Lancaster County, SC | Local Initiatives Support Corporation

The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded grant funding to eight local districts under the OJJDP FY 2019 Comprehensive School-Based Approach to Youth Violence and Victimization Program (CYVP). This grant program supported a comprehensive effort to address youth violence and victimization through implementing evidence-based prevention, intervention, and accountability efforts in a school-based setting. The goals of the program were to: (1) reduce the incidence of school violence through accountability efforts for offenders; (2) respond to victimization, exposure to violence, and trauma as a result of violence that occurs in the school, community, or family; (3) improve school safety and climate; and (4) prevent violence, delinquency, and victimization in the targeted community. LISC Safety & Justice provided technical assistance and training to enhance CYVP grantees’ capacity to reach their goals.

Introduction

Lancaster County is a rural county with a population of about 110,000 in 555 square miles in the north central part of South Carolina, just south of Charlotte, NC. Lancaster County School district serves 14,609 students, pre-K through adult education in 23 schools and three learning centers. This project focuses on three schools in The Hill neighborhood of Lancaster, a community challenged with high poverty and crime rates. Community-based organization Lancaster County Partners for Youth (Partners for Youth) is leading the initiative, working with the school district and other community organizations to support the children and youth of Lancaster County.

Reading and math scores declined throughout the district, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, but The Hill neighborhood was particularly hard-hit. Clinton Elementary School was included on a priority list for the state, which meant it was one of the 30 lowest-performing schools in South Carolina in factors like student achievement, teacher retention, and parental involvement. Recognizing the high need for wraparound services and a strong community interest in working collaboratively, Partners for Youth began investigating different models and became inspired by the Harlem Children's Zone model of wraparound services for all ages.

Project Purpose

Partners for Youth chose to focus on the schools serving The Hill: Clinton Elementary, A.R. Rucker Middle School, and Lancaster High School. Partners for Youth and the school district had implemented several different programs before – including early childhood, high school, and community programs – but they had never lined up a consistent system of supports at the same time. Partners for Youth applied for CYVP funds so they could bring school and community efforts together to implement comprehensive school-based prevention and intervention initiatives to promote healthy development and increase safety for children and their families.

Approach

Partners for Youth’s work in The Hill comprises a network of supports for children from infancy to adulthood. It focuses on a school feeder system of Clinton Elementary, A.R. Rucker Middle School, and Lancaster High School (now the focus of the Lancaster Promise Neighborhood) and leverages a coalition of key stakeholders including 40 public, private, civic and faith-based entities. A major centerpiece of the effort is extended day after-school programming. In a survey of the community, Partners for Youth found parents wanted the school day to be longer. They created an extended day program to keep kids active and engaged until the evening hours (6:30 to 7:30 p.m., depending on the age group) and offer support in several ways. The extended day is structured so students are connected with mentors and spend time on academics, fitness, and extracurricular activities.

Upon arrival after school, students spend time having a snack and relaxing. The first structured activity is academic hour, which focuses on core skills like reading and math. Partners for Youth incorporated homework labs into the day upon learning that some students do not arrive home until 8:30 or later and still had to complete homework at a late hour. Now staff tries to ensure that all homework is completed before students go home. The staff assists with homework and provides STEM activities during academic hour.

The next segment of the extended day is fitness hour. In the parent survey, Partners for Youth heard that obesity is a concern because students spend so much sedentary time on computers. Building in fitness time helps instill the habit of going outside for activity and fresh air. In addition, it allows students who like sports but are not on organized teams to experience athletic success.

The most popular component of the extended day is “exposure time,” the hours spent on enrichment activities outside of the school day curriculum. Exposure time offers students the chance to learn and experience new things, such as classes on drones, music production, “mad science” experiments, cooking and more. An elementary-level Spanish class taught children to sing in Spanish, which extended day mentors felt created a deeper sense of belonging for students who speak Spanish at home.

The Partners for Youth approach incorporates Check and Connect training for extended day staff in their roles as mentors to the students. Through Check and Connect, mentors monitor data such as student absences and behavioral referrals, checking for signs of disengagement with school. Mentors commit to be involved in the child's life for two years, working with them even during the summer break. They also maintain regular contact with both school counselors and students’ families, so all parties are working together to keep the student on track to graduation and beyond. Partners for Youth has seen improving trends for some of students it is working with, including better attendance and reduced suspensions.

Any student of the three schools living in the designated zone can sign up for extended day on a first-come-first-served basis. In addition, the schools may target some students for whom the program is “highly suggested.” Partners for Youth receives recommendations from principals, teachers, guidance counselors, and parents. In the 2022-23 school year, the program served 160 students at Clinton Elementary, 155 at Rucker Middle School, and 115 at Lancaster High School. Demand is strong among students as well as parents. Some students don’t want to stay home sick from school because they don’t want to miss extended day. Partners for Youth staff see this as a sign of success: their program makes students want to come to school.

Like any school program, the extended day in Lancaster is dependent on buy-in from the school system and school principals. No matter how good a program is or how much the district supports it, each school is the responsibility of its principal. It is critical to have the school leadership’s buy-in and create a strong working relationship with them. Even when that support is present, transition can present a challenge. When Clinton elementary transitioned off the state priority list, the Lancaster school system recognized the principal’s role in transforming the school and moved her to another school that needed a strong leader. This meant Partners for Youth had to build new relationships to keep the program operating successfully.

Results

Partners for Youth staff have found that students talk to their parents about what they experience and learn during extended day. It is not uncommon for parents to contact the mentors with positive feedback about their students’ new knowledge and even improved behavior at home. Many parents come to the program with negative connotations about the school district based on their own experiences in school, but their children’s positive experiences in extended day are increasing buy-in among the families.

Many of the students involved in extended day are there because they have had behavioral challenges in school. Early data results show behavioral issues among program participants are becoming less than the school averages, suspensions have gone down, and for a few students program mentors are working intensively with, there has been a 90 percent decrease in school absences.

Extended day students are showing academic success as well. State standardized testing showed that students at Clinton Elementary improved their scores by 25 percent on reading and math in spring 2023. Extended day students from the high school participated in a contest to identify a problem in the community, research the issue, and come up with a recommended solution. The extended day students won top prizes and received a plaque from the state and $500 to put toward a community project. The students presented their project at a community showcase and so impressed the chief of police with their use of police data, he asked them to do a presentation to law enforcement in the city of Lancaster.

Established with the CYVP grant, the program is now being carried on with funds from the Lancaster Promise Neighborhood, designated in 2021. Inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone, Partners for Youth crafted its program specifically to form the basis of an eventual Promise Neighborhood. The organization is already seeing these efforts pay off with transformation among both the students and their families.

Related Resources

Webinar: Mental Health & Substance Abuse Support Strategies for Schools webinar

Resources on this page are supported by Grant 2019-MU-MU-K011, awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Neither the U.S. Department of Justice nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse, this web site (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided).

OJJDP provides national leadership, coordination, and resources to prevent and respond to youth delinquency and victimization. The Office helps states, localities, and tribes develop effective and equitable juvenile justice systems that create safer communities and empower youth to lead productive lives.