The Home Team

We identified the current need for an organization to provide an inclusive, structured, school-based program to supplement students' public education experiences using qualitative evidence, collected through a combination of feedback from community stakeholders, teachers, school administrators and students, direct observation of current after-school programming, and an analysis of best practices found in other communities and programs. We learned that students had limited experience with community members representing activities that increase children's' opportunities for success: accomplished academic leaders, talented sports representatives and successful business people. Operations began in January 2016, through a partnership with Miami-Dade public schools and Community Centers, including Francis S. Tucker Elementary School, G W Carver Elementary School, Ponce De Leon Middle School, Coral Gables Senior High School, and the Gibson-Bethel Community Center. These programs, free to all participants, continue today and due to popularity have created opportunities for additional programming. Our program is unique as it's framed by behavior change theory resulting from behavioral economics, calling for incentivizing full participation to attain maximum benefits. Incentivizing behavior change is an effective means for achieving expected changes when individuals are less likely to be intrinsically motivated, or to have role models for what that behavior change represents.
Since inception in January 2016, we've assisted over 3500 students, supported by over 300 volunteers with half of those students have completed a full year with a minimum of absences.