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] by Chike Ukaegbu - President, Re:LIFE Inc.
building an effective program for youth reconnection
[ D E D I C AT I O N ] This report is dedicated to all children and youth in need of love, care, discipline and understanding. To my unborn children, nephews and nieces, but most especially to Chibudom Mbanaso and Toyosi Akinola, most beautiful nieces in the world, I love you girls to death. I know that your parents will do right in bringing you up in the most effective and God fearing ways because they got nothing short of that.
[ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ] It is with heartfelt gratitude and acknowledgement that I thank the following people for their encouragement and countless support in making the completion of this report possible: My dearest family, nuclear and extended, for all their love and unfailing support. They have constantly endured through much, putting up with all that I am, and whose impact on my life tremendously contributed to the development of the HEROES model. Who can ask for better parents? Their love and discipline, even when we did not understand and appreciate them, in more ways than one, ensured that my siblings and I enjoyed all that the HEROES model embodies. Kevaughn Isaacs, Co-Founder of Re:LIFE Inc, confidant, contributor and graphic designer, whose input and invaluable creativity continues to beautify all of Re:LIFE’s efforts. Your faith, hope and assurance that the path to Re:LIFE’s future is only but great, keeps the fire burning. Professor Jim Baik, for encouraging me to embark on this journey, and for all the counsel in helping to shape the direction of this report. The Colin Powell Center for Public Policy and Leadership for giving me the opportunity that fostered my interest in youth development. The research and internship experiences and the financial support laid the foundation on which I am currently building upon now. Bishop Carlton T Brown and Elder Mark Williams of Bethel Gospel Assembly for their belief, superior counsel and monetary support of Re:LIFE Incorporated. They gave life to the idea of ReLIFE at its conception, and have remained steadfast in their support of Re:LIFE’s causes. Kristina Hosch, for your kindness and support of Re:LIFE Inc. You inspire me through your business acumen and ministry for young people. I definitely hope to learn much more from you. Colleagues, friends and all who contributed to this report, especially in editing it (I cannot list everyone here), thank you so much. Your contribution did not go unnoticed. Re:LIFE’s interns for their dedication, passion and commitment in helping Re:LIFE impact its community one youth at a time, regardless of our inability to pay for their invaluable services. My mentees, whom I regard as my younger siblings – you know yourselves – Shana Brown Thank you for the opportunity to share in your life’s journey. Your leadership and ability to motivate your peers is not only astounding, but one that should be recognized, especially with all that you went through to get to where you are today. Congrats on completing your first semester in college; Dajuan Knight - I admire your dedication, commitment and determination in ensuring that you build a better future for you and your son. Lil’ man is lucky to have you as a father; Derrick Jackson Your consistency sets you apart from your peers, so I know that excellence awaits you if you do not relent; Duwayne King – Smart, loyal and hardworking. You accomplish whatever you set your mind to, so let’s keep making those right decisions. Terrance Banks – Your story is one that keeps me inspired. You are beacon of hope for your generation if you keep exploiting those talents and intellect positively. To all the others not mentioned, but who in several ways contributed to this report, thank you immensely, as we continue to create better environments for the youth in our communities. But most importantly, thank you LORD for your mercies, unfailing love, strength and purpose, given to me to help expand your Kingdom through service. I would have been most miserable pretending to fill another’s shoes.
the HEROES model
#0 [contents]
Chike Ukaegbu
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INTRODUCTION MAP OF NEW YORK CITY DISCONNECTION IN NEW YORK CITY ROOT CAUSES OF DISCONNECTION NEED FOR EFFECTIVE REENGAGEMENT SOLUTIONS OUTTAKES FROM FIVE CASE STUDIES PROPOSING AN EFFECTIVE MODEL RE:LIFE REENAGEMENT PROGRAM REFERENCES
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#1 [introduction] For the past several years, I have worked with nonprofit and community organizations that have provided different services aimed at empowering disconnected youth – from health, to educational, to criminal justice, mentorship, foster care system, arts and talent, as well as fitness programs. Disconnection describes mid to older adolescent youth and young adults who are out of school and out of work. Some researchers tend to keep the lower end of the range for disconnected youth at 14, while some start at 16 or 17. The upper end of the range fluctuates from 24 to 26. For the purpose of this paper, I will generally refer to disconnected youth as youth between the ages 16 and 25 who are out of school and out of work. 1 02
Most of these programs, especially those serving youth up to ages 18, deal with preventive ways to help at-risk youth stay connected. During my work, I came to understand that while prevention is important, reconnection of those who ‘slip through the cracks’ is equally vital. Most that needed to be reconnected were those who were older (16 – 25 years) and often lacked the basic structure to stay connected. This older demographic is what I am most concerned with in this paper. My research combines the outcomes of personal experimental research with reviewed outcomes of other youth-reconnection programs’ techniques. While my evaluation argues for the need to adopt a more effective approach to youth development strategies as implemented by Youth Service Providers, it does not undermine the effort and dedication by these organizations to help curb the negative impact of disconnection in our communities. After exploring and analyzing different scenarios of youth service provision, I focus on five case studies of programs set-up to aid the reconnection of this demographic, as conducted by The Young Adult Capacity Initiative (YACI). As a result, I have used the successes of these individual programs, as well as my observation and experience from dealing with this group to propose a more effective ‘wrap-around’ program model to impact the lives of youth. My proposed model, which I call the HEROES model (HEROES is an acronym for Heritage, Education, Relationship, Opportunity, Entrepreneurship, and Service), outlines critical aspects of positive youth development. It introduces a more holistic approach to addressing the crises of youth disconnection and incorporates the successes of effective programs to more effectively tackle the problems of this population.
#2 [map of new york city]
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Figure 1: Understanding New York City Neighborhoods. 77 A geographic positioning of NYC’s neighborhood as crafted by The Community Service Society of New York. Neighborhoods are arranged along patterns indicating economic and demographic patterns.
