Promising Youth Alliance may be new to you, but the names leading it are way familiar. For instance, Denny Carreker, John Rodgers, Charles English, Charles Pierson, Clyde Rush and Dr. Tim Bray. Yes, you have the head honchos of Boys and Girls Club of Greater Dallas, Big Brothers Big Sisters and Phoenix House of Texas plus some very savvy educators and highest-profile business people.
They’re all coming together to provide much-needed, after-school programming. Having completed a pilot program at Sam Tasby Middle School in Vickery Meadow, they’re expanding to an elementary school in the Oak Lawn area and a charter school in West Dallas. As results continue to be positive, the plan can be expanded to other schools and cities.
Its creation resulted from McKinsey & Company‘s Dallas office “assessing successful after-school programs around the country and analyzed the particular needs of Dallas’ youth. Currently, 84% of DISD students are economically disadvantaged, and more than 100,000 students in the community are unsupervised after school every day. Research shows that after-school care can significantly improve the lives of young people and reduce crime and other social problems.”
And McKinsey did this research purely pro bono.
According to PYA Chair Carreker, “The research findings were disturbing. Thousands of our young people, the future of our community, are not being ‘saved by the bell’ but left to their own devices, despite many great programs in Dallas. In PYA great programs are integrated to address the whole child. That is what makes PYA unique: we are a collaboration of the best that delivers superior programming when and where the child needs it.”
Ah, another case of the nonprofit sector getting together with the business community to use creativity to save money and still achieve success.