Roca, Inc. serves low-income youth in the Greater Boston communities of Chelsea, Revere and East Boston with a comprehensive intervention model it developed to support long-term behavior changes that lead to economic self-sufficiency and the ability to live out of harm’s way.
This model, in which a Roca youth worker engages with 25 young people for anywhere from two to five years, is based on proven medical and mental health programs and includes:
- Transformational Relationships (Roca’s intensive case management model);
- Relentless outreach and follow-up;
- Life skills, educational and pre-vocational, and employment programming; and
- Work with institutional partners.
OUR INVESTMENT
EMCF invested $5.5 million in Roca from 2000 to 2010. During this period, Roca made tremendous progress, advancing the organization’s capacity and ability to track the impact it makes on youth.
Accomplishments include codifying and expanding Transformational Relationships, now widely seen as a promising intervention for youth involved or at risk of becoming involved in gang activity.
It also created an innovative and nationally recognized performance management system that comprehensively tracks how program staff engages each youth, as well as the outcomes each participant achieves over the course the Transformational Relationship.
Roca was one of EMCF’s first Youth Development Fund grantees.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Learn more about Roca at rocainc.org.