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#3 [disconnection in new york city] In this paper, the term ‘disconnection’ is used to describe youth who are out of work and out of school. There are currently over 5 million disconnected youth in the United States between the ages of 16 and 25.2 This population of youth, which amounts to almost 20 percent of the entire youth population, will be classified as ‘fallen through the cracks’ if this trend continues.
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New York City is home to the highest rate of youth disconnection in the country, with at least 20 percent of this age group out of school and out of work.3 In New York City, there are approximately 223, 000 disconnected youth between the ages of 16 and 244,5. This proportion of disconnected youth tops the national average (22 percent versus 16 percent nationally). More than 160,000 of these are jobless and not seeking, with about 60,000 actively seeking but without jobs.6 Also, the percentage of disconnected males in New York City is about double the national average (16.2 percent in New York City versus 7.7 percent nationally) 7 and nearly three times that of their female counterparts in New York City if young mothers were excluded from the count. 8
05 Figure 2: Concentration of Disconnected Youth in New York City (2000) 78.
Figure 3: Concentration of Disconnected Youth in New York City (2005) 79
#4 [root causes of disconnection] POVERTY: The three New York City neighborhoods with the greatest poverty and low income concentration are Upper Manhattan, the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn.9 These areas also happen to have the three largest concentrations of disconnected youth from both the 2000 and 2005 Census.10 Central Harlem (an Upper Manhattan community) has a poverty rate of 39%, more than triple the national average of 11 percent.11 In Brooklyn neighborhoods such as Cypress Hills, City line and East New York, over 27 percent of households in these neighborhoods had an income of less than $10,000, while 71 percent of children are born into poor families.12 Half the city’s 1.4 million poor people live in neighborhoods where the poverty rate is at least 24.8 percent, and one-quarter live in neighborhoods where the rate is at least 34.1 percent.13 Many high-school dropouts that I have dealt with admitted to dropping out because of the need to supplement household income. Sometimes fluctuations and instability of parental or guardian income also forces school aged youth to drop out of school in order to find work. Thus, poverty is one major cause of youth disconnection. 06
Figure 4: Map Indicates Poverty Distribution Across New York City.80 Map represents median income of poor people in each geographic neighborhood. Upper Manhattan, South Bronx, and Central Brooklyn have the highest concentration of poor people
LOW-QUALITY EDUCATION: Low educational attainment aids in youth disconnection. Almost 85,000 of New York City’s disconnected youth have not completed high school nor obtained a GED and between 20-25 percent of high school students drop out before graduation.14. This number doubles for African American and Hispanic youth, who according to New York City Department of Education are least likely to earn their diplomas and have graduation rates of less than 50 percent.15,16 Furthermore, according to the US Census 2000 data, 79 percent of disconnected youth have no postsecondary schooling, and 41 percent lack a high school diploma. A neighborhood like Mott Haven in the Bronx is plagued with over 55 percent of its adult population lacking a high school diploma.17 Learning disabilities and emotional and /or behavioral issues are great contributors to youth disconnection. According to Advocates of Children, each year, 12 – 15,000 of New York City’s 50,000 disabled 14 – 21 year olds drop out of school without graduating.18 Consequently, low educational attainment greatly affects employment prospects. As indicated by the US Census Bureau, the population of youth without employment and less than a high school education is also very concentrated in areas of New York City with high disconnection rates.19
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Figure 5: Educational Attainment of Low income New Yorkers81 - Populations of young people with less than high school education or its equivalent are higher in areas with greater disconnection rates.
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#4 [continued] IMMIGRATION: In the diverse-rich city of New York, there is a greater chance that older immigrant youth without the time to learn, and ability to fluently speak English will most likely drop out of school. Also, discrimination, social and geographic isolation, little or no experience and lower levels of English proficiency make it even more difficult for older immigrant youth to find employment, resulting in disconnection.20 Washington Heights of Upper Manhattan is the largest enclave of Dominican immigrants in New York City.21 43 percent of New York City’s disconnected youth population are Latino.
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UNEMPLOYMENT: While New York City is experiencing unemployment rates of about 10 percent, 22 minority based communities such as Harlem and Washington Heights have consistently been hit harder by the steep uptick in unemployment rates. According to the New York State Department of Labor, unemployment rates in certain Harlem districts were as high as 18%, even tripling the overall City’s rate in some cases.23 Studies have shown that whereas the unemployment rate of whites in Upper Manhattan is between 4-5%, rates for Blacks and Hispanics hover around the 20% mark.24 The Mott Haven community of the Bronx (which is the poorest congressional district in the nation) has an unemployment rate of over 24 percent for residents 16 and older.25 Unfortunately, besides the economic crises, unemployment rates are usually closely tied to factors such as education (regions of lesser high school diplomas tend to experience higher unemployment rates), language barriers and criminal backgrounds.26-28 All of these factors plague heavily minority populated communities and hinder the reengagement of disconnected youth. It was therefore troubling to find out that existing public education and workforce funding for programs targeted to this demographic, serve no more than 7% of New York City’s disconnected youth. 29,30
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Figure 6: Map Showing New York City’s Employment – Population Ratio82
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Figure 7: Map Showing New York City’s Median Household Income83
AGE GROUP Total 14 years and younger 15 to 19 years 20 to 24 years 25 to 29 years 30 to 34 years 35 to 39 years 40 to 44 years 45 to 49 years 50 to 54 years 55 to 59 years 60 to 64 years 65 years and older
ESTIMATED U.S. RESIDENT POPULATION NUMBER PERCENT 304,059,724 100.0% 61,125,728 20.1 21,514,358 7.1 21,058,981 6.9 21,333,743 7.0 19,597,822 6.4 20,993,781 6.9 21,507,349 7.1 22,879,874 7.5 21,492,191 7.1 18,583,445 6.1 15,102,736 5.0 38,869,716 12.8
