The PACE (Promoting Academics & Character Education) Program is a collaboration between The Boys and Girls Club of Metro Denver, Denver Public Schools and the Safe City Office (City & County of Denver). PACE operates two different classrooms throughout the city. These sites are located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood (West) and the Montbello neighborhood (East). During the 2009-2010 school year, the PACE Program served 210 youth in grades 6-8 who have begun to exhibit behavioral issues at their home school. Boys and Girls Clubs operates and manages both sites. Youth are referred to PACE by DPS middle schools and K-8 schools due to a variety of behaviors including fighting, carrying a weapon, drug involvement, truancy, threats/intimidation and habitual classroom disruption. The purpose of PACE is to provide a targeted, supportive intervention in order to promote academic success and life skills development and decrease violent and other negative behaviors among youth who have exhibited significant behavioral problems.
PACE is a unique response to “problematic” students; as an alternative to traditional disciplinary action alone, and through a strengths-based approach, staff is able to help a student identify the causes of their behaviors as well as recognize their strengths and value. Furthermore, youth are linked to other supportive services as needed (i.e. counseling, educational testing, family services) and are provided with assistance should they have other systems involvement. This 15-day intervention enables highly trained, dedicated staff to assess students, provide necessary services and facilitate systems coordination and action. Youth participation, attendance and personal growth are measured by PACE instructors and reported to both the District and the student’s home school.
History and Background
The PACE Program was started to assist students who were suspended and awaiting expulsion proceedings. Beginning in 2001, the PACE program consisted of five community organizations (Catholic Charities, The Conflict Center, Cross Community Coalition, F.A.C.E.S., and The Urban League of Metro Denver) partnering with Denver’s Safe City office.
Initially, community partners implemented a “video tutorial” program to aid students with continuing academics. There was very little, if any, specific focus on behavioral issues at this time. In addition, there was very little DPS involvement at this time.
Some of these issues were improved the following year. The tutorial program was replaced, thanks to increased DPS participation, with a teacher. Although there was only one teacher working between four sites, this helped with academics. At this point in evolution, there was still no robust behavioral element to the program.
The third year of PACE saw more changes. DPS provided better behavioral curriculum along with a teacher for one of the sites. Unlike the previous year, the teacher taught literacy skills, assisted students with homework and contributed to a more focused behavioral program. More specific roles and program guidelines also became a focus at this time.
During the 2003-2004 school years a large portion of the class focused on A.R.T. lessons and materials. In addition, DPS lead an after hours service learning component. At the end of the 2003-2004 school year, Safe City and DPS asked Catholic Charities to operate both an east and a west side PACE program. At the end of the 2004-2005 school years PACE expanded to three sites as to accommodate more students. This expansion was done again in the 2005-2006 year with a site added in the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood.
Currently, PACE operates 2 classrooms- one at the Cope Branch of Boys and Girls Club (west) and one at the Montbello Recreation Center (east).
