Programs
Family Counseling and Support programming is designed to keep children safe and support family preservation. Preventive services, offered to substance abusing parents with young children identified as “at risk” for child abuse, blend counseling services with mental health and substance abuse treatment. Individual counseling sessions are provided along with group sessions addressing issues such as relapse prevention, parenting and domestic violence. Related services provide support for families with young children and teens and address mental health and domestic violence issues.
SCAN’s Young Adult Internship Program operates 14-week programs providing counseling, skills development, referral services and paid internships for young people, ages 16-24 who are not in school or are presently unemployed, to prepare them for employment and link them with employment opportunities.
Other youth services include a Youth Leadership Program, offering leadership development activities for adolescents including team-building and shared decision-making activities, and an Attendance Improvement/ Drop Out Prevention Program.
SCAN also provides pre-school group childcare services and summer camp opportunities.
SCAN’s award-winning upward-bound program, Reach for the Stars, provides career/college-readiness services including counseling, peer support groups, tutoring, academic support, and assistance with prep school and college applications and financial aid forms to approximately 150 students per year. SCAN staff also accompany program participants on college campus tours. SCAN also offers a Reach for the Stars Prep program for middle school students, providing high school-readiness skills and acting as stepping-stone to Reach for the Stars.
Educational programming includes intensive, systematic literacy support to middle school students with underdeveloped literacy skills. SCAN also provides Supplemental Education Services, providing 100 hours of tutoring services in English language arts for the hundreds of enrolled students. Services are provided from multiple public schools as well as SCAN LaGuardia Memorial House and Mullaly Academy Community Center.
After-school programming provides holistic wrap-around activities to approximately 400 students with the objective of reinforcing academics, providing diverse stimulation and enrichment, as well as providing a safe environment in the after-school hours. Services are provided from multiple public elementary and junior high schools, as well as SCAN LaGuardia Memorial House and Mullaly Academy Community Center. Approximately 50% of the staff are SCAN parents. Programs include tutoring, literacy skills, sports and recreation, hip-hop poetry, homework support, creative arts, martial arts, and youth leadership. Full-scale community programming is provided at the Beacon programs at SCAN/La Isla (Academy for Environmental Science at Junior High School 99 in East Harlem) and SCAN/El Faro (John S Roberts Junior High School 45 in East Harlem) and at the SCAN Cornerstone Program at the JW Johnson Houses in East Harlem.
SCAN’s Violence Prevention Program serves arrested teenagers in the Bronx and Northern Manhattan. Normally, involvement in the program is a condition of the youngster’s probation.
Goals of the program are to reduce: future arrests, physical confrontations, destruction of property, weapons possession, and participation in gangs. This is accomplished through individual, peer and family counseling; home, school, and prison visits; crisis intervention; parent training; martial arts; and electronic curfew management.
Over the ten year existence of the Violence Prevention Program, an ongoing evaluation has found that nine specific negative behaviors have been reduced by 53 percent to 92 percent. These accomplishments have been made possible by the program’s self-made 280-page curriculum which focuses on topics such as anger management, teen relationships, and dealing with authority.
