Project Success-Students Undertaking Creative Control

“Line 11a explanation - the 990 is signed and reviewed by the executive director and approved in their monthly meeting”

“The conflict of interest policy is reviewed annually and any conflicts are brought to the appropriate personnel or board member's attention”

“As a part of a comprehensive performance management program, project success has implemented a formal compensation review process for key employees including the executive director. The process is managed by the chair of the board and the chair of the governance committee with assistance of a third-party hr consultant: 1. Comparable salary from similarily situated organizations for functionally like roles is obtained and relied upon to determine an appropriate range of pay. 2. The compensation recommendation is reviewed and approved by the full board of directors and appropriately documented in the minutes including: a. The decision and the date it was approved b. The members of the board who were present for the debate and the votes cast by those who voted on it c. The comparability data obtained and relied upon (and documentation about why and deviation from the data's ranges were approved), and d. Documentation the approval occured without the participation of any board members who had a conflict of interest”

“The conflict of interest policy is reviewed annually and any conflicts are brought to the appropriate personnel or board member's attention”

“Project success believes the key to success exists within each student if empowered to unlock it. Mission & vision: project success motivates and inspires young people to dream about the future, helps them take steps to get there and gives them the tools they need to achieve their goals.our vision is that every child entering middle school will graduate high school with a plan for their future and have the skills and confidence that will take them through the rest of their lives. Innovative approach: project success is a catalyst for self-discovery that ignites possibility with students. We invest deeply in youth because we believe the key to success exists within each individual if empowered to unlock it. Our proven methodology inspires deeper engagement from students, increases academic performance, and sets the stage for future success. Since 1994, project success (ps) has been connecting students to their purpose through proven methodology of experiential learning called dig. Dig is identified by three strategic objectives for students, grades 6-12: dream big: this phase opens minds. Championing boundless thinking and risk-taking to empower trust in oneself and others. Ps helps students create purposeful futures, helping them unlock opportunities that express their true authentic selves by imagining the possibilities, making sense of their choices, and having fun along the way. Ignite possibilities: this phase connects to ideas. Teaching the value of successes and failures to embolden critical thinking and understanding. From 6th to 12th grade, ps is a trusted companion in students' lives. Engaging in experiential learning is an invitation to learn, be immersed in new perspectives, and exposed to new challenges. Students get to know themselves - and the world around them - better. Grow exponentially: this phase moves to action. Preparing promising futures via unique resources - to expand one's personal vision. Over seven years, students gain the information and tools to grow broadly and deeply. Through dig, students build the agency, competencies and integrated identity research has shown that young adults need to fulfill their goals. For three decades and counting, hundreds of thousands of students have benefited from project success and our proven methodology, dig - advancing self-fulfilling futures for youth in minneapolis and beyond. Curriculum: dig is fulfilled through a proprietary curriculum of four components: workshops: in-class activities guide cumulative development for students, gaining tools, purpose, and confidence. Each month, a ps facilitator guides experiential programming that complements the students' academic work. Annually, 15,000 students participate in in-class workshops. Arts: theater experiences create a springboard for discussion, inviting risk-taking and possibility. Observing live theater performances and participating in staged productions gives students a window into the performing arts, from front of stage to behind the scenes. Annually, 10,000 students and their families attend live theater and other arts experiences. Expeditions: adventure trips to colleges, workplaces, cities, and nature settings open new perspectives for one's potential in the world. Supervised trips (locally to globally) are purposefully planned based on students' interests, availability and need. More than 3,000 students experience outdoor field trips, bwca and apostle island trips, college and career tours, and global experiences. Institute: certificates and other programs build critical life and career skills that enrich one's independence. Participating in out-of-school courses and events led by diverse and experienced content experts satisfies students' interests and provides relevant skills for the future. Annually, 220 certificates are earned by students through the ps institute. Nearly all programming is offered at no cost to students and families. For the few programs that include a fee, students can apply for f”

