Hi All!

After a summer of working at a summer leadership institute and at Camp Swift, a non-profit organization which provides summer camp experiences to disadvantaged youth, I decided now would be the right time to publish my final research results. I truly enjoyed my time at Not My Kid and could not be more satisfied with the results that came of the months of research. Thank you all for coming along with me on this ride.

Final Research Results

Shir Attias

Demographic Results??

Hello all!!

Think back to a while ago (week 2 to be exact). If you remember, I categorized every school I went to into 5 distinct demographic groups in hopes of seeing if there is or isn't a difference in the successs of the presentation/prevention efforts in different demographic settings.

BA BA DA DUM

HERE ARE THE RESULTS

What does this mean??

There is no significant difference or evidence to show that there demographics play a role in how successful the presentation is. 

Though this may seem disappointing, it is actually the opposite. It shows that Not My Kid's work has a  positive effect on all demographic groups and that it is worth the effort to go into all kinds of communities with these prevention efforts, a very exciting and telling  fact indeed. 

Stay tuned for more results and significance in the future!!

PS I'm currently leaving for my last NFTY event EVER WOW. 

Best, 

Shir 

Combining Two Worlds

Hi All!

It's hard to believe things are starting to wrap up! Exciting things that happened this week: lots of data analysis and the long awaited GALA!!

Last week I shared with you all of the new and exciting data regarding the success of the presentation and the involvement of the school's staff.

For those of you who are versed in statistics and research, you know that in order to apply results and conclusions to a large population, your results must be what is called "statistically significant." Thanks to my wonderful regional youth group advisor's husband and the amazing notes from my time spent in AP Statistics, I was able to create a confidence interval and two-variable t-test.

As you can see.. these tedious calculations didn't exactly give me the results I necessarily wanted. The difference between the two means is not enough to say, that out of the selected population (the school's I attended and collected data from), we have evidence to say that presentations with staff support are always more successful. 

However, this doesn't mean that the results mean nothing! We still know a lot about the schools and areas we mainly work in which will allow us to improve upon our programming (more on this on a later date).

Friday was our annual Gala. As you know, the entire Not My Kid team has been working extremely hard on everything for the Gala from decorations to the silent auction to the programming for the night. Here are some pictures of the beautiful venue and decorations that came together.

Look at those amazing jars!

 Overall, the Gala went amazingly and I'm so lucky to work with such a welcoming and fun staff at Not My Kid that makes even a 15 hour day enjoyable. 

Until Next Time!

Shir

Empowerment and Teen Power

HAPPY APRIL EVERYONE!!!!

It's hard to believe that it's actually April and that my time at Not My Kid is beginning to come to a close. But before I give you some super interesting results, I promised I would update you all on my week off in Washington DC.

Last week I had the honor of attending the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) Policy Conference in Washington DC, joined by 4,000 other students and 18,000 attendees. Perhaps what is most special about the work the AIPAC does, is that it is committed to being bipartisan. What does this translate to? a very diverse group of individuals joining to fight for one cause. Especially in such a heated political season, there's a lot to be said about the power of unity.

What it looks like to have 18,000 passionate people in one room. 

The three days in DC were spent going from session to session, learning about topics (such as the Iran deal, the Syrian Civil, and the role of women in US-Israel relations), hearing a myriad of speeches, lobbying our congressmen, and embracing in conversation-- the thing that truly shaped the meaning of the conference. Each person there was not only eager but willing to join in conversation on they believe we can ensure Israel's safety. And each person had a different view of how it can happen. Yet, unlike so many conversations we see today, these characterizing conversations were all united by one goal. It was this mutual goal that pushed a group of teens and I to engage in conversation on how we would react to Donald Trumps speech at the conference. It was this mutual goal that allowed us to approach our congressmen on capitol hill with confidence. And it was this mutual goal that turned what would have been a political fiasco of protest and argument elsewhere into a truly inspiring and motivating three days.

Meeting and Lobbying Congressman David Schweikert

Throughout the conference, my friends and I had the pleasure of always surprising people with our presence there as high school students (as we were the minority among the college students). So often we heard words along the lines of "oh it's so important for the youth to be here", "you are our future", and "it's so special that you all care!". Whether it came from genuine appreciation or shock that we weren't a "typical rebellious teenager", it says a lot when older generations are willing to unite with teens as well for a cause. I couldn't help but be reminded of the big picture of Not My Kid: empowerment. Just like my involvement with the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) has empowered me and given me opportunities such as attending the AIPAC conference, and just as AIPAC empowered every one of those 18,000 people with its strength through unity, Not My Kid works to empower teens to make healthy life choices. Not by talking down at them, not by yelling at them, but by showing them why these choices are important and by putting power in their own hands. And, when looking at the results of my research, it makes perfect sense that all of the results come back to empowerment. 

