CARE NOW (Character and Resiliency Education: Norfolk and Old Dominion University Working Together) is a comprehensive in- and after-school program designed to promote resiliency and character in students, with the primary goal of enhancing academic achievement. This collaborative program includes Old Dominion University (ODU), Norfolk Public Schools, and Norfolk Recreation, Parks, and Open Space. The resiliency and character traits targeted include relationships and commitment, insight and prosocial behaviors, independence and cooperation versus competition, initiative, individual and collective responsibility, creativity, humor, self-discipline, and acceptance of differences. Each week throughout the school year, the traits are used as themes. The theory-based programming is aligned with the Positive Youth Development and Benefits Based movements, which focus on intentional programming for disadvantaged youth. CARE NOW is currently in two inner-city middle schools in Norfolk, Virginia. Approximately 700 students are served through the program by about 70 ODU students (called Advocates) from Counseling and Human Services (CHS) and Park, Recreation, and Tourism Studies (PRTS).

During the in-school portion of CARE NOW, held Mondays through Thursdays, CHS advocates work with students in each 6th-grade math and elective class. The CARE NOW advocates use counseling techniques to redirect students. Advocates may pull a student from class for brief counseling sessions when students cannot function due to social and emotional disruptions. One day each week, advocates present a 30-minute guidance lesson during class addressing the character and resilience traits of the week. They meet with students in small groups during lunch (Grub Groups) to further promote the traits, which are reinforced individually and in groups to solve problems, promote appropriate communication, and express students’ feelings, with the goal of promoting academic achievement.

During the twice-weekly after-school portion of CARE NOW, PRTS advocates provide a hot meal, an hour of academic assistance, and intentional recreation activities related to the resilience and character traits. The after-school activities include cooperative team-building exercises that embrace academics as part of the experience. For example, when relationships and commitment are the focus, advocates may program an activity called Key Punch. Key Punch is a challenge activity that prompts groups to have leaders and followers accomplish a task within a given timeframe. The goal is to touch a series of numbers/math problems (in order, in the designated space) as quickly as possible with minimal errors. Key Punch is a fun exercise that allows students to creatively solve math problems and become comfortable with numbers while promoting planning and problem-solving within a group. It requires students to listen to one another and manage conflict.

The after-school component utilizes a small-group problem-solving approach by dividing students into yearlong cohorts. Within their groups, students develop friendships through experiential education, challenge initiatives, and academic support from one another. To further emphasize the importance of student leadership, former CARE NOW students (current 7th graders) assist in the after-school component of CARE NOW as advocates in training. These students provide peer support to their younger schoolmates during academic assistance and help lead the cooperative team-building exercises in which they were once participants.

Students participating in CARE NOW have the opportunity to attend a field trip to ODU once per semester. These trips allow maximum exposure to the admissions process and college life, and aim to promote students’ motivation to pursue positive goals beyond K-12 schooling, which will ultimately add to the sustainability of the local community.

In 2012, CARE NOW contributed to ODU being named to the President Obama’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) and the U.S. Department of Education. The Honor Roll recognizes the nation’s leading colleges and universities for their commitment to improving surrounding communities through community service and service learning. ODU was honored based on three programs, one of which was CARE NOW.

When comparing data prior to CARE NOW, students’ percentage of As in math have increased by seven percent, and their percentage of Es (failing grades) have decreased by seven percent. Additionally, Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rates in math have increased by approximately 20 percent. Teacher qualitative data indicate a positive response to programming due to higher levels of student focus on math, fewer disruptions, less redirection, and less stress on teachers. One teacher responded, “I cannot begin telling you the benefit of knowing that when a child is off task, he/she spends five minutes with an advocate and comes back happy and ready to work.” When asked about the most valuable thing gained from CARE NOW, an advocate remarked, “We made a difference….There was some doubt about whether the kids were retaining what they had learned at CARE NOW, but during the after-school debriefing session when we asked them to share some of the traits, everyone had a resiliency trait or a character trait they could share with the group. Some of the kids volunteered stories of how they could use the traits they learned in various situations in school.”

Dr. Eddie Hill, CPRP, is an Assistant Professor of Park, Recreation, and Tourism Studies at Old Dominion University. Dr. Tammi Milliken is an Associate Professor of Human Services at ODU. Jenny Goff, CPRP, is the CARE NOW Site Director. Nicole Gregory is an Assistant Principal for Norfolk (Virginia) Public Schools. Dr. Ed Gómez is an Associate Professor of Park, Recreation, and Tourism Studies at ODU.