Programs

Overview

DreamCatchers utilizes a two-pronged approach to improve both the academic outcomes and health behaviors of our students. A growing body of research indicates that organizations providing services across multiple areas of focus are more effective. By administering programs that target both students’ education and health, DreamCatchers provides a synergistic pair of programs that work together to reinforce one another. Together, the DreamCatchers Academic Program and Healthy Behaviors Program work to not only improve the academic outcomes and health behaviors of our students, but to also cultivate skills key to success including self confidence, goal setting, accountability, and work ethic. By engaging our students directly in the behaviors necessary for academic achievement and good health – hard work, diligent studying, and healthy eating – we help our students develop habits that ultimately equip them for long-term success and well-being.

Academic

Our Academic Program has been developed and vetted by experts in the field and works to cultivate elements key to student success including study skills and student mindset towards learning.

Growth Mindset: Growth mindset, the idea that intelligence is a skill that can be developed through hard work, is a core facet of DreamCatchers’ academic teaching and philosophy. Research has shown that low-performing students who embrace growth mindset do better in school than those who do not. Our program enables tutors and students to internalize growth mindset, by using a curriculum informed by experts including Carol Dweck who pioneered the concept. As a result, our students learn to equate success with hard work and are motivated to work harder and aim higher.

Study Skills: By teaching our students to become accountable to themselves and others and to engage in the regular habits necessary to realize their goals, we provide them with the skills and strategies they need to ultimately succeed in school.

Low Student-Staff Ratio: At DreamCatchers we understand the importance of strong personal relationships and their influence on student outcomes. As a result, one of the hallmarks of our program is our low student to staff ratio, which is 1:1 during one-on-one tutoring and 7:1 during guided individual work time with our Site Directors.

Components

Academic Program sessions are led by our cohort of Site Directors and are comprised of one-on-one tutoring, guided individual work, and group activities. Together, these three components inform our program’s mantra, “dream, believe, achieve”.

One-on-one Tutoring: Through personalized yearlong interactions with trained tutors, our students receive individual coaching in areas specifically targeted to their own academic needs. Over the course of the year, tutor-student pairs are able to develop strong relationships that move beyond improving grades to mentorship and self-confidence building.

Guided Individual Work: During guided individual work time, students review previous graded assignments, identify and work on trouble areas, and prepare and study for future assignments and assessments. This component of the program enables students to develop a stronger foundation of previous concepts, so that future concepts are more easily mastered. During this time, students receive targeted guidance and support from their Site Directors who help them learn and put into practice the study skills and habits that enable academic success.

Group Activities: Our program also includes group activities that engage our students and tutors as a whole. These activities focus on leadership skills, confidence building, study habits and mentorship, and they create a sense of community among and between tutor-student pairs.

Healthy Behaviors

Our Healthy Behaviors Program aims to improve the health outcomes of our students by engaging our students and their families in practicing healthier eating and physical activity behaviors.

Our program is based in leading behavior change research emphasizing the importance of process motivators (such as taste, teamwork and social interaction) in promoting sustainable changes in health behaviors. Our work is also based in theories such as social cognitive theory indicating that perceived self-efficacy is critical to enabling behavior change.

Our team is hard at work developing and preparing to launch our Healthy Behaviors Program, scheduled to begin in January of 2012.