New Horizons of Southwest Florida, Inc.

The ultimate goal of New Horizons is for all at-risk (socio-economically disadvantaged) youth to complete high school with a plan for the future that positions them to become contributing members of society.While overall graduation rates are on the rise in Florida, at-risk students and English language learners continue to fall far behind their peers. In Lee and Collier County Schools, the majority of students are categorized as “economically needy.” 25% of Lee and Collier County students live in poverty in non-English speaking homes, meaning parents have difficulty communicating with the school system and other social services. Those parents are busy struggling to put food on the table and meet basic needs. All of these factors combined, making their children at-risk for dropping out of school. These dropouts are more likely to be unemployed, commit crimes, become teen mothers and become a societal burden for taxpayers. Without targeted intervention, the cycle continues. New Horizons' programs are structured and operate for targeted intervention and to break the cycle of at-risk students dropping out of school.

New Horizons' Board of Directors developed a 2019-23 strategic plan to guide New Horizons' leadership over the next five years with high impact strategic initiatives that will secure the organizational health and program outcomes.The plan encompasses three strategic initiatives with associated goals and objectives: 1st Strategic Initiative: Value Added Partnerships New Horizons has many partnerships with churches and other organizations that range from mutually beneficial to one sided, formal to informal and ongoing to inconsistent.  This range of partnership qualities makes it difficult to plan, grow and improve.  A more defined set of partnerships is needed with set expectations that are regularly reviewed and adjusted as needed.  2nd Strategic Initiative: Long Term Sustainability Since New Horizons’ annual budgets have continually expanded for the last six years, with New Horizons starting as a small, grassroots organization and now a significantly larger, more sophisticated, mid-sized $2.5 million operation, it is critical to make mission sustainability a high priority. 3rd Strategic Initiative: External Validation and Promotion New Horizons currently has local validation for its mission, programs and outcomes. These validations come from United Way (Lee and Collier Counties), Lee County (Partnering for Results), Community Foundations (Collier County and SW FL), Schulze Family Foundation. An external validation/accreditation is critical to grow funding sources, improve the quality of our programs and garner greater community support. Seeking out an external validator could be an avenue to grow and secure the impact of the New Horizons mission in SW FL.

New Horizons' model for helping at-risk youth has matured over the past 17 years to offer at-risk students a range of resources, activities and opportunities that opens their eyes to a "new horizon."  The uniqueness of the model is its location in the neighborhoods where kids live and go to school.  This gives the students and their families easy access to and familiarity with the New Horizons' programs, staff and volunteers.  The model is also cost effective in that is relies on a host site for classroom space and utilities.  The New Horizons model requires minimal assets to operate; buses to transport students and computers to help them with homework and reading.  This model enables New Horizons to continue to launch new sites and enroll additional students.  It costs $3,500 a year for a student to participate in the range of New Horizons' programs.  With an investment of only $45,000 over the 13 years these at-risk students are in school, a life can be changed from one of failure to one of success and opportunity.  In addition, New Horizons capabilities have grown over the years to include:  a solid foundation of business practices; a wide range of revenue sources, over 800 committed community volunteers, 100+ community partners to enrich the New Horizons programs and student experiences, dedicated and focused staff and a robust communications network.

New Horizons' near term objectives are for our students to improve academically and socially while developing strong characters.  Each success they experience is building a foundation for additional achievements propelling them through school and ultimately graduation from high school  New Horizons programs provide measurable results for the more than 2,000 students who have participated in Super Kids Club and Super Teens Club during the 17 years since the organization was founded. Pinewoods Elementary Teacher Irma Benejan saw the difference the Super Kids Club made in the academic success of one of her second grade students, Rolando. She writes, “Please keep doing what you are doing with these children. It works!” • 95% retention rate in Super Kids and Teens Clubs from 2017/18 to 2018/19 • 105 high school seniors in Super Teens Club since 2009 have completed high school • 82 Super Teens have been awarded college scholarships • Graduates are serving in the military, attending college and vocational schools, volunteering and contributing to the Southwest Florida community and economy.With the many accomplishments of our students, they demonstrate that they are well prepared to graduate high school with a plan for their future.  They know too they are members of a strong and caring community that they want to contribute to. We continue to develop our programs, train staff and volunteers and provide case management to students that will ultimately improve the academic and social skills of our students.