The Eagle Demonstration Project (EDP) was designed to serve young men of color in New York City. The Eagle Academy Foundation, the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Equity and Access, the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, and Young Men’s Initiative partnered to create, support, and implement the EDP in nine NYC Department of Education middle schools in Brooklyn.

During Urban’s process evaluation of the EDP, we examined how EDP schools used the training, coaching, and mentoring supports provided by the Eagle Academy Foundation and the extent to which the schools considered these supports helpful in building school capacity, changing school climate and culture, enhancing college awareness, and increasing student engagement.

We found the following:

• Members of the School Solutions Teams—which consisted of principals, directors of scholar life, guidance counselors, mentoring coordinators, and parent coordinators—considered the training provided at the Professional Development Institute to be valuable.
• Principals and other Schools Solutions Teams members generally found the coaching sessions useful. They appreciated that the coaching addressed predetermined topics and the flexibility to adjust coaching topics as needed to reflect rapidly changing priorities.
• Peer mentors, youth mentees, and mentoring coordinators generally found the mentoring program helpful and formative for mentors’ and mentees’ growth and development.

Full findings from Urban’s study of the Eagle Demonstration Project are available in our full report, Supporting Young Men of Color in New York City: A Process Evaluation of the Eagle Demonstration Project.