PERSONS ARRESTED NUMBER PERCENT 10,709,361 100.0% 442,038 4.1 2,229,291 20.8 2,072,179 19.3 1,523,228 14.2 1,053,380 9.8 938,036 8.8 864,786 8.1 747,575 7.0 454,674 4.2 218,928 2.0 95,312 0.9 69,934 0.7
10 Figure 8: Chart Showing US Resident Population and Arrest Percentages for Different Age Groups84
ALL SERIOUS VIOLENT CRIMES: MURDER, RAPE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, ROBBERY, AND AGGRAVATED ASSAULT RATES OF SERIOUS VIOLENT CRIME PER 1,000 PERSONS VICTIMS’ AGE RATE 12 to 14 37 15 to 17 47 18 to 21 50 22 to 24 40 25 to 29 27 30 to 34 21 35 to 39 16 40 to 49 14 50 to 64 6 65 or older 3 Figure 9: Chart Showing US Victim Rates of Violent Crimes per 1000 by age demographic85
[[[ #4 [continued] JUVENILE DELINQUENCY: Youth with convicted backgrounds find it difficult being accepted back in school or finding gainful employment. There are more than 2000 juveniles detained in New York City facilities everyday (NYC Council), and 1200 returning to the City from correctional facilities from other parts of the State. More than two-thirds of these youth experience disconnection because of the multitude of barriers encountered while trying to secure employment or reenroll in school.31,32 As a result, delinquency contributes to disconnection. From the chart below, youth between the ages of 15 and 24 constitute over 40 percent of persons arrested in the United States. With three year recidivism rates of 40 percent in New York33 and an even much higher rate when tracked for much longer periods, the possibility that disconnected youth would engage in more crimes as they grow older is high. In New York City, about 94 percent of students arrested were Black or Latino. 75 percent were male. Blacks made up 60 percent of the population, even though they only make up 29 percent of the student population in New York City schools. Statistics indicate that Blacks were about 9 times more likely to get arrested than whites.34 These youth are not only prone to committing crimes, but also constitute the greatest victims of crimes, especially violent crimes. As the chart below indicates, this demographic is in dire need for support, security and guidance, as well as programs designed to minimize disconnection and aid the development of practical skills. AGING OUT OF FOSTER CARE SYSTEM: Foster-care youth who age out of the foster care system without the proper transitioning trainings tend to fall prey to disconnection. This is because many of them lack the skills and training to effectively transition into adulthood. They also experience instability from being placed in multiple foster-care homes, become victims of physical and sexual abuse, neglect, mental illness, criminality and/or substance abuse before discharge. These factors aid in their disconnection sometimes, even before discharge.35
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#4 [continued] EARLY PARENTHOOD: According to studies by Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, teenage fatherhood, which has received far less scrutiny than teenage motherhood has many negative educational, financial, social, health and other developmental consequences for these young fathers and their children.36 Young teenage males who become parents while dependent on others tend to drop out of school more often than their counterparts without children. National surveys indicate that there are as much as 7 percent of male teenagers who are fathers, with higher rates among inner-city and African American youth.37 In 2006, about 10 percent of New York City’s female youth aged between 15 and 19 became pregnant.38 Withdrawal from school because of teenage parenthood usually results to limited employment opportunities. Only about 2 percent of women who were teenage mothers graduate from college by age 30.39 As such, early parenthood, regardless of gender could result in disconnection. 12
Figure 10: Map Showing New York City’s Percentage of Youth Caring for Their Own Child/Children86
#5 [need for effective reengagement] The urgent need to address the issue of disconnection cannot be overemphasized. Besides the laundry list of cons associated with disconnection like crime, violence, unproductivity and high unemployment rates, the impact of disconnection on the socio-economic well-being of New York City is sufficient reason to embark on workable solutions immediately.40 The financial and social dependence of this group on their communities result in smaller tax base, weaker communities and higher expenditures on public benefits.41 The future of New York City’s economic sustainability will depend on the ability and availability of skilled and proficient youth, who are capable of replacing retirees in the near future. Industries such as healthcare, transportation, construction and others that do not necessarily require four year degrees, but are in need of capable workforce will be greatly affected if there are insufficient replacements for retiring baby boomers.42 For instance, according to the NYC Labor Market Information Service, ‘the average age of New York City’s construction workers in 2000 was 50, a figure which was supposed to translate to an estimated 20,000 construction openings in 2011 alone.43 Also, the healthcare industry, already in jeopardy of insufficient qualified personnel will further experience workforce crises, as onethird of its current healthcare workers (nurses and aides) retire. Most of these workers were over the age of 50 in 2000.44 This often overlooked demographic mostly live in poverty, tend to experience sporadic employments, earn underpaid wages, are dependent on public assistance and most often fall prey to crime and violence.45,46 Therefore, if salvaged from disconnection, a good percentage of the about 220,000 disconnected youth in the New York City area, that are very dependent on society could positively strengthen and impact the socio-economic state of their communities as responsible contributors to its revenue and security. There is an urgent need to establish programs which effectively train and equip youth to fill these openings both now and in the nearest future.
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#6 [solutions] In order to resolve this problem effectively, it is important that these disconnected youth and effective programs be identified, and supported in their communities. This will help allocate funding more effectively, as well as increase the impact of these programs. As previously indicated, the five programs explored by the Youth Adult Capacity Initiative (case studies) are programs located in the neighborhoods that are densely populated with disconnected youth. Even though they were successful in different areas of youth development, their impact could easily be drowned out in these same communities if they are not able to effectively influence a larger percentage of the demographic in order to effect visible, quantifiable and qualitative change. These programs and others should be replicated and funded to exponentially increase impact.
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The HEROES model is a hybrid model derived by fusing together the successes of these programs with other tested and proven techniques dependent on consistent positive engagement and support. In developing this model, I sought successful strategies and plans that have worked at different programs and leveraged personal experience garnered from dealing with this population. I have applied this model in the development of the Re:LIFE Reengagement Program for Disconnected Youth. This model is elaborated on in the latter part of this paper.
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#7 [outtakes from five case studies] The Youth Development Institute (YDI) funded five community-based agencies in New York City’s highly concentrated ‘disconnected youth’ neighborhoods to create programs that will “address the needs of their community’s disconnected youth population (between the ages of 16 and 24) who are not actively attending school or working.” YDI saw the need for programs that ‘help young adults finish their education, learn basic occupational skills, find a job, and learn the skills and attitudes necessary to keep the job. With their report, they observed that “in addressing the needs of disconnected youth and young adults, programs must provide a range of support services far beyond GED classes and help with resume writing and interview skills.”47 The five Young Adult Capacity Initiative programs established by YDI include; CASE 1 (BROOKLYN) Cypress Hills Youth LEAD (Learning, Educating others, and Achieving Dreams) Program: This is an initiative within the Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (CHLDC) in East New York, Brooklyn. East New York is in eastern Brooklyn, a part of Brooklyn plagued with high crime rates and violence, high disconnection rates, poverty and low educational attainment.48,49 The local high school in this area, Franklin K. Lane had extremely low graduation rates (27 percent in 2002), with 32 percent of the students overage for their grade.50 Franklin K. Lane High School was phased out by The New York Department of Education in 2011 for consistently performing poorly, and has been replaced by four other schools - The Academy for Innovative Technology, The Brooklyn Lab School, Cypress Hill Prep Academy, and Multicultural High School.51 The Cypress Hill LEAD Program initially provided GED preparation class, weekly employment workshops and social events. It later on added job readiness workshops, and supported all their programs by an ongoing career and educational counseling/ case-management model.52 Challenges: The main challenge of the Youth LEAD program as indicated by its operators was addressing the high level of support needed by their disconnected youth population. According to some of the staff, they believed that they were only “scratching the surface” of what services they needed to offer. Outtake: This program focused on the GED, jobs, and later, counseling aspects of youth development. Of the 430 young adults who enrolled in the program during the study, 87 registered for the GED, 75 took the exam, 45 received their GEDs and 95 have obtained a job.53 While there has been some success to the program, its success rate could be better.
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#7 [continued]
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CASE 2 (BRONX) East Side House Settlement (ESHS): This is the second study, located in Mott Haven, the Nation’s poorest Congressional District. Its population has very high unemployment rates, low graduation rates and very high disconnection rates. The emphasis of the YACI program at East Side House was on relationship building with youth and retention strategies.54 The mission of the ESHS is to “provide hope to the Mott Haven community, by addressing its oppressive poverty, crime and violence, failing school system and an undereducated, under-trained work force”.55 The YACI program at ESHS provided disconnected youth with GED classes, access to computer prep courses like basic computer skills, internet and Microsoft Certification classes; job-readiness workshops, and advisory groups that trained youth on time and goal-setting or other issues of concern.56 16 Challenges: Their major challenge in catering to disconnected youth was ‘providing the structures necessary to run the program, and providing the support to help students succeed in the program’.57 In other words, they needed a better understanding of the needs of this demographic in order to effectively support them. Outtake: ESHS incorporated activities like having students call fellow absent classmates, changing their orientation process, providing counseling and making referrals to other programs if needed, as techniques to improve on student retention and success rates. Of 262 students in 2005, 37 took the GED test and passed, a 14 percent success rate, with only 33 obtaining jobs.58 CASE 3 (HARLEM - UPPER MANHATTAN) El Camino (the Path): El Camino is the YACI program at The Harlem’s Children Zone (HCZ) in Central Harlem. Central Harlem is one of New York City’s most poor neighborhoods, with a child poverty rate of 39 percent. 59 It is also home to a densely populated demographic of disconnected youth, affected by high unemployment rates, crime and violence and high population of older immigrant youth. Central Harlem is plagued with several social ills like poor housing, domestic violence, child abuse, failing educational standards etc. These have had adverse effects on the development of its youth, and as such weakened the security of its community. 60 The YACI program at HCZ supported the start of GED classes, funding for complementary resources like transit cards, books, materials and jobs/internships. They also encouraged participants to indulge in other services like recreational and social services. The program focused more on establishing a ‘relationship of trust’ with its participants, as well as improving the employability of disconnected youth ages 16-24 in Central Harlem.61
Challenges: Regular attendance to the GED program was a major problem of this program. Being that its disconnected youth had been out of school for longer periods of time, it affected their attendance to the GED program.62 Also, having an open policy system of admittance made it difficult to effectively cater to students at a consistent rate, as such diluting the educational effect of the system. Outtake: El Camino took steps to address its challenges by constantly calling absentees and providing transportation for students who lacked the means. They also instituted a paid internship program to help provide jobs for their youth. Even though HCZ has been nationally honored for being one of the country’s “most effective and innovative community-building and youth development organizations”, and has achieved great success with in-school youth, the director of the program admitted that their original projected outcomes for the YACI program were entirely unrealistic and did not reflect the reality of what it means to work with this population.63 CASE 4 (BROOKLYN) Sesame Flyers International: SFI is a nonprofit organization that operates various cultural, recreational and educational youth development programs in and around the Greater East Flatbush community in Brooklyn. East Flatbush is located in Central Brooklyn. SFI was founded by Caribbean immigrants to offer their children a place and an opportunity to learn about their cultural heritage.64 In other words, SFI was started to help Caribbean immigrant retain their culture, teach their children, and have a place for commonality in their community. The YACI program instituted at SFI was tagged “Get R.I.C.H”, (meaning Reaching Individuals to Change Humanity). The goal of the Get RICH program was to expose youth to different employment skill-building workshops and one-on-one employment counseling. 65 This was one of the two YACI programs located in a BEACON Center. BEACONs are community centers located in public school buildings, which offer a variety of activities and services open to all, both before and after school, in the evenings and on the weekends. 66 Community based organizations manage individual BEACONs, while working collaboratively with the host schools, advisory councils and neighborhood institutions and organizations. They are funded by the Department of Youth and community Development in different cities, and are the largest municipally funded youth initiative in the country. 67 The other YACI program located in a BEACON is the Harlem Children Zone’s El Camino program. Programs located in BEACONs provide youth with an array of activities and services to help encourage successful transitioning to employment. Challenges: According to SFI, their biggest challenge was defining their target population for the Employment Program because according to them, “there were many subgroups embedded within the disconnected youth group”. These they categorized into: - Those making bad decisions - The unfocused - Those too focused on materialism
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#7 [continued]
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This stratification led them to only accept candidates ‘who are at a place in their lives where they need a job and are ready for a job’.68 So once again, the main problem was really understanding and meeting these youth at the point of their needs, beyond just the GED classes and job readiness skills training. Outtake: Further exploration of the YACI program at SFI indicated that they provided programs such as social and recreational activities (basketball and dance), GED classes, youth employment program, counseling by case workers and peer support. The program met three hours a day, four days a week. During these four days, participants, get to meet with staff members once a week. They are trained in job readiness skills, resume building, job search skills, interviewing techniques and computer training.69 They also instituted a Career Make Over cycle of thirteen weeks; six weeks of training and seven weeks of job searching.
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While I liked this program slightly more than the others, for their more ‘wrap-around’ approach and for the fact that their adult programming operated two main school-based sites with Beacon Centers (East Flatbush and Canarsie, another densely populated immigrant and disconnected youth community in Brooklyn), the Get R.I.C.H program had only delivered services to 33 youth after the completion of their second Career Make Over cycles.70 This averages 8 students per cycle per location, for which success data was not released. CASE 5 (WASHINGTON HEIGHTS - UPPER MANHATTAN) New Heights Neighborhood Center: NHNC is located in Washington Heights/ Inwood section of upper Manhattan, and has the largest enclave of Dominican immigrants in New York City.71 As indicated earlier, the Washington Heights region of upper Manhattan houses a community also plagued with high disconnection rates, unemployment and gang violence.72 This area has an unemployment rate of over fifteen percent, with a less than 50 percent high school completion rate.73 Both males and females have a low labor-force participation and earnings, partly complicated by the large influx of immigrants from the Dominican Republic with low literacy levels.74 The goal of NHNC is to establish a working relationship between disconnected youth and local businesses in the Washington Heights area. They worked on developing an arrangement with local agencies and institutions, including the local armory, citywide union and the largest hospital in its locality. Their intention was to introduce these youth into local growth industries like healthcare, technology and banking. Their goal was to train these out-of-school youth to become employed, stay employed and build careers. NHNC provides work related services, maintains relationship with local employers and collaborates with local organizations to provide resources necessary to meet the needs of this population.75
The YACI funding at NHNC was to strengthen its WATT program (Worker Advancement through Technology). The WATT program had two goals: - Work with businesses to create and develop positions for these youth - Work with youth to prepare them for internships and employment in neighborhood agencies The WATT program was a 14-week program, broken down into two weeks of work-readiness series (job and career interests, interview preparation and 21st century job searching), and a 12-week internship program that follows the completion of the prior two week program. The internship is rewarded with a stipend, after which successful participants are coached and supported by staff in searching for jobs, retaining the job, re-employment and referrals to education, training and support services. Challenges: The main challenge of NHNC as it identified was understaffing, and the return of students who were seeking educational, instead of employment goals. Outtake: While this organization succeeded in establishing relationships with local organizations for the benefit of their youth, it seemed to be more centered on providing menial jobs and employment for students, instead striving to educate them as well. As reported by YACI, of 487 students served by the end of 2005, 167 obtained jobs, 207 enrolled in a GED program, and only 28 passed the GED exam.76 While any success is good success, the educational component of the development of these youth was dismal, and calls into question the long term benefits of the program without the proper investment in education.
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#8 [proposing an effective model] Based on my experiences working, researching and documenting results at Community Based organizations that cater to youth, an ideal disconnected youth development program should adopt the HEROES (Heritage, Education, Relationship, Opportunity, Entrepreneurship and Service) model of successful youth development. This is a model that I have developed through consistent research, experience and dealing with this population, which in fact I think is necessary for effective and positive youth development. While there is always room for improvement on the HEROES model of positive engagement, anything short of it will only yield results incapable of meeting the dire need of this population in its entirety. And while it seems very difficult to effectively provide lasting and effective solution to the problems faced by this group, it is imperative that we employ a more intensive and well-researched approach in tackling it. PROBLEMS 20
One consistent problem among the five case studies was the fact that most of the programs dealt with one or just a few of the aspects of the HEROES model. This in turn translated to referrals (if done at all) to other programs. The negative implication of referrals is that youth often get discouraged if services at the referred program fall short of warming or effective. On the other hand, some do not even bother with acknowledging the referral. Another problem I noticed with several organizations is the lack of an effective tracking method. The inability to track a student who, even though obtain their GED might need help finding work or applying to College, dilutes the effort invested in helping that youth obtain the GED. Many of them end up falling back into environments that resulted in their disconnection or most times hinder progress. Also, the lack of financial stability and the pressure to raise funds by many community organizations result in a redirection of focus for many of them. In the bid to stay afloat financially, programs gradually start to treat participants as statistics/data necessary for fundraising, instead of individuals with colluded problems in need of help. This problem contributes immensely to the main reason why many students are increasingly being cared for at a minimal rate. This is because without adequate funds, it becomes difficult to employ and retain qualified personnel. It is also difficult to focus on a dedicated mission or goal if ‘fund-chasing’ becomes the new goal for the few overworked staff trying to better others’ lives while trying to thrive as well. The provision of GED classes and some job readiness program (in some cases) have become the threshold for measuring success of disconnected youth services. These, unfortunately have done little to resolve this enormous and growing problem.
