Beyond Expectations student goes behind the scenes with Community Organizers from across the country!

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Beyond Expectations student Robert McGill was invited to work as part of the professional production crew with Ms. Leontyne Anglin for a multi-city event which brought together leaders and youth from Trenton, Camden, Philadelphia, and Ferguson, MO to discuss civics, policy, and the basics of community organizing.

Attendees included representatives from organizations across the country -- including the White House.

Robert did a great job as a 2nd Camera Operator and Production Assistant. It was an exciting chance for him to gain real life experience at a large scale event. And ... since successfully completing our TV Studio Production class, Robert has been hired by a national movie theatre!

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Watch event highlights and visit My Eternal Family TV for more interviews. >>

This highly anticipated event was hosted by My Eternal Family, Inc. in collaboration with Faith in New Jersey, and the Capital City Community Coalition.

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Healthy Cooking and Nutrition with Executive Chef Kahlil Wyche

Trenton, NJ - The Young Professionals Leadership Initiative Spring Session continued with an independent living workshop on Healthy Cooking and Nutrition. Executive Chef Kahlil Wyche conducted a session focused on Sanitation and Pathogen Prevention. Students participated in an interactive exercise using their smartphones to identify food borne diseases. The session continued with Managing a Personal Hygiene Program and testing their knowledge of safe food handling under the ServSafe guidelines of the National Restaurant Association.

The rest of the session was spent working directly with Beyond Expectations facilitators, volunteers, and crew.

Students participated in a Skills Assessment exercise that was used to begin creating video resumes, then conducted online research in preparation for upcoming job interviews with a partner company.

The Spring Session will run through March 29 followed by a team community service project.

Formal program assessment officially underway

Ewing, NJ -- Beyond Expectations has touched the lives of more than 4,000 families across the tri-state region and we want to better understand as well as document our impact. Through a formal assessment, quantitative and qualitative research will be conducted with students and parents who have participated in our programs.

Under the direction of Dr. He Len Chung, who will lead the design and implementation, a series of research questions were developed to focus on understanding the impact of participation on social, emotional, and psychological well being.

Dr. Chung has over 10 years of experience conducting research with vulnerable youth and families, including those involved with the foster care and juvenile justice systems, and will be responsible for obtaining consent, as well as conducting the research surveys and interviews. 

The research proposal has been approved by The College of New Jersey's Institutional Review Board to ensure that the process is ethically and scientifically sound, and adheres to protocols vetted by the National Institutes of Health and other related projects.   

A number of students and parents have already participated in the assessment which will continue into 2014.

Beyond Expectations awarded SCRA Community Mini-Grant

Beyond Expectations in partnership with The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) has been selected for a mini-grant provided by the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) to help support and catalyze small scale, time-sensitive community interventions, whether action or research based, that are consistent with the SCRA vision, mission, principles and goals. 

The award will be used to obtain new equipment and to organize a Community Screening to raise awareness of issues facing vulnerable youth. The project will be youth-driven by students who complete a 6-session production workshop with Beyond Expectations in camera operation, audio production, segment development, and events management. The event will be held in April 2014 as a lead in to National Foster Care Month.

Our collaborative media literacy and youth development project was selected from international applicants across the globe including other recipients from Brazil, Rwanda, Jamaica, and Cairo, Egypt. 

The Society for Community Research and Action - Community Psychology, Division 27 of the American Psychological Association -  is an international organization devoted to advancing theory, research, and social action. Its members are committed to promoting health and empowerment and to preventing problems in communities, groups, & individuals.