AARON BROOKS FOUNDATION DBA Drills and Skills Program

The Drills and Skills concept was first envisioned in 1991by James Hampton, the Recreational Specialist for the Rainier Community Centers “Late Night Program”. While working predominantly with Middle and High School aged youth in the South District of Seattle, Mr. Hampton noticed a large number of students who wanted to get involved in positive activities but who didn’t connect with the programs the community currently offered them. If these youth were given the option to either participate in an after school enrichment program or just hang out on the corner the students would almost always choose the corner- even though they knew it was not a safe or smart thing to do. James felt that if he could connect these students' recreational interests while at the same time engaging them in structured, curriculum-based activities, they could gain successful life skills. 

The Aaron Brooks Drills and Skills Program is working collaboratively with Seattle Parks Department, to develop a comprehensive youth development strategy for underserved, school aged youth. The program seeks to address the needs of at-risk middle and high school aged youth.

 Drills and Skills is an intervention for Tier 2 and 3 students; that is, students with repeated attendance and behavior issues that negatively impact their academic success. Our program goals are to increase the students served academic, social and leadership skills. In the last two years the Drills and Skills program has served 123 at-risk students in the Renton, Highline, Seattle and Everett communities.

Academic Success

The tutoring component of the program will work collaboratively with the school to address the academic, social and physical barriers that restrict young people from excelling academically school. Creating strong partnerships with teachers, academic counselors and tutors are critical to the success of the program. The program will act as a support to the classroom, by monitoring each student's academic records, in an effort to make sure these students are performing at his or her potential.

The Academic Coach will work with a team of volunteers and mentors to create a sustainable after school tutoring program. These volunteers will be recruited from a cross-section of the community. The tutoring component of the program will start at 3:00 P.M. end at 3:45 P.M.

The Academic Coach will be responsible for recruiting and training the tutors, tracking the student’s academic progress and other duties as assigned by the Program Director.

Social Development

The second component of the program will focus on developing social competencies in the participants though a yearlong series of workshops managed by the Social Coach. These one hour workshops and discussion sessions will take place every Tuesday starting at 5:30 P.M. and ending at 6:30 P.M. The workshops will focus on the students intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. The participants will gain skills in self-motivation, self-esteem, goal setting, communication, assertiveness, peer pressure, cultural education, and conflict resolution, etc. The Social Coach will be responsible for recruiting and training volunteers, managing the yearly lesson plan, tracking improvements in the youth social behavior and other duties as assigned by the Program Director.

Leadership Skills

When developing skills in anyone you need real opportunities to practice and reflect on these skills. The program will develop strong leadership qualities in the youth we serve, by leveraging sports activity to practice, model and reflect on the skills they have learned during the program. The youth will be placed in environments, where they will be working on diverse teams, resolving conflicts, leading teams and developing each other’s skills. This session will start at 6:20 P.M. and end at 7:45 P.M. The sports coaches are responsibilities for managing this process. The day will always end with fifteen minutes of reflection.