Program Highlights

  • Hablemos Juntos (oral language development): The quality of conversation between parents and children in the Hablemos Juntos program is measured with the LENA Analysis Software during free-play sessions conducted before and after program participation. Results from 31 families reveal significant increases in talk during these interactions.  Specifically, the number of adult words increased by 23%, the number of conversational turns increased by 26%, and the number of child vocalizations increased by 16% after program participation. To learn more, click here. 
  • YWCR (early literacy): Children matched with our trained reading mentors showed average gains in reading of 15.03% on the standardized i-Ready adaptive diagnostic. This signifies a one-year gain in literacy skills, and accelerates the children toward the goal of grade-level literacy by third grade.
  • ESL: 53% of the students in our adult ESL class increased 1 or 2 levels in their oral language skills according to the CASAS assessment. To learn more, click here.

A history of steady growth

Since Grail Family Services opened its doors to the public more than 18 years ago, the number of families and children we have served has grown steadily. Today, we serve over 1,600 individuals directly each year, and well over 2,000 indirectly.

The graph on the left shows the growth of indirect and direct individuals served over the years.
Direct
Indirect

Outcomes by Program

  • Case management. 87% of parents we serve improve in at least 2 domains of family functioning (culture, parenting, basic needs, community support), as measured by the Parent Empowerment Assessment Tool (see Resources page for more information on this Tool).
  • Hablemos Juntos. 90% of parents we serve learn to identify two new appropriate communication techniques to use with the children, and 89% learn to identify at least two appropriate discipline techniques, as measured by pre and post assessments.
  • NuParent. 100% of parents we serve learn to identify at least two new activities they engage in that support their child's health and and development, as measured by pre and post assessments.
  • Support group. 70% of parents we serve increase their network of support by meeting with at least 2 parenting outside of the sessions, as measured by a survey at the end of the workshops.
  • Child enrichment. 82% of children we serve show improvement in at least two areas of development (as per the modified DRDP)
  • ESL. 85% of parents we serve report increased confidence levels measured by a survey at the end of the semester.
  • Yes We Can...Read!. 72% of the K and 1st grade students we serve score in the "Established" range of DIBELS Phoneme Segment Fluency (PSF).  An evaluation conducted by Applied Survey Research, an independent research firm, found that the DIBELS scores of students with Reading Mentors were 14% higher than their peers who did not have Reading Mentors. The average score of all children receiving mentor sessions was 42.3, compared with 26.5 for those not receiving mentor sessions. The difference in average scores was 15.8 points, or a 59.6% difference. Through literacy workshops, we also serve the parents of these children per year, 100% of whom increase two or more home literacy-related practices.
  • Raising A Reader Plus. Parents indicating that they work on reading/writing or letter skills with their children increased from 57.4% to 75.5%. Parents disagreeing or strongly disagreeing with the statement "I feel successful about efforts to help my children" dropped from 12.4% to just 1.8%. Parents indicating rarely or never visiting the library with their children dropped from 27% to 17.2%. Parents indicating that the number of children's books in the house (including library books) was just 0-10 fell from 50.6% to 23.8%. All outcomes were measured by pre- and post- assessments designed by the independent evaluator Mathematica Policy Research.
  • Community events. We hold 2-4 events per year, each drawing between 100 and 300 parents and children.
  • FEIP Building Blocks of Parenting. We distribute around 5,000 per year throughout Alum Rock and beyond.
  • Summer Literacy Academy. 70% of children improved their reading comprehension by at least 10%. 62% of participants improved their sight word recognition by at least 15%. Both outcomes are measured using the IBM Reading Companion software.
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