2021 COMBAT Mid-Year Funding: $58,179.00

in Bridge Leadership Academy's Own Words

Bridge Leadership Academy (The Bridge) is a youth empowerment nonprofit that has alliances with families, students and community-based organizations in the Hickman Mills School District and surrounding metropolitan communities. The Bridge serves youth ages 13-17 located in the South Kansas City Crime Hot Spot area and has designed The Bridge Youth Violence Prevention Program (The Bridge YVP) to prevent and reduce factors that put youth at risk for perpetrating or being a victim of violence.

The Bridge YVP program consists of a series of life-skills and leadership development workshops that assist students in developing healthy strategies when dealing with conflicts in their everyday life. Examples of workshops include communication strategies, goal setting, healthy relationships, positive self-talk, basic self-care and healthy coping strategies. The Bridge also provides on-site psychologist facilitated counseling sessions to address trauma, anxiety, and stress and to promote strategies and behaviors that foster safe and healthy environments. The program’s design is based on a systematic review of the evidence, research and resources regarding the effectiveness of youth violence prevention strategies including information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S Department of Health and Human Services, The National Task Force of Children Exposed to Violence and a variety of other peer reviewed articles and studies.

The Bridge will use this COMBAT funding to offer a Job Readiness Program for youth June 2021 - June 2022. The Bridge Job Readiness program will provide 25-plus youth with a structured job readiness program. The outcomes we seek to achieve include:

• 90% of the participants will complete the program.
• 80% of participants will develop interpersonal skills.
• 100% of participants will not show physical aggression while in the program.
• 100% will learn about three different career paths and how to apply these skills to real life employment.