Work, Achievement, Values & Education, Inc. (WAVE)
Encyclopedia
Work, Achievement, Values & Education, Inc. (WAVE) was a nonprofit youth development, education, and youth workforce development organization founded in 1969 in Newark, Delaware. The organization announced its dissolution in December 2009.
Under its original name, 70,001 Ltd., the organization operated the 70,001 Career Association (SEVCA) and seeded programs in multiple states that reconnected school dropouts to work and education with funds from the US Department of Labor. In the 1980s, WAVE also began working with schools to design methods for effective dropout prevention. 700 schools and community-based organizations serving approximately 700,000 youth eventually implemented such programs.
WAVE provided professional development, curriculum, technical assistance, and other supports to schools and youth programs that implemented WAVE programs locally. WAVE offered five main program approaches that any school or organization can adapt and implement:
WAVE is featured in Grad Nation: A Guidebook to Help Communities Tackle The Dropout Crisis as a provider of program designs for out-of-school youth (dropouts) and a research-based intervention for disconnected youth and a national provider of technical assistance to schools and communities wishing to improve the educational and career outcomes of young people. WAVE was a national partner in the America's Promise
.
Eight independent research studies have been published on WAVE's impact. Key Findings noted by Michael Ben-Avie, PhD of the Yale Child Study Center
and Impact Analysis and Strategies Group in 2008 include evidence that:
WAVE was featured in the Catalogue for Philanthropy, which reviews and selects charitable organizations that meet criteria for efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, impact, and value to the community.
Under its original name, 70,001 Ltd., the organization operated the 70,001 Career Association (SEVCA) and seeded programs in multiple states that reconnected school dropouts to work and education with funds from the US Department of Labor. In the 1980s, WAVE also began working with schools to design methods for effective dropout prevention. 700 schools and community-based organizations serving approximately 700,000 youth eventually implemented such programs.
- UT Knoxville WAVE Program based in Tennessee
- NewBridge 70,001 JobsPlus program based in New Jersey
WAVE provided professional development, curriculum, technical assistance, and other supports to schools and youth programs that implemented WAVE programs locally. WAVE offered five main program approaches that any school or organization can adapt and implement:
- WAVE In Middle Grades, for students in grades 6-8, usually in a classroom setting
- WAVE In Schools, for high school students, usually in a classroom setting
- WAVE 9th Grade Academy, for ninth graders in schools with an Academy system
- WAVE After School, for middle school or high school students in a setting outside of school time
- WAVE In Communities, a program model for school dropouts in a community-based setting
WAVE is featured in Grad Nation: A Guidebook to Help Communities Tackle The Dropout Crisis as a provider of program designs for out-of-school youth (dropouts) and a research-based intervention for disconnected youth and a national provider of technical assistance to schools and communities wishing to improve the educational and career outcomes of young people. WAVE was a national partner in the America's Promise
America's Promise
America's Promise — The Alliance for Youth is a foundation founded by Colin Powell in 1997 to help children and youth from all socioeconomic sectors in the United States.In late April 1997 Presidents Bill Clinton, George H. W...
.
Eight independent research studies have been published on WAVE's impact. Key Findings noted by Michael Ben-Avie, PhD of the Yale Child Study Center
Yale Child Study Center
The Yale Child Study Center is a department at the Yale University School of Medicine. The center conducts research and provides clinical services and medical training related to children and families...
and Impact Analysis and Strategies Group in 2008 include evidence that:
- Participation in a WAVE program makes students more likely to make academic gains, stay in school, and secure employment.
- Participation in a WAVE program stretches youth's orientation to the future, making youth more likely to plan for their future.
- As a result of participation in a WAVE program, youth who were once "disconnected" from school and community begin to seek more adult guidance and feel a sense of belonging
- WAVE programs promote leadership skills that poorly-performing students need to defy negative predictions that have been made about their futures.
- The more hours of WAVE instruction that students complete, the more likely they are to advance to the next grade level.
- Teachers and school administrators observe that WAVE participation is essential to the developmental growth of their students.
- WAVE programs demystify the world of work.
- WAVE programs deliver content relevant to the lives of young people in a challenging but safe and supportive learning environment. The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of School Dropouts written in 2006 by Civic Enterprises for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, cites this as a key precursor to keeping adolescents engaged in school.
WAVE was featured in the Catalogue for Philanthropy, which reviews and selects charitable organizations that meet criteria for efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, impact, and value to the community.
Notable Founders and Alumni of the Board of Directors
Dr. George Mc Gorman, Executive Director of the Delaware Governor's Advisory Council for Vocational originated the concept of 70001.- Pierre Samuel "Pete" du Pont, IV
- Joseph Biden, Jr.
- William G. McGowanWilliam G. McGowanWilliam G. McGowan was an American entrepreneur, and founder and chairman of MCI Communications. His role as leader of MCI also caused him to play an important role in the breakup of AT&T while growing the startup company into a company that in 1991 had US$9.5 billion in revenues and controlled...
- Jose Rivera, Principle, McClure Elementary School
- Bill BrockBill BrockWilliam Emerson "Bill" Brock III is a former Republican United States senator from Tennessee, having served from 1971 to 1977. He is the grandson of William Emerson Brock I, who was a Democratic U.S. senator from Tennessee from 1929 to 1931.-Early life and career:Brock was a native of Chattanooga,...
- Frank Rooney, founder of the Thom McCan show company
- Doug Williams (American football), NFL quarterback
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