Project Grow, Adopt-A-Family’s afterschool/summer program for children in elementary school, serves the residents of the agency’s housing programs as well as the surrounding community. Project Grow is the only afterschool program in Palm Beach County specifically designed to address the learning delays and emotional scars common to children who have endured chronic housing instability and other adverse childhood experiences.
Children who fall behind due to homelessness and poverty are at tremendous risk of being left behind academically and socially. “Loss of housing requires most of a child’s attention and emotional energy to understand what is happening to them and their family,” writes the Florida Council on Homelessness in its 2021 Annual Report. “The academic performance of children and youth who change schools due to loss of housing tends to drop sharply.”
Through the safety and dependability of Project Grow, along with the steady dedication of its longtime staff, students learn to recognize and reach their full potential. The program’s holistic approach centers on educational support, emotional development, parental engagement, and life-enriching experiences. Project Grow provides tutoring, academic advising, mental health counseling, social-emotional learning, outdoor play, and summer field trips. Serving approximately 75 students annually (with a capacity of 57 at any one time), Project Grow helps children build confidence, develop social skills, and meet (or exceed) grade level standards
During the 2023-24 school year, 97% of the students were successfully promoted to the next grade level. In addition, 91% of the students’ parents increased their involvement in their children’s education by participating in academic advising sessions and 84% of students improved their social-emotional learning skills.
Adopt-A-Family hired an independent firm to conduct a thorough evaluation of Project’s Grow’s data and outcomes. Geo Education & Research (Geo) has released a report in 2023 and 2024. Both reports concluded that the program has a measurable positive impact on the grades and test scores of current Project Grow students. In addition, the report found that the high school graduation rate of Project Grow students was 4.4 percentage points higher than the district-wide graduation rate (based on students served between 2007-2008).
Read the full report here:
