Youth ChalleNGe Academy The Georgia National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Academy (YCA) offers great value to the state of Georgia and local communities. March 5, 2011, Georgia’s 10,000th YCA graduate walked the stage after earning his diploma, highlighting 19 years of outstanding success by intervening and changing the lives of the state’s at-risk youth. Georgia has two of the 33 YCA programs nationwide, yet has produced 10% of the total number of graduates nationally. Georgia’s Youth ChalleNGe has produced graduates with the values, skills, education, self-confidence and self-discipline necessary to succeed as adults. This success comes as an incredible bargain to the entire state in that the federal government pays 75% of the cost of the program, thus allowing the state to pay only 25%. Additionally, YCA program statistics show that, nationally, communities surrounding ChalleNGe facilities receive the benefit of 590,665 hours of volunteer service. Those hours are valued at more than three million dollars, based on the present federal minimum wage. Conversely, had these youth not been given a second chance, the negative effects on the state would have been significant. High school dropouts have a six percent higher unemployment rate, are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested, and eight times more likely to be incarcerated. Eighty percent will appear before a judge within five years. A staggering two-thirds of prison inmates are high school dropouts. Through YCA, a large number of cadets receive their GED, with at least 53 percent joining Georgia’s work force, 23 percent going on to college or vocational school, and 20 percent entering the military. The Ga. DoD orchestrates two campuses, one at Fort Stewart and one at Fort Gordon. Both campuses accommodate approximately 225 students in each of their two classes per year. Each class is 22 weeks in length, residential, and follows the military model of discipline and structure. One of the most important aspects of the curriculum is that all graduates are taught valuable life-skills. These life-skills have a strong, positive impact on the future of each and every young person who participates in the program. Each young person who enrolls is matched with a qualified mentor who follows the student during the residential phase and then formally assists and monitors their success during the 12 months following graduation. This helps to further solidify the changes that have taken place, both mentally and physically, in the graduate. Under the constant leadership of Mr. Frank Williams, State Director of YCA since the program was a “pilot program” in 1993, and a highly trained and seasoned staff, the program has become a model for ChalleNGe academies nationwide. All of these factors are key components of a highly successful program that is turning the at-risk youth of today into the productive, tax-paying citizens of tomorrow’s state and nation.
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