Angel Xpress Foundation
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Mission Statement
We believe that an involved,educated adult can lead a child to discovering their true potential; and that every child deserves that opportunity. We intend to provide every empathetic adult with volunteering opportunities to act as mentor for first-generation learners from slums. We want to impact society positively by infusing a love for learning, coupled with a desire to excel and use the best of their abilities. We want to do this by teaming up with committed volunteers who also act as loving, enthusiastic mentors, and by enabling them to fulfill their desire of contributing to society – even if it is just for a few hours every week. We want to collaborate as a knowledge partner and supporter of local communities, schools, corporate, government agencies, and other developmental bodies. In doing this, we are committed to ensuring transparent and honest use of donor money so they know exactly how it is being channelized at any given point of time.
About This Cause
Angel Xpress Foundation (AXF) a 12 A and 80G certified NGO, was founded in 2012 with an intent to enable educated and committed citizens to tutor, mentor and guide children from slums in a bid to start a movement wherein every socially conscious citizen gets a chance to make an impactful contribution towards the creation of an equitable society where dignity of life is enjoyed by all citizens. The founders believed they could make a difference and break the cycle of extreme poverty that was being perpetuated by unequal opportunities by finding access for first generation learners (over 40% of Mumbai’s 24 Million residents live in slums) to educated adults that could tutor and mentor them to become responsible and capable adults. We started with 18 children in 2012, In 2020, we are working with 2200+ students through 700+ volunteers. Our flagship project, the Free Learning Center Program, is geared to enable a better future, where children learn to make responsible choices. It is designed to create opportunities for educated adults to teach and mentor slum dwelling first-generation learners in their neighborhoods. Over the past eight years, AXF has passed through the following stages. • Social experiment to test if there is willingness to volunteer among the citizenry, and potential for use of public spaces like neighborhood parks to create convenient interaction opportunities. • Development of pedagogy and processes of the Free Learning Center program for adaptability and standardization by a program management team, this remains an ongoing process. • Development and testing of a free franchise prototype for scalability and sustainability whence citizen groups take responsibility of local implementation while AXF provides program inputs, this module has been piloted successfully over past 2 years. AXF currently has about 35 people on roll with 10 full or close to full time dedicated team members who manage various aspects of the program. In addition to this AXF has a team of nearly 40 volunteers who have taken up leadership roles to manage the learning centers in their neighborhoods. A typical AXF center has a center manager + a co-manager/administrator/on rolls teacher who coordinate with the AXF central team for administration, running of centers and logistics. Besides this subject mentors are created who act as local trainers and supervisors for curricular implementation at centers, they maintain direct contact with the curriculum team. The center management teams in the centers started initially were paid, in the newer centers set up over past 3 years is voluntary. The AXF central team provides training and guidance to the center head/admin teams for day to day running of centers. Resources for center operations as well as constant support for generation of new volunteers and donors are provided through various PR and marketing activities. There is considerable investment made into volunteer engagement at both the central and center levels to build capacity as teachers, managers, leaders and in team building for retention. The central team handles logistics for dispersion of offers, opportunities and material procured centrally. Pedagogical support is provided by creating curriculum and assessment material and conducting regular training with volunteers for curriculum implementation, lesson plans, assessments and classroom management. Program description: The AXF Free Learning Center Program is an attempt to engage and aggregate the affluent Mumbai community in support of children from their neighborhood slums to reduce inequality and address lack of opportunity in our society. AXF works with the socially conscious educated who are keen to give back and trains them to become effective teachers and nurturers who along with AXF appointed managers serve as volunteer teachers to support the FLCs. In a city starved of space where most people end up spending time crowded into tiny rooms, our activities are conducted in parks giving an opportunity to the children and volunteers to come out of closed spaces, creating a fresh and open learning atmosphere. Under this program we provide the following interventions for school going children from slums Daily one hour lessons for 7 to 15 year olds from June till March yoy - skill based approach to coaching in English and Math (continuing since 2012), a life-skills curriculum has been introduced in 2019 and is being implemented via storytelling and activities once a week. Children typically join the AXF program between ages 7 to 10 and continue year on year usually at least till grade 9. They typically drop out in grade 10 to attend all subject tuitions to prepare for their boards. Youth Engagement Program (YEP) – for 15 to 18 year olds – The program was piloted in 2018-19 and includes support for board prep with tutoring for all school subjects for students in grades 9 & 10 along with career and academic counseling. For students in grades 11 and 12 there are soft skills workshops on weekends (digital literacy, spoken english) culminating with a 100 hour job readiness program after grade 12 in collaboration with Antarang Foundation. Lifeskills and Social/Emotional Learning (SEL) are tools that kids need to be resilient, to be problem solvers, and to be good people. The AXF Lifeskills program has been curated to ensure holistic development of the child, enabling the child to see their strengths and challenges and help them see their personal competencies they need to develop to be successful. These competencies help shape and form and further expose them to themselves and others. The volunteers are thoroughly trained to execute this program by trained counselors and therapists. The program is designed to help students better manage their relationships with adults and peers, reduces problems with conduct in the classroom and risk-taking behavior, and has a tangible positive benefit on students' emotional well-being. This program hopes to achieve an end goal of responsible decision making later in life AXF is an optional choice for kids and parents alike, we are happy to have an over 80% attendance and re-registration rate year after year as well as deep engagement with the community through several PTAs through the year. While the long waiting lists for hopeful new admissions at many of our centers are a testimony to the success of our program, it is also an indication that many more volunteers/communities need to take up this intervention. Over the next 5 years, we aim to train over 2000 volunteers who will reach out to 10,000 children through daily lessons year on year. This will enable volunteering to become a lifestyle choice for an urban society. And begin a social movement that will encompass millions. English, Math & life-skills are the core subjects covered at our center. Talent development and non-formal education programs are held regularly, along with counseling sessions, with life coping skills and livelihood training for teenagers. Lifestyle and educational trips are conducted to enhance the exposure of children. A daily nutritional supplement is supplied in the form of fruits or snacks. Regular health check-ups such as dental, eye, and so on, are conducted.