Street Academy

THE STREET ACADEMY CHILDREN AND YOUTH FOUNDATION (SA - CYF)

Founded on the 13th of September as a sub-project of the Street Academy. The goal was to simply collect a database of the former students and see how they are doing. During this process we realized that 36% of these kids drop out from their placement during the first two years mainly due to a lack in school materials, food and healthcare. VISION Our vision is to become the leading NGO in Ghana for providing support for education for street children. MISSION Our mission is to provide support for education, vocational training and extra curricular activities for street children. OBJECTIVES • Creating a profile for all students of the Street Academy in the formal schools (public schools) numbering about 400 children and youth.

•Provide educational support to these children in the form of school books, feeding, uniforms, drawing boards, and any other school materials that might be needed. .Adoption of the two girl empowerment groups currently operating in The Street Academy and developing them. Creating a permanent job post that will cater to the needs of street girls.

•Help those who are not so academic to find placement for vocational skills training.

•Building a sustainable secretariat and project for The Street Academy with strong collaboration with Metropolis University of Applied Sciences. MANAGEMENT SA-CYF will permanently employ at least 5 people. These people will be responsible for the continuity and day-to-day running of the project. They are as follows: project manager, secretary, accountant, head of sponsorship and head of education. Currently we only have one permanent employee which is the project manager.

TARGET POPULATION AND LOCATION PRIMARY TARGET: SA - CYF has her primary focus on the four hundred (400) students of The Academy placed into the formal schools (Public Schools) who are all street children. SECONDARY TARGET: To emphasize on the education and empowerment of girls among the 400 that we mentioned above. TERTIARY TARGET: SA - CYF plans to expand and provide services to 10% of street children in Accra. LOCATION: SA-CYF's area of operation is Accra central. Areas such as Jamestown, Bukom, Chorkor, Osu and other fishing communities around the coast of Accra. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN/PROGRAM TIMELINE The Street Academy Children and Youth Foundation has the following implementation Plan:

The first phase started 13th August, 2010 has been collecting a proper database of 337 students of the Street Academy placed into the formal (public) schools. This was phase was completed at the end of November.

Second phase is creating an organized system of support for all of the children. We will implement a system of monitoring and evaluation in co-operation with their respective schools. It shall also include setting up a secretariat and administrative staff at an area close to our target group. At the same time we created a draft of a strategic plan for the time period of 2010-2011. This phase was started at the beginning of November.

The third phase will consist of finding permanent sponsors for our project. This includes support for their school materials, uniforms, feeding, healthcare, exam fee's and other levies up to the tertiary level. This phase has also been started already.

Final stage will be a fully operational organization, which has 5 employees working from an office. The foundation will also be able to pay them salaries, and have a personal budget for the running costs. We hope to be able to achieve this stage during the first part of 2011. It will be able to provide support for at least 400 children, a number which in time will grow. STUDENT MONITORING AND EVALUATION We will be monitoring the children on our database monthly. Field work is conducted at the schools and homes. When a child gets a sponsor, we gather a comprehensive profile about the child. We will interview their teachers and visit their parents. This profile is then sent to the sponsor if they so request. We will update the sponsor quarterly about the situation of the child. This is done again, with interviews and with an evaluation form we created for the schools. In this form the teachers make basic evaluations on the student's academic performance, class performance, behavior and exam performance. They will also mark all the absences the student has had for the time period.

EVALUATION AND IMPACT ASSESSMENT Questionnaires would be administered to the parents and teachers for the evaluation and impact assessment of the program by the end each year and funding period. For those who cannot read and write, one on one interviews will be conducted. The measurements would make provision for the comparison at the end of the period against the baseline study done at the start of the program. This will include research, an evaluation report, key success indicators and interviews with key stakeholders. PROGRAMME VISIBILITY The Street Academy Children and Youth Foundation (SA - CYF) shall be made visible to the public through an office in City Engineers building in Jamestown on the High Street. A website will be created by a Dutch company titled MikMak. Signboards will be located in Jamestown and its environs to tell of the importance of education.