The Problem, our Theory of Change and more.....

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At the very root level, we are trying to address the issue of inter-generational poverty caused by the inability of low income families in sustaining their children's educational journey! We believe there are several constraints that they regularly encounter which needs to be addressed and supported at a much deeper level on case by case basis. As per 2014 data. the drop out rates are at almost 17.8% at secondary level and goes even higher as they proceed towards under graduation courses.

At a different level we are trying to fill the gap of Parents Non-availability or Inability to guide their childens education by outsourcing that task from them. We want their children to have the same luxury and a levelled playing ground as their counterparts who come from affluent and well educated families!

In spite of huge number of NGO's working with the Governmment to solve the macro issues of both enrollment and improving the quality of education, we see that a substantial chunk of children slip through the cracks because there is lack of sustained support and guidance to these families at a micro level AND "getting educated" just not being a default of the community they live in. These drifts/dropouts in turn is draining several years of effort and money expended by NGOs and the Government as well as impairing the families ability to break away from poverty. 

In the day to day struggle that these families face and their own illiteracy, it is only unfair to assume that they will be able to "search" and "locate" the right Non-profit or educational Institute for continuing their child's education or for that matter even keep that "search" as a priority.  We wish to bring these options and help to their doorstep so that the family do not loose out their chance amidst their recurring challenges.

While enrollment and quality of education is in the process of getting fixed through RTE/SSA and several joint efforts of NGOs and the Government, we feel a dire need of a supporting organization that can take these options to the doorsteps of the intended beneficiaries.

Our core focus segment is that of "highly invested parents" who have a dream for their child but economics limits and situations constraints them from making those dream come true.  

Our beneficiaries are/will be the families from the under-served communities (Urban as well as rural) who have a deep desire to have their children complete their educational path but are constrained either financially or because they are just not aware of several options available. This is regardless of the academic performance of the child because our mission is to help every invested  family find a path towards  a proper conclusion of their child's educational journey.

We plan to invest only in families that satisfy the following main criteria

• The family/parents are deeply invested in their children's education. (Gauged through qualitative surveys/sessions)
• The child in the family shows a potential of completing his/her education given proper support and options
• The family's annual income is less than 2.5 Lakh per annum.
• The child and the parent both are committed to complete the educational journey.
• The family is non-migrant in short to medium term.

In our first few years of operations, we intend to reach our beneficiary mainly through the following channels

1. The HM/Staff of  low income or Government school. We need their inputs on potential students and families that can benefit from such sustained support/guidance.
2. Partnering with local NGOs already working within the system. (e.g. Whitefield Ready, Teach for India, Rotary etc.)
3. Maids/Workers/Housekeeping from our own communities or of our friends.

We realize that this is indeed a "wicked" problem to deal with since both the problem(s) and their solutions are not clearly known at the onset. Hence keeping principles of "Human Centric Design Thinking" at the heart of our model, we make sure that the child and the family is at the center of both  defining the problem as well as designing the solution that works for them. 

Once a child and its family is inducted, we then start a long term committed support service with them. This includes series of scheduled meets with the child, their family, their teachers/HM and/or any other stakeholders who have an influence on the child's journey towards education.

Our core support runs via three programs that kicks off at various stages of their growth.

• Program Astivaaram(Foundation) -  Grade 8 to 10 -  Focusses on Learning Gap deficit, Value and Skills building and Career/Stream Awareness
• Program Sethu (Bridge) - PU1/2 or G11/G12 - Focusses on Communication and Personaility, Individualized refinement of career paths and College Admissions
• Program Stambha(Pillar) - Graduation+ - Focusses on Life Skills, Job Readiness, Placements and "Pay Forward plans"

Depending on the support needed or the plan of action set for the child, we then help the family become aware and pursue the various options available. Our first choice of options is always to leverage as much of existing Non profit or Government program which can meet our objective at the lowest cost. However in cases where we deem necessary, we may take over the financial burden so that family still gets a choice of the "right" path for their child without having to worry about "how they will pay for it".

We deliver our  support program through our Centers staffed  with full time  Learning Center Coordinators who work with our pool of Learning Facilitators (also called teachers). One coordinator typically assist 15-20 children/families. By and large we recruit coordinators from the same community or from our alumni so that besides getting an employment, they also help our mission by becoming a force-multiplier within their "hives". Who else will be able to understand and guide us better in this? We also establish partnership with as many existing Non Profits and Educational Providers as we can so that our children have access to them when required. 

