Our projects
To give you some insight into what our grantee partners have been doing, we invite you to read about some of our grantee projects below.
PUEO (Partnerships in Unlimited Educational Opportunities)
Punahou School, Honolulu, HI
PUEO, a partnership between Punahou School and the Hawaii State Department of Education, identifies public middle school students of promise in selected school districts on Oahu, and provides them with an opportunity to grow academically in a unique summer school environment. PUEO was the 2007 winner of the Hawaii Department of Education and Board of Education's "Partnership in Education Award." This was the first time an independent private school was recognized by the State for its contribution to the public school system.
Launched in 2005 and modeled on successful Summerbridge programs, PUEO is designed to help motivated students develop the skills and confidence that will enable them to excel in school, attain their college aspirations, and contribute to Hawaii's future. It does this by:
- building skills as well as the capacity for independent thinking;
- instilling a sense of the purpose of education; and
- developing the attitudes that promote lifelong learning.
PUEO's goal is to introduce and reinforce the idea of preparation for college at an age when students and their families can effectively lay the groundwork for high school course work. To focus on students who might otherwise not be assured a college-bound future, it selects participants based on two principal criteria—they receive free or reduced lunch at public school and are neither in the top 20% nor bottom 20% of the class.
Forty entering sixth grade students were identified by participating public school principals to begin the program, adding 40 students in each succeeding year until the program reaches its full complement of 280 middle school and high school students in 2010. PUEO middle school students attend Punahou summer school classes in the morning, supplemented in the afternoon by tutoring in English and mathematics, field trips to various academic settings on Oahu, and work on a variety of academic and social skills. The PUEO director remains in contact with students, and three pre-planned events bring PUEO students together during the intervening school year.
Starting in 2007, PUEO extended its offerings through students' high school years so that each student will have the opportunity to participate in PUEO for seven summers, including high school courses in Modern Hawaiian History and Civics for Department of Education academic credit, as well as SAT preparation and college counseling. A community service component in collaboration with Punahou's Luke Center for Public Service, also added in 2007, provides another range of experiences for PUEO participants.
Women's Commission's Initiative—Tapping the Potential of Displaced Youth
International Rescue Committee, New York, NY
The Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, an affiliate of the International Rescue Committee, has nearly 20 years of experience conducting empirical research to improve knowledge of the unique problems faced by refugee women, children and youth. Unbound has partnered with the Women's Commission to support the first year of its initiative Tapping the Potential of Displaced Youth, a multi-year global research and advocacy project to address the needs of displaced, conflict-affected young people.
There are more than 7 million young people (age 15-24) worldwide who have been forced to leave their homes because of conflict. While displaced, they have few opportunities to learn productive skills that will enable them to find work and earn money. These skills are critical for their protection and development, as well as for the future of their communities and countries. Yet there is little knowledge about what programs work for refugee and internally displaced youth, both during and after displacement.
The Women's Commission will study the problem and come up with practical solutions that lead to employment opportunities. In the first year of this initiative, the Women's Commission will:
- Gather knowledge about the economies in which the young people are likely to participate, both while they are displaced and when it is safe to return home or be resettled elsewhere;
- Identify livelihood skills in addition to basic literacy and numeracy that are needed for young people to become employed at present and in the future;
- Undertake field research to assess what is happening on the ground, visiting selected countries to look at how programs are designed and implemented; how they are evaluated; young people's satisfaction with the programs; and how graduates are applying their skills. The Women's Commission will identify those programs that are market-based, appear to be working well, and may be ripe for replication on a broader scale; and
- Identify the program components that could be combined in an "ideal" pilot project for the next phase of work.
The initiative will culminate with a resource toolkit that will include practical 'how to' information for those who are creating programs for young people and documentation on the extent of the need. The kit will provide a framework for monitoring and evaluation and model indicators. Following the completion of the toolkit, the Women's Commission will embark on a communications and advocacy campaign to ensure that the learning from the project gets into the hands of those who are designing programs, setting policies and making funding decisions.