New School Design & Creation

Dropouts returning to school most often are seeking different enviornments than their previous schools in which they did not experience success.  For a number of years, there have been not enough smaller, personalized relevant educational programs available to meet the needs of students who need a different educational setting.  Realizing this in 2004, Steve Dobo, the Founder and Executive Director of CYC, started creating schools for students who dropped out of school. 

In 2003, Steve co-founded PS1 at the Spot, a smaller education environment in an urban setting for a diverse urban population to pursue their high school diplomas.  In 2005, Steve co-founded the Academy of Urban Learning, a non-traditional setting for highly mobile, transient and homeless youth to gain their high school diplomas.

  

After founding CYC, Steve partnered with West High and Emily Griffith Opportunity School within DPS in the fall of 2007, along with Goodwill Industries to co-found the West Career Academy (WCA).  WCA is a school for 17-20 year old dropouts with junior or senior level credit to get their diploma, while also pursuing a career technical certificate.  This program has been possible through the funding of the Office of Economic Development and Denver Public Schools.

In the Fall of 2009, CYC partnered again with DPS and this time with AIMS Community College to create the Youth Opportunity Academy (YOA).  YOA is a work-based competency educational program for 100 high school dropouts to earn their high school diplomas and gain workforce skills.  Located within the Prep Academy in northeast Denver, YOA serves a diverse student population ages 18-20 who would not have graduated by credit from their home high schools.

Also in the fall of 2009, CYC designed, created and opened Futures Academy, a one-of-a-kind educational program within Aurora Public Schools on the Pickens Technical College campus.  Futures was designed for 100 dropouts per year who have post-secondary aspirations, but who dropped out because of their lack of success at their traditional high schools.  Futures enrolls students who normally get tracked to GED preparation programs, and within an intensive year of instruction in reading, writing and math, prepares students to place into credit-bearing classes at the community college level.  This offers an alternative to the deadend path which most GED programs create for students.  Futures offers college success skills in the areas of studying, organization and time-management, and creates personal futures plans for each student to pursue their aspriations for college or career-technical training.  Students who do not age out of the public school system are offered the opportunity to take their second and third years with Futures at the community college campus earning credits toward their associcates degree.  All students are also offered the chance to take career-technical classes at Pickens Technical College and to co-enroll in college classes at the Community College of Aurora.