Members work directly with MCPS K-12 students, within the neediest schools and in recognized after-school programs from communities that have the highest concentration of students living in poverty, students who have missed significant portions of their schooling, students who have at some point in their lives qualified for FARMS, or students who are learning English as a second language. Research shows that these students are more likely to develop problem-saturated stories, internalize a negative self-image, and lack any sense of agency in creating their own future. Members serve to change that story.
Through a narrative process called MYSCORE, members encourage these struggling students to commit to behaviors that contradict their internal narrative of “Always struggling-Always failing.” AmeriCorps members receive training to be “audiences of witness” to amplify the students’ sense of possibility over the problem. Members invest time in students to help them become 5C learners which means more confident, curious, collaborative, courageous and career/future focused. If students can learn to believe in their capacity to learn, Project CHANGE believes that this will increase their chances of success. Members deliver this innovative SEL curriculum of self-development focused on what the student needs to learn or unlearn about themselves to be more open to what school offers.