The SoulFisher Ministries
AGAPE Program
Project Date
Oct 2018 – Sep 2021
Type of Evaluation
Planning, Process, Outcome, Cost-effectiveness
Setting
Community-based
Overview
The SoulFisher Ministries established the Adult General Academic Program of Education (AGAPE) to provide reentry program and services, supportive housing, and wraparound services for women who are currently or formerly incarcerated. The goal of AGAPE is to prepare participants for post-secondary attainment, career development, intrapersonal development, and interpersonal connection upon exit from the program.
The Evaluation Center partnered with The SoulFisher Ministries to build and implement an evaluation plan for the program. The evaluation team also developed data collection tools and management systems to track progress toward goals and train program staff on how to use them.
Project Description
Background
The SoulFisher Ministries (TSM) is a St. Louis-based organization founded to break the school-to-prison pipeline by providing after school tutoring and enrichment for students who have an incarcerated parent and to address the issue of mass incarceration by providing reentry programs and services, supportive housing, and wraparound services to currently and formerly incarcerated women.
The Adult General Academic Program of Education (AGAPE) program includes life skills training, goal setting, healing-centered mental health support, and linkage to financial, medical, and housing services. AGAPE program staff provide pre-release services including financial literacy and identify development classes, linkage to credit-bearing college courses, and mental health services. Upon release, program participants are provided temporary or permanent supportive housing while receiving medical and mental case management support. The case management team provides holistic and restoratively-based support that identifies individual challenges, strengths, and protective factors in ways that promote and increase self-esteem and self-actualization.
TSM also implements the Educate Now to Achieve Later (ENAL) after-school program to support, educate, and empower young people with incarcerated parents.
Evaluation Center Activities
- Developed a logic model
- Developed an evaluation plan
- Developed protocols
- Developed data collection tools
- Developed data management system
- Collected, managed and analyzed data
- Evaluated program process and outcomes
- Supported compliance with grant reporting requirements
Our Products
- Evaluation plan, including logic model and methods matrix
- Data collection tools
- Data collection protocols
- Data management system
- Semi-annual evaluation reports
- Dissemination plan
- Dissemination products
Project Funder
Department of Justice: Office of Justice Programs
Contact Person