“In-class workshops: the foundation of our curricular model is our in-class goal-setting workshop. Through workshops, project success serves the entire student body in every partner school, rather than a small slice of the population. Facilitators lead monthly goal-setting workshops in every english/language arts, special education (sped) and english learner (el) classroom for each student (there are no selection criteria). They provide time and space for facilitated discussion and exploration to help students discover who they are and what they want out of life so they can build the connection between academic persistence now and success in meeting their goals in the future. Each ps facilitator regularly trains in culturally responsive teaching, ensuring that we acknowledge and value the cultural backgrounds, identities, and ancestral knowledge that each student and their family brings to our community. Through ps, student voice and power are elevated, and our teaching strategies are proven to teachers, improving classroom climate. Students deepen their relationships and feel seen, valued, and heard. Through the trust we build with students, we hear from them every day about their needs, goals, and dreams. We are the only program that comes to every english, sped and el classroom, every month for each 6-12 grade student in minneapolis public schools (mps) and for each 6-7 grade students in mankato area public schools (maps). Throughout all grades, our classroom workshops are regularly adapted to meet the unique needs of the classroom, a group of students, and individual and cultural learning styles, and are continuously evaluated for quality and effectiveness. During the 2023-24 school year, ps delivered monthly workshops to 15,000+ students in mps classrooms and 1,850 students in maps classrooms - for more than 4,300 total workshops this year. Teachers shared that ps workshops classrooms were a boost in student engagement and allowed teachers to see students in news ways.”

“Arts - professional theater experiences for students and families: research has shown impressive benefits of arts education on entire school culture - especially student motivation, attitudes, and attendance. Numerous reports discuss the ways that increased access and involvement in the arts encourage students to stay in school, and succeed in school, work, and life. Unfortunately, in minnesota, there is a "donut effect" to the access of arts education offerings where inner city schools and rural schools report less access, and schools in the suburban ring tend to report offering better access. This "donut" disproportionately affects students and families of color, indigenous students and families, or low-income families. Project success thoughtfully selects productions with our 50+ theater partners, matching show content to the curriculum in our workshops and emphasizing the cultural relevance of the production to ensure that students see themselves reflected on stage. Ps program staff coordinate production selection, obtaining tickets at no cost through theater partners, sending invitations to each student (offered in four languages), providing online guides, taking reservations, contacting families in their own languages, offering transportation and child-care and more. All ps students and their families are invited to attend at least 80 professional arts experiences throughout the year. Ps theater experiences and theater field trips (during the school day) are managed by the ps program manager and associate for theater experiences, who manages each professional theater partner relationship, coordinates offerings with partner teachers, and works with a team to facilitate the student/family experience. The team includes program coordinators, and a theater curriculum manager who researches each production, builds curriculum and online guides, and works with workshop and other program staff to invite and prepare students for each experience. Project success' classroom workshop themes are tied into the plays to which the students are invited. These discussions and events enable project success staff to continue to adjust the theater experiences and classroom workshops to the needs and interests of the participants and allow our teacher partners to capitalize on engaging experiences that help students connect with their academic work. Through project success, students and their families - many of whom would not otherwise have the means to experience the twin cities' vibrant arts community - attend diverse theater performances together, enriching their shared family and school community experiences and increasing opportunities for bonding interactions, which can lead to more positive family and school relationships and greater home/peer support for youth - shown to have a positive impact on student achievement. During the 2023-24 school year, project success provided the opportunity for more than 10,300 students and family members to attend live performances through ps handpicked theater opportunities throughout the year. More than 4,300 students participated in field trips to professional theater performances during the school day and students engaged in six different theater residencies- where ps facilitates connection and curriculum between partner theaters, students, and teachers in meaningful ways. School musicals: middle school is a critical time for students to build their confidence, belief in their ability to succeed, and sense of belonging. Schools are experiencing dwindling resources allocated for providing quality arts programming for students, which has shown to improve student confidence and achievement. Project success offers middle school students opportunities to participate in an annual school musical, which helps students build the perseverance, confidence and skills that are needed to put on a high-quality production, experience success, and develop peer and community support. Project success coordinates the e”

