Choose to Grow
How Dr. Karla McCullough designed and directed a national after-school initiative that gives youth the tools to navigate a challenging world, while preparing the world to receive them.
For youth of color in under-resourced communities, the years from 11 to 14 are a pivotal and precarious, window. Too often, the systems around them aren't designed to help them thrive.
Choose to Grow set out to change that: to build a national after-school program that promotes educational growth and meaningful community engagement, while honoring young people as authors of their own experience, not passive recipients of services.
A curriculum designed with youth, not just for them
As Project Director and curriculum developer, Dr. McCullough aligned every site around a single, clear mission and a culturally responsive model, so that 16 locations could deliver a consistent experience without losing local relevance.
- Shared mission, aligned curriculum across all 16 sites.
- Youth voice by design, participants help shape their own opportunities.
- 21+ partners coordinated around common goals and measures.
Reach & reported outcomes
A snapshot of the program's footprint and the kind of outcomes it's built to produce.
Illustrative rollout trajectory, replace Year 1–2 figures with your actual numbers (Year 3 = 16 is current).
Sample data for layout, replace with your program evaluation results.
The program is intentional about youth having a voice in their own experiences and opportunities to heal, grow and thrive.
Dr. Karla McCullough, Ph.D.Project Director, Choose to Grow
A replicable model for equitable youth development
Choose to Grow shows what Tri-K Group brings to every engagement: a culturally responsive design, alignment across many partners and a relentless focus on the humanity of the people a program serves. It's the same approach we bring to systems change, strategic planning and capacity building.
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Let's design something that centers the people it serves and is built to last.