Strengths

The Oak Grove Middle School CARES is a well established program with strong support from our community partners and from our school staff and administration. Financially, we are supported by grants from both state and city initiatives. Oak Grove CARES has an excellent rapport with families; we often act as a first line of communication between the school and families. We are grateful to have a supportive set of faculty members, who keep us well informed about our students. In addition to helping us keep our students on track academically, the school day staff has positive feelings towards our sports program & several attend games regularly. We make every effort to understand each student individually; one site coordinator is a member of the CARE team & attends meetings each week to learn about any students that may need extra attention from the after school program.

Challenges

In order to maintain high quality services, we are continually looking for different avenues to pursue additional funding. There is an ongoing need to maintain high quality training & mentorship for CARES staff to ensure qualified staff are serving our students. We constantly work towards increasing student enrollment & retention.

Programs for Students and Families

Homework Help, Academic Intervention Program, ASPIRE Intervention Program, Nutrition and Physical Fitness Education, Arts and Crafts, Team Sports, Club Live Mentoring, Techbridge, Young Life, and Dance.

Daily nutritional snack provided in partnership with Food Services Department and the USDA.

• School day teachers instruct the Intervention portion of CARES.
• Representative of CARES in Student Care Team (SCT) and attends faculty, Leadership, and grade level meetings & Best Leadership.
• Informal and formal means of communication in place to facilitate discussion between CARES staff and school day teachers.
• CARES staff complete and share Bi-monthly Student Progress reports with classroom teachers.

• Homework Help: 1 hour HW assistance which includes 20 minutes of Daily Interactive Read-Aloud, Journal Time & Graffiti Walls. Students who have finished their homework and reading may read silently, complete supplemental worksheet from teacher leaders or play approved academic games.
• Intervention Program: 1 hour of academic intervention with a credentialed teacher in Language Arts &/or Mathematics. Student to teacher ratio 17:1. This program has eligibility requirements.
• ASPIRE Program: 1 hour of academic Intervention with a credentialed teacher in language arts. Student to teacher ratio is 6:1. This program has eligibility requirements.

• Enrichment opportunities: 6 hours per week of structured enrichment or recreation. Enrichment programming includes arts and crafts, athletics, leadership, and home economics programs. Programming focuses on the youth development model.
• Nutrition Education: 1 hour per week per student of nutrition education and 1 hour per week per student of cooking classes. Students engage in 45 minutes daily of mild to vigorous physical activity promotion. Students participate in nutrition lessons, cooking classes, and have an opportunity to join our garden club.
• Intramural Sports: Our intramural team sports include soccer, flag football, basketball, volleyball & softball. These sports teams are coached by CARES staff or faculty volunteers & are opened to all students who are enrolled in the after school program; cuts are not generally made. Students compete against other teams formed at fellow CARES middles schools.
• Clubs: A wide variety of clubs are offered to students every Friday during enrichment time. The clubs are selected and led by the recreation specialists based on theirs & their students’ interests. Clubs include Sports Clubs, Jewelry, Workout, & Fashion design Clubs. These clubs may change every quarter depending on students’ growing or waning interest.

• High school students from Ygnacio Valley High or nearby High schools who enjoys assisting our staff & students throughout the program day. Volunteers set the example for students by following the same rules, and assist with homework, enrichment and other scheduled programming.
• College & Careers Club: Students are given the chance to gain more interest in college. In this club led by our Teacher Leaders, the students are given the opportunity to voice what they would like to be in life, figure out the steps it takes to get their & then set benchmarks for themselves.

• Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano Counties: Families are given weekly free fruits and vegetables throughout the school year and during the summer program.
• Harvest of the Month: Each month we are given a fruit or vegetable that corresponds to what produce would naturally be in season in California. We use this fruit or vegetable in our weekly cooking lessons. Also parents receive the Harvest of Month family newsletter with our bi-monthly CARES newsletter.

Who We Serve

Number of Students served: 120
Free & Reduced Lunch: 52%
English Learner: 82%
Special Education: 20%
Male: 57%
Female: 43%

Demographics
Filipino: 17%
Latino: 51%
African American: 12.1%
Asian: 2.5%
Asian Pacific Islander: 2.9%
Other White: 23.6%
Other Non-White: 9.9%

How We Serve
Staff to student ratio: 1:20
Number of credentialed staff:2
Number of volunteers:4
Number of CARES staff: 9
Number of Community Partners: 4

Community Partners

• City of Concord Parks and Recreation
• MDUSD
• Bay Area Community Resources
• Network for a Healthy CA