Building Attitudes Respectfully (BAR) Program

Introduction

The Building Attitudes Respectfully (BAR) program aims at helping high school students who are struggling with their academics to complete high school and pursue tertiary education. Since education is a continuous process, the program will be admitting new students every year. Therefore, a reasonable budget, resource allocation plan, and activity timeline are crucial to its success. The budget planning entails assigning funds to specific activities and determining the short-term and long-term sources of funding. The most crucial resource to the project is the staff, and hence a proper allocation plan will facilitate optimal productivity. Finally, the program should have a detailed timetable that allocates sufficient time to each task. The fulfilment of the three elements will promote the success of the initiative.

Budget

The project's primary sources of funding will be targeted corporations, school alumni, and the state's education department. Companies and business franchises that deal with education, such as book publishers, can benefit from affiliation with the BAR program. By donating funds to the initiative, they will acquire a platform to showcase their products to all teachers and students in the schools where the initiative exists. Another category of corporate sponsors are institutions that are seeking to expand their corporate social responsibility reach. However, companies that deal in products that are counterintuitive to the program's objectives, such as alcohol breweries, will not be part of the target group. The BAR program will also seek the contribution of the alumni of the schools in which it exists. Often, alumni are members of the same communities as the current students. They can relate to the students’ challenges (Dewey, 2017). Thus, they would be willing to contribute to a program that improves the high school-to-college turnover rate. Finally, the state's department can partially fund the program as part of its initiative to improve education quality. However, state funding is best if it is a secondary source. The education department would be more willing to sponsor an already existent program with tangible outcomes since they have to spend their budget pragmatically.

The program’s main recurring expenditures are salaries and wages, utilities, and motivational group activities. Since the program runs throughout the academic year, staff remunerations would consume the largest portion of the budget. Next, the program may need to pay for utility bills such as leasing a community hall for off-campus meetings. Finally, it will be necessary to organize periodic group activities such as academic trips and character-development sessions. The program will incur costs on transport, food, accommodation, and other fees related to each specific activity. Table 1 demonstrates a draft budget for a pilot group of a hundred students for one academic year.

Table 1 : Draft Budget

Staff Resources

The acquisition and management of staff for the program require a professional and entrepreneurial approach. If the employees are emotionally invested in the program, they will be willing to endure challenges and be proactive in suggesting and implementing solutions. Therefore, the screening process will identify each candidate's professional qualifications and reasons for interest in the project. Like any other job, professional qualifications will enhance service delivery quality, and hence the program should not compromise. The candidates' reasons for interest in the various positions should explain how they relate t the schools or students. While it is not mandatory for the staff to be from the same community as their students, the candidates must demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the students’ needs. Successful applicants will then undergo an orientation program to define their duties and establish objectives.

The program will also require a sound human resource management system. Effective staff management will entail practical personnel allocation. Allocation criteria will include the number of students per class and the diversity of their needs. Each staff member should work with an optimal number of students to ensure that they have ample time to address their challenges. The human resource management protocol will also facilitate student feedback regarding service delivery quality, suggestions for improvements, and complaints. Dispute handling will be discreet to maintain the confidentiality of employees and the students.

Implementation Timeline

A practical timeline is necessary to ensure that the initial implementation of the program is successful. The initiative will utilize a pilot project for about a hundred students in the first academic year. Pilot projects are essential to new endeavors since they allow the proprietors to evaluate risks, assess implementation options, and investigate success levels (Kraft, 2017). Recruitment of staff should be over before the academic year commences. Also, the program's drivers should have identified schools in which to conduct the pilot project. The first month of the semester will involve identifying the students that could benefit the most from the program. Next, the staff should communicate with the students, teachers, and parents about the program's intentions and request consent for participation. The rest of the semester would entail addressing the students' needs. The second semester would continue as the latter part of the first one, with the staff conducting regular evaluations of the students and the program. Table 2 summarizes the timeline.

Table 2 : Pilot Timeline

References

Dewey, P. (2017). How students and professionals benefit from alumni engagement. Retrieved from https://www.parkerdewey.com/blog/effective-alumni-engagement

Kraft, D. (2017). The Advantages of a Pilot Project. Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/13373307/the-advantages-of-a-pilot-project