Strategy

Education

Currently, Roca provides an existing curriculum of ESOL, pre-GED, GED and limited vocational trainings and projects to the high-risk young people that it serves. This curriculum is designed to serve young people who have previously been unsuccessful in traditional educational programming. It is designed with courses of varying lengths and structures to address the diverse needs of the young people it serves.

Building on this work, Roca will develop and implement a competency-based structure for the delivery of educational and vocational programming. This will include two levels of training, each designed to meet young people where they are within the stages of change:

Level 1 training will include: informal certification trainings such as pre-CNA and basic finance; life skills training; and basic educational training, including literacy, pre-GED and ESL. Level 2 training will include: formal certification trainings such as CNA, First AID, CPR, ServSafe, Culinary Arts, Maintenance Training, Property Management Training, and Financial Literacy Training; and educational training including GED, and ESL I, II and III.

The full training curriculum will be offered both directly by Roca and in coordination with community partners. This new structure will serve 450 young people in 2009, 500 young people in 2010, and 550 young people each year in 2011, 2012, and 2013.