THE HEROES MODEL HEROES is an acronym that represents six crucial components of development necessary for effective youth reconnection. We must replace the ‘Band-Aid’ system of providing temporary solutions and instead adopt a systemic approach in addressing the problems of disconnection. Organizations should be encouraged and trained to incorporate the HEROES model in its entirety, or work with other organizations within its vicinity to ensure that services provided to youth are holistic and readily accessible. Understanding the HEROES Model is thus important to effectively implementing it. Heritage: Teach youth the appreciation of one’s heritage. Especially for low income and at risk youth who often seek self-identity through outlets like gangs, it is important that they are offered alternatives that encourage positive self-awareness. One way of doing that is by teaching them to understand the history, struggles, challenges, achievements and successes of ancestors. Cultural heritage and traditions can only be transferred from one generation to another when there is information, preservation, appreciation, knowledge, observation and practice. Youth should be taught to appreciate and preserve that which they alone can transfer to further generations. For many immigrants who do not communicate fluently in English, it helps to teach about their cultures and peoples. This creates a sense of community among participants that increases both interest in subject area and in other cultures. It also helps to increase program retention rates, as well as drive enthusiasm to learn English language in order to succeed educationally and at the work place. One’s knowledge of his/her heritage has the ability to empower him/her, build confidence and pride, and incite learning. In order to successfully impact youth, it is imperative that they learn about their cultures, history, experiences and about heroes of their heritage who have or share similar journeys in achieving success. Heritage education is crucial to youth development, whether it be through spirituality, cultures and tradition, or history. Education: This is one of the most important solutions to curbing disconnection. Engaging disconnected youth educationally, will keep them busy, expand their horizons and opportunities, and reduce crimes associated with being idle. The use of education as a reconnection tool was constantly explored throughout all five case studies. It plays a crucial role in shaping policies that affect disconnected youth. However, many youth service organizations only provide GED education for up to three hours per day and three to four times a week. This still leaves room for a relapse back into activities and environments that encourage disconnection and crime. It is therefore necessary to explore and implement new educational strategies that engage youth over longer periods of time during the day and week, with an incentive and rewards approach that prove successful. This will involve understanding their interests, talents, skills and preferences, (e.g. music, dance, theater, spoken word/rap, photography etc) and channeling them into their daily/weekly activities. Education should also incorporate other necessary areas such as health, nutrition and sports education, vocational studies, etc. In fact, physical fitness and nutritional health is crucial in helping curb disconnection because most jobs that do not require four year degrees like construction and some healthcare and transportation fields,
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#8 [continued] would require youth to be fit and in good health. As such, an effective program should incorporate nutrition and fitness education into its curriculum. It is also important to partner with local institutions like community colleges and vocational schools that will not only grant admission to students who endeavor to meet admission requirements, but will also offer certificate programs and diplomas to youth at free or very affordable costs. This will encourage youth to acquire more certifications that will make them more marketable, and could encourage them to pursue higher education. Relationships: Relating to others is an integral part of daily lives and experiences. It is therefore, especially important that interactions with youth be caring, empathizing and effective, especially when dealing with those who have had several prior disappointing experiences. For relationships to be effective, they must incorporate:
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Respect: As Newton’s third law of motion put it, ‘For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction’. Respect is reciprocal. When youth are respected, they give it back. Many of them might fail at it a few times, but being consistent at it teaches them to imitate and learn to do the same. A successful way of teaching respect is by modeling it. Ensure that when you relate to youth, that your tone of voice, the words you use, your body language, your regard for their time, their space, their privacy and belongings are all respectful. These are several areas where youth consciously or unconsciously measure the level of respect you give to them. According youth respect helps them believe that in spite of their status in society, and your position of authority, you are willing to relate to them with regard. Engage: Engage youth through education, sports, games, challenges and empowering responsibilities. Trigger their creativity by engaging them with tasks both in and out of school. Challenge their intellect and reward consistent effort. Doing these have always helped me to break through to the most difficult youth in class. I find their strengths and push their limits in different, unconventional but very engaging ways. This triggers interest, participation and excitement in several other areas. It is imperative to effectively engage youth because it helps them to ease up, relax and build lasting and trusting relationships. Love: There has to be genuine love to build trustworthy relationships, and for them to blossom. Love for what you do; love for the youth you deal with (regardless of their misdeeds); love to fuel the passion to stay focused on your goal and mission; love for one’s self; etc. Love for one’s self is important because one cannot give what they do not have. Genuine love is easily perceived and tends to attract people. Most youth will know when one is genuine. Therefore in employing people who will relate constantly with youth, it is important that your interview process include an evaluation of each candidate’s love for youth, profession (passion) and self.
