The Belmont Program, founded in 1987, served a group of 112 children from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Philadelphia. The initial group of Say Yes students to participate in the program was composed of 7th graders. When later research indicated the efficacy of intervention and support at an earlier age, younger groups of Say Yes students began to be admitted to the program.

Read more about Lessons Learned, "Start Young".

Along with all the above, the students were able to take part in many cultural enrichment activities including:

• Being welcomed to the White House on two occasions;
• Meeting with President George Bush and members of Congress on a tour of Washington, D.C. arranged by Mr. Weiss;
• Participating in ceremonies marking the enactment of new legislation. Say Yes student Harold Shields was the introductory speaker for President Clinton during the signing ceremony for special legislation to help inner-city students attend higher education. The legislation, called the Gear Up program, is based on several facets of the Say Yes education model, including the program's approach to developing partnerships between inner-city schools and higher education institutions.

Successes

The rich and varied lives that the former Belmont students have gone on to lead provide the best evidence for the success of the program. The Belmont contingency continues to inspire new groups of Say Yes students and to actively participate in reunions as well as other related activities. Crucially, they also serve as a support network for younger Say Yes students.

As of the spring of 2007, the Belmont Program can point to the following achievements:

62 percent of program participants have graduated from high school in comparison to 26 percent and 28 percent of the classes preceding and following this group, respectively, thus demonstrating a 50 percent improvement over the comparison groups.

Of the 70 students who completed high school or GED requirements, 44 students had taken advantage of post-secondary education. Of these students, 21 had completed bachelor's degrees in fields as diverse as finance, biology, communications, and psychology. Another 9 students completed two-year associate's degrees and went on to enroll in other programs, and 14 have completed trade certificates.

It should be noted that having 21 students receive bachelor's degrees represents a significant improvement over the 1980 and 1990 census tracts for these communities.* In 1980, only 4 percent of adults in the SYTE census tracts completed a bachelor's degree. A decade later, in 1990, this figure had only increased by 2 percent. The remarkable 20 percent success rate, while admirable, could have been even higher had the importance of early intervention been understood at the time the Belmont Program was initiated.

Of the remaining Say Yes students, many are working and exploring other career or life choices such as starting their own businesses, creating non-profit organizations, beginning families, and purchasing their own homes.

^{*Through high school, SYTE students were compared to a group of students in their grade at Belmont. After high school, because that comparison group was no longer available (largely because there was no agreement in place to continue to provide SYTE with data on the comparison group’s progress) a decision was made to use the census data for the West Philadelphia neighborhood the SYTE students came from. Families from this neighborhood were asked a variety of questions, including how many people in the household had high school diplomas, how many had dropped out of high school, what grade where they in when they dropped out, how many pursued post-secondary education, and how many had obtained an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, or a post-baccalaureate degree. They were also asked how many family members had pursued vocational training. Our results, then, are comprised from comparisons with the census tract data for the West Philadelphia neighborhood.}