A couple weeks ago I mentioned a pattern I started to notice with the presence of staff support from the school and the presentations success. If you recall, I explained that the presentations ran incredibly more successfully when the school's administration, staff, and/or teachers made it a priority by 1)framing the presentation in a respectful way, 2)explaining the importance of the presentation without reprimanding the students or making them feeling (eg not saying "I know we've had these issues so you all better listen up!!!"), and 3)remaining in the room to set an example and to enforce respect. In other words, when the school is committed to empowering their students and setting them and our presentations up for success, the students were more respectful, understood the reason behind the presentations, and were more affected by the presentation. The primary data collected from observations clearly showed this pattern, and so did the secondary data. Take a look:

	Average comfort in taking issue to an adult on a scale from 1 to 5
presence of staff	staff support present	staff support not present
	3.83	3.646667
	3.95	3.775934
	3.818	4
	3.53	3.76
	4	3.85
	4	2.8285
	3.69
	3.89
	3.69
	3.419355
average	3.7817355	3.643516833

Students reported being more comfortable talking to an adult about the presentations topic (Substance abuse, suicide/depression, bullying, healthy relationships, internet safety, or body image).

	%plan to use at least 1 skill
presence of staff	staff support present	staff support not present
	0.9433962264	0.8466666667
	0.8181818182	0.9004149378
	0.9090909091	0.7333333333
	0.8571428571	0.8913043478
	0.7179487179	0.9
	0.7636363636	0.6571428571
	0.7272727273
	0.9468085106
	0.8117647059
	0.7419354839
average	0.823717832	0.8214770238

% of students who reported they plan to use at least 1 skill learned during the presentation.

	% can use voice to ask for help
presence of staff	staff support present	staff support not present
	0.8867924528	0.8466666667
	0.9090909091	0.887966805
	0.8484848485	0.8666666667
	0.9285714286	0.8260869565
	0.9230769231	0.9
	0.9215686275	0.7428571429
	0.8545454545
	0.9574468085
	0.8117647059
	0.7258064516
average	0.876714861	0.8450407063

% of students who reported they believe they can use their voice to ask for help.

	%using resources
presence of staff	staff support present	staff support not present
	0.8490566038	0.7333333333
	0.8068181818	0.867219917
	0.7878787879	0.7
	0.75	0.7934782609
	0.8717948718	0.925
	0.8235294118	0.7142857143
	0.7636363636
	0.8829787234
	0.7529411765
	0.7580645161
average	0.8046698637	0.7888862043

% of students who reported that they would feel comfortable using at least one of the resources given in the presentation.

	%think topic important
presence of staff	staff support present	staff support not present
	0.9811320755	0.88
	0.9772727273	0.9253112033
	0.9393939394	1
	1	0.8804347826
	0.9743589744	0.95
	0.9607843137	0.8571428571
	0.8909090909
	0.9468085106
	0.8470588235
	0.9193548387
average	0.9437073294	0.9154814738

% of students who reported they think the topic is important.

Consistently, students who attended presentations that were clearly supported by the school's staff reported more often that they thought the topic was important, that they feel comfortable asking for help, and that they feel comfortable using new resources. And, even if it seems that the difference is represented by a seemingly insignificant number, these percentage differences are truly significant in that they are consistent despite all other factors. Students got more out of the presentation when their administrators, staff, and teachers believed that they could. Because the school showed the students that they cared,  the students were empowered to care as well. 

The thing one has to remember about working with teens, is that often people assume the worst in us. When an school, a youth movement, a role model, or an organization like Not My Kid comes in and shows teens that they're not here to assume the worst, doors fly open with positive possibilities and opportunities.

Whether it's bringing a student like me into passionate conversations or settings as I experience last week in DC, or treating students with the utmost respect in approach to prevention methods, empowerment works.

Looking forward to sharing even more results,
Shir

Week Six: Feeling at Home!

Yet another amazing week in the books! 

With it being Spring Break for most schools around Arizona, the week was a little slower with less presentations. Nevertheless, I attended four presentations: two on substance abuse, one on healthy relationships, and another on body image.

As always it was such a pleasure to join Shane in his presentations on substance abuse (if you’ll remember I had the opportunity to hear his presentation 5 times during the presentations in Scottsdale I talked about a few weeks back).

There weren't many big surprises with the presentations this week. Though with the extra office time I was able to analyze even more surveys so that I can truly start analyzing these results.

A couple of especially cool things about the week: The office had our regular Tuesday staff meetings where each person reports on what’s been happening in their specific area. This week I had the opportunity to talk about how my research has been going and some of the conclusions that the research is leading to. It was amazing to share with the rest of the staff, and-- with a birthday in the office, my supervisors baby crawling around, and a lot more glittering (and now spray painting!) to prep for the Gala—Tuesday was an awesome day.

