The C5 program includes carefully sequenced, age appropriate, learning experiences that provide a seamless flow of learning and growth across a five year program. Participants must begin the program in year 1 and progress through year 5. Each year includes curriculum in four key areas:
- Leadership Development
- Social Awareness
- College and Career Preparation
- Community Activism
The program year begins with a summer signature experience that sets the goals and teaches the skills youth will need to be successful during the next year. The five Summer Signature experiences include:
- Camp Leadership U
- Camp Leadership U2
- C5 Bridges
- Road to College
- ACT Now! Summit
During the school year, participants learn new skills and integrate the skills they have learned over the summer into their life at home through the C5 Pathways program, the year-round community based program that supports and guides participants during the school year. C5 Pathways includes:
- group learning events
- group project planning
- individual responsibilities
- coaching
C5 Summer Signature Experience
The program year begins with a summer signature experience that sets the goals and teaches the skills youth will need to be successful during the next year.
Pathways - Applying New Skills in the Real World
Group Learning Events
Youth attend a minimum of 3 curriculum-focused events each year. Each is the delivery point for specific curriculum-focused content. These events:
- Drive outcomes
- Build strong community identity and supportive peer networks
- Inspire youth to accept responsibility and take action
- Re-energize focus on C5 culture, content, & values
C5 provides modules for two events per class per year – one focused on College & Career and one focused on Community Action. In addition a Leadership & Social Awareness curriculum focused event is created by each local site.
Group Practicums
Planning for the future is a component of each C5 Pathways event. Engaging youth in program planning is an important element of effective youth development and a pillar of the C5 model. Staff members play an active coaching role, providing boundaries within which youth can make meaningful decisions and holding youth accountable for their commitments.
Effective planning involves incrementally increasing responsibility at a rate youth can absorb. Participants are more prepared to manage significant responsibilities like the A.C.T. Now Summit and their Medallion projects if they have experienced gradually increasing power and responsibility in the C5 program over the five years.
Individual Responsibilities
Holding youth to high expectations for completing responsibilities like achieving goals on their leadership plan, completing community service hours and maintaining grades help participants develop habits and skills required for independent work in the latter years of C5 and when they move on to college and career. Independent responsibilities also increase youth’s opportunity to practice leadership in real life environments.
Required Annual Responsibilities for C5 Participants include:
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Attend all Pathways events.Completing and executing a personal Leadership plan each year
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Maintain a portfolio of significant work, leadership plans, high school and college action plans, reflections and learning, resume, and examples of public speaking and self-expression.
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Complete annual community service commitment.
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Check-in with assigned C5 staff member monthly.
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Turn all paperwork in on time as required by the individual C5 site.
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Maintain academic progress (B average or better and grade completion)
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Engage and lead through Extracurricular activities.
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Engage in planning and leadership that supports C5 events
Social Awareness Program
The Social Awareness curriculum builds greater understanding of social issues and how they impact our perceptions of our selves, others, and the world. Youth learn about themselves, how to appreciate those who are different form them, and develop skills for dealing with issues related to peers, families, their communities, and the world.
SAP is the signature C5 social awareness and diversity curriculum. It is a series of 90 minute sessions with an age-appropriate message that is presented 1-2 times each week during the summer experience in the first two years and integrated into the third through fifth years' curriculum as part of either summer programs or pathways. Across the five years, the modules follow five themes:
- Media and Culture
- Relationships
- Diversity
- Fears and Pressures
- Action Central
The C5 SAP curriculum includes a series of 23 modules. Each experience is typically supported by videos, activities, discussions, and journaling.