Appreciate: Appreciate youth. Reward good deeds and effort, and recognize progress regardless of magnitude. Appreciation encourages persistence, as well as helps others put in more effort to do better. Appreciation and encouragement helps to build stronger relationships. Teach: Teach youth how to appreciate themselves. Teach them the importance of self awareness and self-confidence. Teach them to dialogue and how to resolve conflict. Teach them how to do or create new things. Teach them to read. Teach them to write. Teach whatever is in your capacity to better their lives. It is always very inspiring to see the joy and sense of achievement on their faces when they learn how to do simple things like knot a tie or start and complete a project. Most of the things we classify as basic and take for granted can change lives. You gain more love, interaction and trust from your youth when you gainfully engage them, even in untraditional ways. For instance, take a break from your regular math class and teach them different concepts unconventionally. Set up a marketplace in class involving discounted/appreciated goods and have students act out a ‘buying and selling’ scene, while learning about and analyzing the math concepts involved. You could also take them on a class trip to the Museum to document different sizes of things; calculate size differences between two or more images; the percentage of one size to another; area, volume; weight, etc. Better still, use a cooking class to demonstrate measurement and fractions. With the demographic in question, it is important to engage creatively in order for teaching to be effective. Inspire: Inspire youth to be better, to set goals and meet them, to help others. Inspire youth to channel talents into positive activities like using Drama, Songwriting and Poetry, or Rap and Hip hop to address issues in their community. One’s ability to inspire youth will encourage them to do better, as well as build stronger relationships as they better their lives. Opportunities: Create opportunities for youth to create opportunities for themselves. Give them room to express themselves, to gainfully engage themselves and to make wealth. Encourage but guide them as you help them channel their skills and talents into business making opportunities. Teach them to understand the importance of gainful employment while helping them create effective resumes and providing assistance during job search. (This is further elaborated upon as a sub component of the HEROES model) Nurture: Be proactive in supporting and encouraging youth during their transition process. Provide good counsel, referrals and recommendations. Build a system of support that addresses the diverse needs of this demographic – child care, healthcare, criminal justice, social services, legal counsel, etc. Be consistent in following up and ensuring success. Lend a listening ear and an empathic heart as often as possible. Do not give up on them even when they do. Care and support should last longer than the duration of a program. Stay in touch beyond the program timeframe. It shows commitment, consistence and genuineness. Nurturing provides reassurance, which fortifies relationships. Security: It is important that youth service providers provide a sense of security for youth. Security in this sense covers their mental, emotional, financial, psychological and physical states. This means that youth should feel secure at designated locations of interaction (classroom, counseling room etc.). They should
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#8 [continued] also feel confident that private conversations and disclosures remain private; that youth service provider will understand their emotional pain and empathize with them, and that they should be comfortable enough to let you know when they are in need. You cannot solve all their problems, but do all you can within your power to help them professionally. Good referrals and good counsel on how to meet their needs are usually helpful and appreciated. Health: Encourage youth to stay healthy via sports, good nutrition and safe healthy practices. It pays to be and look healthy, especially when seeking employment that requires physical strength and agility. Inquire: Constantly inquire about the well-being of your youth. Pay attention to changes in behavior, mood, personality, participation etc. When youth know that you pay attention to their well-being, it helps to build trust.
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Patience: Be very patient. Nothing good and lasting comes easy. It is important that you are patient with youth during their learning and/or transitioning process. It will take several weeks, months and even years for significant progress to become evident. It is important to understand that successful reconnection takes a great deal of time, dedication, patience and a willingness to stay committed to every youth’s progress. As seen from the challenges of the YACI programs, providing just GED and job readiness programs are not sufficient to thwart the effects of disconnection. One has to fully understand youth in order to effectively serve them. This involves, building a ‘relationship of trust’ through counseling, one-on-one mentoring and creating an environment of trust to help foster success. Also healthy relationships teach youth how to interact with other people, which is necessary for successful transition into society. It is imperative to incorporate relationship-based classes like conflict resolution in the community, constructive debate and communication, anti-violence, community leadership and peer-mentoring classes. These classes could be offered in partnership with higher institutions to help students acquire certificates or diplomas as they go through the program. Opportunities: It is necessary to create exposure and talent and job opportunities for disconnected youth. Because of the wage incentive involved, doing this helps to navigate youth onto the path of reconnection. Job opportunities involve job trainings that could lead to future careers, programs and incentives that would motivate students to explore different skills, talents and services that might enhance their opportunities. Rewarded internships, apprenticeship, vocational trainings and work-study programs must be part of a youth development program to help stimulate and support youth-in-transition. As previously said, programs that involve the acquisition of certificates and diplomas for completed courses will actually make participants more marketable as they pass through the program. Take them to job fairs, factories, work sites, crafts workshops, Wall Street, farms etc and encourage them to ask questions or
build businesses around their outing experience. Create mock interviews, encourage them to come up with feasible business ideas both individually and with partners, and guide them through thinking about legitimate ways to raise seed capital to launch their business. Encourage agriculture and its benefits. It exposes especially inner city and low income youth to a new field that many of them might not have ever considered. Exposure includes local and international travel that gives youth the opportunity to learn about new cultures, new places, new things and new languages. Local and International summer internships that encourage youth to explore new boundaries outside their comfort zones help to create this opportunity. Entrepreneurship: As an advocate of youth Entrepreneurship, I have learned that it is important that we teach youth how to provide for themselves through their interests, their talents and the skills they already possess. One of the greatest concerns of disconnected youth is the need to earn a wage, or how to sustain one’s self financially. Teaching and coaching youth on how to monetize ideas that interest them will help empower them, while encouraging them to diligently pursue other goals like education. There are many disconnected youth involved in illegal business activities like drugs trafficking and prostitution, who if given the right opportunities, and taught how to, could create legitimate businesses that would provide for them and their families. From experience, I learned that just teaching the concepts of Entrepreneurship was not enough to trigger the right interest and participation. Thus, after trying several approaches, the most effective teaching method for me involved hands-on lessons where students are not only taught business and entrepreneurial concepts, but also learn to create new things. I or a guest teacher (preferably another youth), teach them how to make simple stuff that could become business ideas, like how to customize clothes with buttons or fashion studs; how to design and print t-shirts, hats, etc; how to make perfume/ cologne; how to customize base lotions and/or melt and pour soap with fragrance oils; or how to purchase wholesale merchandise and re-sell in smaller quantities to make great profit, etc. Incorporating these how-to workshops into my classes proved very exciting and effective in attracting and retaining students, as well as inciting participation and engagement. Two main challenges of the Entrepreneurship classes are: 1. Finding the funds for materials and instruction to execute the class 2. Finding funding sources for seed capital. The first problem is one that most start-up organizations face, and is easily solved if you can raise sufficient capital to undertake the classes. I found out that a more practical way of tackling the second issue besides grants and scholarships, is by partnering with micro-financing organizations. This partnership is very crucial because in addition to providing the small business loan needed to launch the business, these organizations provide long term support during the duration of the loan. They also provide their clients with other beneficial resources like financial literacy workshops, credit repair and savings services, business counseling and networking events.