On another note, next week is Spring Break!!! (Which isn’t nearly as exciting when you don’t go to school anymore) But… it is this time. I’m very excited and blessed to be attending the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington DC next week. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to Congress and Executive Branch of the United States. Every year in Washington, DC they hold an event called Policy Conference (PC), which attracts over fifteen thousand pro-Israel advocates from across the world. PC is the largest gathering of America’s pro-Israel community. Through demonstrations of groundbreaking Israeli innovations, keynote speeches by American and Israeli leaders, inspiring moments on stage, and intimate educational sessions, Policy Conference delegates such as me experience the full scale of pro-Israel activism in three powerful days. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to see keynote speakers such as Vice President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (via satellite), Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and the leading presidential candidates. This amazing opportunity plus some snow in DC is sure to make for an amazing experience and the perfect way to spend any week. 

See you soon!

Shir

Results?? Part One of Many

Hello all!

It is the end of week five and we are officially at the half way point! This week was another busy week but for sure much more calm! I attended five presentations: three student and two adult, all which had a specific interesting aspect to them. However, this week on the blog I won't be talking about my week's presentations. The past few weeks I've been talking about what I've been doing to collect data and what that has looked like. This week we are going to start talking about what all of these observations and surveys are adding up too!

Oh don't get to excited...

I'm not going to be giving up all the results that easy...

Good try though...

No today we are going to talk about one question on the survey which asks: "I feel like I can relate to this topic: Yes, No Opinion, No"

First I have to give some background on how I analyze the surveys. Since the surveys are simply on a sheet of paper (not a scantron or any computer system because... well... we are a non profit (though we are looking into changing this for the future, an exciting development!)), I have to analyze the surveys by hand. Yes, you guessed it, this means counting by hand how many people said yes to each question and how many people said no opinion or no. I then take a percentage of the total of surveys completed for the presentation (Key word completed) and report that in the results.

For this first question, "I feel like I can relate to this topic", so far the results have been pretty consistent with how successful the presentation seemed to be just from the primary data (check back to the introduction blog posts for an explanation on the primary data). However, after analyzing this question for the set of high school presentations-- at the very wealthy/well off high school and  other wise successful presentation I spoke about last week-- the results were for this question were inconsistent with the rest of the results. In fact, on average between the 7 presentations, the average percent of students who answered yes was .20009 which is extremely low considering how successful the presentations were.

The question is why???

There a couple reasons that could explain this
1) The presentation was about substance abuse. Answering yes to the question may seem to high schoolers as if they are admitting to using substances.
2) The substance abuse presentations involve very hard and intense substances. High schoolers may think, "well I never considering using a hard drug like that so no, I don't relate."

It's certainly interesting. Keep reading for even more results!

On another note I enjoyed helping prepare for the Gala coming up in April with some crafting!

I'm quite the master glitter-er if I may say so myself!!

Until next time!!

Shir

The Power of Authority

And thus week four comes to an end!

Hello all!

It has certainly been a busy week! This week I attended 10 presentations (I wasn't lying when I said busy!). Ranging from a high school in Arizona's most wealthy zip code to a Title 1 elementary school in Phoenix, the week provided a wide range of presentations and certainly a lot to think about. In this post I am going to focus on one factor in particular that really surfaced this past week. For the time being, I will still be leaving specific school names out of these blog posts but I will nevertheless give us much detail as I can to make this as interesting as possible.

On Thursday I attended 6 presentations back to back at a High School in Arizona's wealthiest zip code. This particular zip code ranks number 8 in highest graduation rate and faces few of the problems most other schools face. In the past presentations I've attended of schools that are on the upper end of the socioeconomic scale, the administrators very apparently seem less grateful for the presentations. Thus, they are less invested in the presentation and don't make as much of an effort to ensure that the presentation goes well. However, this particular high school did not fall into the trap of ingratitude. Rather, perhaps more than in any other school, the administration was very invested in making sure the students behaved during the presentation.

During 4 of the 6 presentations an administrator/official made it a point to introduce both the presenter and I and firmly, though kindly, told students to put their phones away and put their backpacks on the floor.  Saying, "I wouldn't ask you to put your phones away and devote your attention to this unless I truly thought it was an important topic", the administrator perfectly set the tone. And the results were immediately apparent. In fact, only during the two presentations in which the administrator was not present did the students get rowdy, a huge feat considering we are asking of freshman in high school to pay attention and be respectful for a whole hour.

I think this says a lot to the power of the authority in schools. When the authority took the time to stand up and say that this is important to them and to recognize that they are asking a lot but are asking it for a good reason, the students responded positively. It's a huge factor in ensuring that students are receptive to the presentation. And more over, it allowed the presenter to focus solely on the presentation and the story, rather than worrying about keeping the students (and in some truly frustrating cases the teachers!) from being rowdy.

Stay tuned for more news!

Until next time,
Shir