As previously mentioned, the main goal of the program was implementation of the Just Say Yes program targeting high risk school aged children at Frankfort Independent Schools (FIS). Located in the urban core of a rural county, the demographics of this small district mirror those of large urban systems, with a racially diverse student population and approximately 70% of students qualify for free and reduced lunch. The primary prevention intervention targeted middle school aged children in sixth, seventh and eighth grades, which is approximately 305 students. Just Say Yes provided $400 Yes Cards to all sixth through eighth grade students at FIS. For the first pilot year of the project, the Yes Cards were used as an electronic card/spend down/gift card at a small number of five to ten after school activity venues throughout the community giving youth opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities during high risk unsupervised out of school hours. All participating after school activity venues were carefully vetted for program quality, trained in trauma informed care and required to submit background checks. Simultaneously, parent and community education were provided to the community with data-based information about risk and protective factors.
In order to implement these goals and objectives, Just Say Yes partnered with schools to implement the Franklin County Youth Survey, share survey data and prevention messaging, and promote the YES Card to students and families. This has included everything from having the YES Card Newsletter linked from each week's school newsletter, to utilizing the schools' One-call” systems to invite parents to attend a workshop to hear and discuss the school's results from the Youth Survey, to sending flyers and datasheets home with students, to having teachers talk with students about the YES Card and ways to connect to activities that interest them. Partnerships with the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation and the Family Resource and Youth Service Centers at Bondurant and Elkhorn Middle Schools have been important in reaching those YES Card students and families that do not attend the main pilot school.
The Just Say Yes program would not be possible without a diverse range of community partners and stakeholders, including YES Card providers and Parent Café partners. Essential Just Say Yes partners include the following:
· Franklin County Health Department (Fiscal and Administrative Agency)
· City of Frankfort (including Frankfort Police Department)
· Franklin County Fiscal Court (including Franklin County Sherriff's Office)
· Franklin County Schools
· Frankfort Independent Schools
· Frankfort Area Chamber of Commerce
· United Way
· Franklin County Agency for Substance Abuse Policy
· Yes Arts - A community arts center in the heart of Frankfort fostering a safe, inclusive space where all people can create and heal
· Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation - an independent, non-partisan 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that fosters partnerships aimed at healing and unifying our community. We welcome a diversity of ideas and experiences in our search for equitable and inclusive solutions to address the impact of parental incarceration on children and youth.
· Franklin County Ministerial Association
· First Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church
· South Frankfort Presbyterian Church
· Franklin County Department of Community Based Services
· Kentucky State University
· Norton's Children's Medical Group-Frankfort
· The State Journal
· Youth and Parent Leaders
In addition to community stakeholders and partners, the YES Card Providers and Parent Café partners are vital to the success of this program. YES Card Providers include:
· Yes Arts
· Broadway Clay
· Kentucky Dance Academy
· Josephine Sculpture Park
· My Old Kentucky OM Yoga Center
· Kentucky Gem Cats
· Frankfort Martial Arts
· Canoe KY
· New Day Ministries
· Kentucky Historical Society
· C-Squared Creations 502
· CrossFit Infinity
· Frankfort Tennis Association
· Family Circle Inc.
· Frankfort Youth Bengals
· Capital City Dance Studio
· Golden Mantis LLC/ TA Strength
· Grand Theatre
· Frankfort School of Ballet
· Franklin County Extension Office
· Hurst Music
· P Athletics LLC
· Wesley Academy of Music, LLC
· B's Bakery
· City of Frankfort Parks and Recreation
· Franklin County 4-H Partners
· Explore Kentucky
· Frankfort Independent Schools
Parent Café partners include:
· Franklin County Health Department
· Franklin County Schools
· Frankfort Independent Schools
· Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation
· Second Street School Parent Teacher Student Association
· Franklin County Women's and Family Shelter
· Simon House - Emergency Shelter
· First Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church
· South Frankfort Presbyterian Church
· Sunshine Center - Domestic violence/family abuse shelter and support
As the fiscal and administrative agent of Just Say Yes, FCHD is an integral part to both the planning and implementation processes. FCHD convened the coalition, secured funding for YES Cards and staff, contracted with Planet Youth for guidance program including data collection and analysis of the Franklin County Youth Survey and training of coalition partners and staff on the Icelandic Prevention Model (IPM) as well as leading the collaborative implementation of the IPM in Franklin County. In addition, FCHD identified and onboarded YES Card providers including background checks, providers agreements, orientations, and co-promotion of activities and programs. FCHD also researched platforms for the YES Card and helped select the Yiftee platform (including training).
Ensuring equitable, meaningful, and representative collaboration with target populations has been a central consideration in our parent and youth engagement activities due to the reality that traditional structures for institutional partnerships (i.e., a multisector coalition wherein major community institutions send a representative), while essential, do not yield a body that is representative of the target populations. By being very intentional in how parent and youth representatives are identified, invited and engaged, we have sought to provide some correction to the inequities inherent in the multisector coalition structure. Also, the data dissemination with community members is a two-way street; we are not only talking to stakeholders about what the data says, but we are also asking, listening, and recording what they think about the data and what they see as needs, opportunities and priorities, and using that in our action planning and implementation.
We have also started sharing opportunities for public input such as the comprehensive planning survey as links within the YES Card newsletter that is distributed to both parents and students. We ask them to tell community leaders what they think is needed to create a more youth- and family-friendly community.
To help get the program started, there were funding costs associated. These include the following:
- Each YES Card costs $412.50, including fees
- Total budget for 300 cards $123,750
- Planet Youth guidance program contract - $21,000/year
- One part-time coordinator (0.5FTE salary + benefits) is needed to run the YES Card program, especially in the start-up phase which for us has been almost 3 years
- At least one additional part-time staff (0.5FTE salary + benefits) to coordinate coalition partnerships, oversee contract with Planet Youth, lead data collection and dissemination efforts, lead action planning and communication efforts and all other aspects of IPM implementation, including parent/youth/community engagement and education efforts.
- Parent Cafes:
-$20,000 for Parent Cafe Training Institute, including training and materials fee to Be Strong Families, trainer travel expenses, food/incentives/supplies for 30 trainees
-Parent Engagement Specialist contracted for 200 hours/year at an hourly rate (no benefits), approximately $5,500
-Parent Cafes require at least one lead host and several table hosts (one table host for every 4 participants, max participant number is 26). We have used YES Cards as incentives for parent hosts/table hosts, while practitioners hosting cafes as part of their job are not given an incentive.
-Parent Cafe cost has been mostly born by partner organizations except for cafes offered by JSY/FCHD staff but includes:
-$75 for childcare (2 providers at $15/hour for 2.5 hours)
-$2-$10/person for food/drinks depending on whether it's snacks or a meal
-$20 for supplies/decorations