From our experience of having worked with 7-8 children/families for last several years, some of the challenges that we encountered and which we think will still continue to challenge us are as follows:-

• Family movement due to emergencies -  Often the families we deal with get cornered into situations where the entire family decides to migrate back to their village/town. Though we try and limit our selection to less migration prone families, it can still occur. This can "derail" our years of effort though we will intend to continue the interventions remotely.
• Family resistance to "best" course of actions - This pertains to some of the choices that sometime may be the best course to take for the child but may be in direct conflict with family's value and customs. Example : Sending a girl child to a college or school or coaching classes that are far from their home. Or putting up a child in a hostel for a better chance of success.In such cases , we as an organization will stop at providing and informing the family of the options BUT leave the final decision to them.
• Conflicts within the family on choices -  This pertains to cases where perhaps one parent (mostly the mothers) want to take the options that can help the child while the other parent opposes the idea. Again as part of our intervention strategy , we attempt to build a lasting relationship with ALL the stakeholders and ensure that we get them all on board of options as much as possible. However we don't rule out the possibility that this may come on our way of accomplishing our goal for the child.
• Adolescence behavioral issues -  One of the most daunting challenges to deal with has been the adolescence related issues especially considering the "surroundings" that our children tend to live in. Besides the "age" related natural rebellious changes within the child, these children get easy access to harmful influences within their community. The same child who looked promising in studies suddenly can get drifted away and no amount of mentoring/talks can sometime win over their minds. As a strategy, we increase our involvement during those phases and try and consciously develop a "friendly" relationship so we can reduce the impacts. Having said that we still foresee this as our one big hurdle to cross.

Yes and No!

As per the research we have done so far, we find that "thankfully" there are several Non profits (1500+) that are addressing many of the educational needs. In addition we also see a huge corpus of corporate funds (estimated INR 6000 crore annually) flowing through CSR  for addressing the macro-issues of both enrollment and quality of education. 

However there are two gaps which we want to "seal"...

1. Most of the existing non-profits as well as the CSR fund flows are highly fragmented with each of them addressing specific areas of education or specific beneficiary groups. For a family that is on a constant threat of drifting away, they need someone to help them "aggregate" these options and show them the possibilities at each stage of child's journey. 
2. Majority of the Non-profits and Government programs tend to address the macro needs where several children or the community as a whole is targeted to be benefited. In the process, a specific family fails to get the attention/guidance on their current constraints especially on a sustained long term basis. These families need someone to provide them a focused support  to cross over the "hurdles"  that they often find themselves bumping against. This is especially true for families with an average performing child because even with the best of the intent, these families get lost in the "crowd".

Our inspiration has been Abraham George and his Shanti Bhavan Childrens Project.  While they take a child at age 4 and offer a full residential intervention till their job, we , at the best, are trying to be a subset of their grandiose mission. We start on Day#1 of high school and promise our support till Day#1 of job through our 3 hours a day, 6 days a week, 300 days a year after-school intervention. Christel House is also another organization working on long term deeply involved interventions that has been inspiring us.

An NGO called Team Everest also works very similar to our model while exclusively focusing on orphan or single parent families.

And lastly , we also have a few organizations like EY Foundation's DISHA program, United Ways, Deeksha's Vidyadaan, Haqdarshak or Buddy4Study who are doing a beautiful job of aggregating or providing "free schemes  and scholarships" that can help the ones in need. We are trying to be that "someone" who will help take these to its ultimate intended recipients! 

Our goal for next 3-5 years is to impact 1000+ families in 50+ locations/Urban and Rural dwellings so they are empowered sufficiently to find their way out of poverty. We believe enabling their children to fulfill their educational aspiration and creating role model(s) within is the first step towards that! 

We hope this will create enough momentum for the 10,000+ families living in these 50+ urban/rural dwelling to seek education as their means to fight poverty while our centers will grow to become that "bridge" to cross-over!

As we go about this journey, we would like to measure ourselves and our impact based on following five metrics

1. Our Reach - # of children/families/communities whom we are impacting at any point of time - Tells us how well we are on our scale of "reach" and creating our "army of catalysts".
2. Our Intent -   # of enquiries from community that our centre receives - Tells us how well we have been  arousing the interest of community in seeing education as a medium of growth.
3. Our Resilience - # of children/families who are on our shifting orbit path for more than 4 years - Tells us how well we are in our "persistence" to arrest and avoid the "drifts" both from education as well as from their community.
4. Our Progress to Goal 1- # of children/families who have completed their educational journey and are now financially independent - Tells us how well are we doing on our short term intent of breaking the indvidual cycle of poverty
5. Our Progress to Goal 2- # of families with educated children per community- Tells us how well are we doing with our long term intent of poverty alleviation by increasing the tribe of educated members.