Roca, serving low-income youth residing in the Greater Boston communities of Chelsea, Revere, and East Boston, utilizes a comprehensive intervention model it developed to support long-term behavior changes that ultimately lead to economic self-sufficiency and the ability to lead lives out of harm’s way. This model, which engages each Roca youth worker with 25 young people for anywhere from two to five years, is based on proven programs from medical and mental health fields and includes:

• Transformational Relationships (Roca’s intensive case management model);
• relentless outreach and follow up;
• life skills, educational and pre-vocational, and employment programming; and,
• work with institutional partners.
  

One of the Foundation’s first Youth Development Fund grantees, Roca serves approximately 1,000 youth annually.

To learn more about Roca’s programs, read Young People and Families Striving for Change.

EMCF Investment and Business Plan Highlights

Since 2000, the Foundation has invested $4.75 million in Roca to develop and implement its business plan and advance its performance management systems. EMCF’s current one year, $750,000 investment (made in March 2009) will help Roca solidify the gains made over the past 8 years. Over the next 12 months, Roca will further strengthen internal operations, continue to improve quality, and diversify its funding base.

For more information about Roca, visit the organization’s website at www.rocainc.org.