension
What Problem is Being Solved?
- Improving school climate and relationships between students and schools.
- Schools want classrooms to be places where youth get along better by building better relationships. They seek school-wide relationship improvements.
Curricula Used: Emerging Relationships (ER)
Curricula Benefits: ER contains the building blocks for young relationships. ER is a great pre-cursor for Relationship Smarts PLUS.
Target Audience: 6th grade students
Audience Demographics: Low income, disadvantages community, 66% qualify for free or reduced lunch.
Class size: 15–25 students each.
Program Setting: All 6th grade students in a school during either social studies classes or advisory periods.
Location of Instruction: Public Schools
Length of Instruction (# of Sessions And Hours Per Session): Six sessions, 1 hour each.
Instructor: Extension Agent
Participant Journals: Students receive and use journals to enhance lessons.
Participant Engagement: Students are open and talk during the session activities. Sometimes they want to talk more, after class to continue the discussion or to share what they’ve learned.
Observable Outcomes:
- Builds the students’ self-esteem.
- Assists with developing positive self-image.
- Students demonstrate confidence to share in the class.
Instructor works individually with special ed students or students who have been bullied. This program validates them and improves their self-worth.
Challenges:
- School schedules can vary and classroom interruptions can impede on instruction time, cut activities or discussions short.
- Surveys take up scheduled time. A day may need to be added to program implementation to complete surveys.
Tips:
- Prep- Prep -Prep materials before you begin to instruct!
- Laminating activity cards—keeps them fresh for reuse!
- Establish relationship with school counselors for subject matter and to be available if a student needs additional services.
- Promote ER by sharing with the counselor the Health National Standards that ER meets. (The crosswalk is at https://dibbleinstitute.org/our-programs/emerging-relationships)
- Avoid testing months and holidays for program implementation.
- Be flexible.