When witnessing the magic in action, it’s easy to see the positive impact on every Team Kids partner, including teachers, police, firefighters, corporate partners, college interns, and most importantly the students.

In 2016, the Team Kids Board of Directors made research and evaluation a top strategic priority. We were fortunate to have the early leadership of Dr. Julie Tapp, who implemented and evaluated initial pre/post surveys in our Team Kids schools in Compton (CA), Torrance (CA) and in NYC (NY.) The powerful results from Dr. Tapp’s evaluation led to securing Arizona State University Assistant Criminology Professor Dr. Adam Fine as an independent researcher to rigorously evaluate Team Kids outcomes.

Thanks to their collective efforts and professional evaluation, the flagship Team Kids Challenge is now an empirically validated youth development and prevention model with published research papers in the APA Journal of Psychology, Public Policy and Law, and in the Journal of Experimental Criminology.