“Expeditions - college and career tours: through the ps dig methodology, ps college tour curriculum empowers students to think critically about their post-secondary education options, open new doors for their future, and create actionable plans to achieve their dreams. Ps college and career tours ignite new career possibilities for students as they explore their future options and connect with real life professionals to deepen their understanding of various career fields, and the education and training needed to pursue them. Ps organizes and hosts tours to several college campuses annually, including a wide diversity of colleges (4-year, 2-year, hbcu, tribal, trade- specific). Ps college tour curriculum includes an intentional look at not just the post-secondary education institution, but also allows time and space for students to think critically about what the surrounding neighborhood offers its community - to see beyond the academics. Offered on non-school days, ps provides transportation, food, and materials. Ps also offers college tours as school-day field trips in partnership with mps high school teachers. Analysis of project success participation data by the minneapolis public schools department of research, evaluation and assessment shows that: 67% of all students who attend project success college tours are more likely to graduate on time than students who do not participate. High school students who participate in at least one project success college tour show an increase of 2% in graduation rates across all populations. African american and latino students who participate in a college tour show a 5% average increase in grade point average (gpa), or 21% after 4 years, greater than those that did not participate. During the 2023-24 school year, more than 475 students participated in 18 ps tours to colleges, universities, and trade schools. In addition to the in-person tours, ps provided a pre-recorded admissions and workplace chats library on our website, available at any time as well as our college conversations podcast, which includes more than 32 interviews with mps students and alumni, and experts on college-related topics designed to inform students' decision-making process. Ps also hosted workshops over spring break, covering topics on how to finance post-secondary education, thrive academically, and connect with others to build community. Project success launched new career tours for middle school students during the 2023-24 school year. Hands-on, behind-the-scenes tours of professional workplaces allow students to imagine themselves in that space and talk with employees from a variety of positions - expanding their ideas of the world of work and the possibilities within it. More than 530 middle school students attended 13 different career tour days hosted by project success in partnership with various businesses. Some of the tours were in both english and spanish. Expeditions - outdoor and wilderness adventures: each school year, project success offers outdoor and stem experience learning opportunities aimed to introduce our students to the nature in their own "backyards," build supportive peer and adult relationships and sense of belonging and see themselves in stem-related career fields. For example, ps designs river and outdoor adventure field trip to help sixth grade students transition successfully into middle school. Ps designs family outdoor adventure days to inspire students and their families to get to know the vast urban park system in the twin cities and learn more ways to interact with nature. Each summer, project success keeps inspiring students by offering two special annual overnight outdoor adventure trips for middle school students: one to the boundary waters canoe area wilderness (bwca) and one to the apostle islands national lakeshore. Since 1999, project success has taken middle school students to the bwca. During this seven-day adventure, campers learn to work together to paddle and portage”

“Project success institute: certificates and other programs build critical life and career skills that enrich one's independence. Participating in out-of-school courses and events led by diverse and experienced content experts satisfies students' interests and provides relevant skills for the future. Students need to explore career opportunities, to develop hard competencies, life, and soft skills, visit colleges and workplaces first-hand to for research and selection, and integrate all these elements into a practical plan as they make post-secondary plans. But the reality is that students are facing fewer career-planning and independent learning opportunities due to declining funding and access to guidance counselors and courses like financial literacy - in fact, minnesota's student-to-counselor ration ranks 48th in the nation. In 2023, we worked with mps to analyze the demographics of the students who participated in our 2022-23 college and career readiness programs outside of class. Of the participants, participation rate is higher among students who belong to historically marginalized or disinvested groups than the total student population: 75% are bipoc 72% qualified for free/reduced lunch 90% of students are on track to graduate institute - certificates and "day of" programs at the project success institute, minneapolis high school students can attend workshops and 10-week courses to earn certificates in various focus areas. Students spend 2 hours/week over a 10-week course learning portable skills, knowledge and confidence for life and various careers after high school. Ps offers three trimesters of free courses for up to 300 students per year. Course offerings have included coding, cooking, baking, money management, podcasting, filmmaking, theater tech, and bike tech by project success, entrepreneurship (offered virtually) by girls with impact and creative writing by the loft literary center, hosted by project success. All ps courses occur at ps headquarters campus in one of three learning spaces. Professional instructors lead courses, with support from volunteer mentors. Ps provides free shuttle transportation for all students, and additional 1:1 support is available for any student. The courses give students dedicated time outside of school to build skills and knowledge, self-sufficiency, explore potential education and career paths and build skills that will allow them to enter adulthood and the workforce after graduation with confidence. Students complete the program with a broader sense of the occupations and lifestyles available to them, and skills needed to succeed in post-secondary education and the workplace. Ps also offers "day of" events for student cohorts - both during the school day as a field trip and on non-school days. "day of" events - such as "day of coding" offer high school students a focused exploration of career and life skills. They experience hands-on learning taught by subject matter experts. During the 2023-24 school year, 220 students completed certificates of learning in baking, cooking, money management, bike tech (in collaboration with the break the cycle program), creative writing (in collaboration with the loft literary center), computer coding, and entrepeneurship (hosted by the ps institute, offered through girls with impact). Ps also hosted four "day of" field trips with 52 students in partnership with mps gear up programming. Finally, a cohort of students participated in a 4-day hands-on experience designed to familiarize them with public health through the technology of drones, held at project success and the university of minnesota. Institute - career pathways project success has always been at the forefront of creating innovative programs that connect students to their purpose, leading to career and life success. This past year, ps launched pilot career pathway programs to accelerate career-connected learning for students. Ps career pathways programs advance the mission of the ins”