Floc For Love Of Children

Programs: Scholars program - during school year 2016-2017, floc scholars served a total of 133 middle, high school, and postsecondary students. Students received services that included advising, weekly workshops for students in 6th through 10th, small group sat prep and precollege application prep for students in 11th, one-on-one coaching for students in 12th, and distance-learning for postsecondary students. In grade-based cohorts, students receive academic and career guidance tailored to their age level. Once a week for 2-hours, floc staff delivers workshops that cover a variety of topics and provide students with tools and techniques to aim successfully for college and vocational schools. During workshops, students have an opportunity to explore topics, such as leadership, self-identity, group identity, global cultures, preparation for high school, and exploring dc's social, economic, and political climates. These workshops often take advantage of floc's connections with local universities, cultural institutions, businesses, and other organizations, and open young minds to the wider world around them. During the summer, scholars have the opportunity to attend weekly camps at our outdoor educational center in harpers ferry, west virginia. Exposure to the outdoors, learning survival skills, and disconnecting from all electronic devices, allows students to take risks and engage in activities that push them outside of their comfort zones.

neighborhood tutoring program - during the 2016-2017 school year, the neighborhood tutoring program (ntp) served a total of 261 students across 7 different tutoring programs. Ntp also worked with an additional 27 students in the math summer academy. Ntp's mission is to help students achieve grade level competency in reading and math. The program uses three curricula. Elementary reading students work with the language reading curriculum, which is designed specifically for students performing below grade level. It "teaches literacy explicitly, sequentially, and cumulatively and works on all areas of literacy including phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension (cambium learning incorporated: sopris)[i]. Adolescent reading students use the wilson reading system, which focuses on the basics of phonics, encoding and decoding. Floc also added a vocabulary and reading comprehension and writing component as well. All math students' work with the floc developed and copyrighted 40-step mathematics curriculum, which covers mathematical concepts from place value to pre-algebra. This year 50%, made at least one year of improvement in reading or math and 21%, made at least two years of improvement in reading or math.

outdoor education center - through floc's programming at the outdoor education center (oec) located in harpers ferry, wv, floc teaches individual and group leadership skills, team building and environmental education. The oec provides year-round, custom-designed, client-focused programming consisting of one-day to multi-day learning experiences. Floc house multiple hands-on environmental and science learning centers as well as adventure challenges, trainings, retreat and facility rental. The oec is located on an extraordinary 350-acre wilderness site, 65 miles from our nation's capital. During the 2016-17 school year, the outdoor education center (oec) served a total of 38 students, 16 at charles town middle school and 22 at harpers ferry middle school. The focus of the program is civic engagement, healthy lifestyle choices, environmental advocacy, team building and leadership development. The after school program offers experiential opportunities and lessons that students would not otherwise learn about in their typical school curricula. Program accomplishments:- students improved their knowledge of geography and global cultures and traditions by 36% over the course of the program year, with students averaging 89% mastery of content at the close of the program. - students improved their knowledge of the environment and gardening by 20% over the course of the program year, with students averaging 90% mastery of content at the close of the program. In addition, floc's elementary, middle and high school students had the opportunity to attend camp for free again this summer. This year we continued our high school scholars camp. This three-day camp encompassed various workshops and activities to develop non-cognitive skills such as critical thinking, perseverance, adaptability, and intellectual curiosity. Following the high school camp, the oec welcomed our elementary students for an overnight experience at the oec lodge where students developed team work on the high and low ropes course, worked on arts and crafts and ended the evening with a campfire. The oec had four consecutive weeks of different themed camps for floc's middle school students, scholars dc and leaders in action wv. The first week's "wilderness voyagers" camp focused on foraging for food, survival skills, shelter building, water ecology and an historical navigation through harpers ferry. The third week's "arts on the mountain camp" took an artistic approach to the natural setting, learning about music, clay sculptures, forest crafts using natural resources to create drawings, theatre and nature poetry. In between "arts on the mountain," there were two "ocf-site" trips called the "ridge to river camps," during week two and week four. These trips allowed students to pack their belongings and paddle on the shenandoah and potomac rivers, hike along the appalachian trail and camp in wilderness at our oec site. While these camps have different topics and themes, they all develop the non-cognitive skills critical to postsecondary success.

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