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#8 [continued]
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Service: Service to humanity in many ways brings about fulfillment, creates a sense of achievement and belonging, and promotes kindness, awareness, empathy and appreciation. Youth should be encouraged to participate in activities that involve community and public service. It helps them to appreciate the people and the world around them. Endeavor to include a community service aspect to youth programs because it helps to elaborate the importance of responsibility, which is required for success in education or at the job place. Service activities should involve leadership responsibilities, delegation, division of labor and teamwork. There should also be flexibility in picking the Service activity so that vested interest is guaranteed. Reflections and reports help students analyze critically the importance of what they’ve done, how they could better it and why it was important to do what they did. In all, Service learning as part of a youth reconnection plan helps youth practice and understand the gains in being responsible, appreciate being able to do good, enjoy a sense of fulfillment and achievement, and helps to build relationships. The HEROES model of success is a model that will impact youth positively as a tool for effectual reconnection because it is a hybrid of proven techniques that have worked personally and in different programs currently impacting disconnected youth lives.
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#9 [Re:LIFE Reengagement Program] I developed the Re:LIFE Reengagement Program to ideally employ the HEROES model of success. Organizations that choose to adopt or implement the Reengagement program could modify it as suited, but making sure that each aspect of the HEROES model is implemented. One could choose to focus on one or more of the concentrations listed below, or add or substitute with others not listed to suit one’s program. The Reengagement program is designed to span a 12- 24 month period and fashioned to incorporate entrepreneurship with educational, career and leadership trainings. This 24-month time frame is broken down into Mandatory Intensive 12 month training sessions, and Voluntary Extensive 12-month job placement/ fiscal responsibility session. The Reengagement program has 5 areas of concentration (areas of concentration could differ from these if need be), of which each student is assigned to one, depending on individual interests. Students are required to choose one or more electives of their choice from the other four concentrations. 28 The program runs a 6-day schedule: 1-day for Cultural & Heritage education/Electives I, 1-day for Personal Enrichment/Electives II, 2 days for Concentration Classes, 1 day for Entrepreneurial Class. The 6th day is the GED & College Prep tutoring, and Job Readiness Training. Each day’s activities run for at least 7 hours: 90mins for Reading/Writing enhancement 90mins for Contextualized Business Math 120mins for Daily Lesson Plan 60mins of Sports, Fitness and Nutrition 30mins for Reflection/Writing about lesson learned 30mins for End-of-Day ritual The Mandatory session will have 5 areas of concentration, of which each student is assigned to one area depending on individual interests. It will span an intensive 5-semester session- four semesters of training and one compulsory internship session. These areas of concentration are listed below, with subsequent semester themes beneath them. The five areas are:
Area 1: ArtLIFE - Arts and Talents a) Session 1: Basic Training b) Session 2: Intermediate Training c) Session 3: Advanced Training d) Session 4: Performance/Showcase e) Session 5: Auditions and Job/Educational Placement Fields of interest in the Arts and Talent Concentration will include: a)Music b)Theater c)Dance d)Creative Writing(Short Stories and Poetry) e)Painting and Mosaic f) Interior and Exterior Designing Those in the Arts will plan and execute a showcase of talents of which potential talent scouts will select candidates they hope to sponsor. Hence, the showcase will serve as an auditioning ceremony for candidates. Area 2: FitLIFE: Health, Nutrition and Fitness a) Session 1: Fitness/ Martial Arts b) Session 2: Personal and community Health Education c)Session 3: Nutrition/ Culinary Arts d)Session 4: Project/Showcase e)Session 5: Internship The goal of FitLIFE is to encourage healthy living among youth. For their showcase, student will be required to develop unique ‘own’ healthy dishes for the community, for which guests will pay to partake of. These will also be encouraged to pursue certification classes with partner institutions, wherein they obtain accreditations in areas such as Pharmacy technicians, Personal Training, Medical Administrative Assistant, Substance Abuse Counselors etc. Area 3: ServeLIFE: Leadership and Service Learning a) Session 1: Anger Management, Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance b) Session 2: Constructive Debate Public Policy and Conflict Resolution c) Session 3: Service Learning, Peer Leadership and Community Education d) Session 4: Advocacy and Community Service Initiative e) Session 5: Internship These students will be provided with Community Service, Advocacy, Policy Building and Peer Mentoring opportunities that will help introduce them to the political and social responsibilities of Youth Advocacy and Representation.
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#9 [continued] Area 4: TechLIFE: Technology a) Session 1: Newsletter and Editorial Design & Basic Programming b) Session 2: Hardware maintenance and troubleshooting & Int. Programming c) Session 3: Internet Research and MS Office & Advanced Programming d) Session 4: Website Design/ Programming & Visual Arts Project e) Session 5: Internship Students in this group will showcase independent projects geared at helping them learn and acquire new skills in the technology field. They will also be encouraged to take certification classes, as well as be placed in jobs that will help them garner more technical knowledge.
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Area 5: BizLIFE: Entrepreneurship a) Session 1: Introduction to Entrepreneurship b) Session 2: Business Communication, Conduct and Etiquette c) Session 3: Business Planning, Marketing and Presentation d) Session 4: Registering a Business/Business Types (with Term Project) e) Session 5: Internship Re:LIFE uses its hybrid Entrepreneurship curriculum for the BizLIFE sessions. This curriculum is already being implemented at partner organizations. BizLIFE is also the only arm of the Reengagement program that students are required to complete 24-months. This is to help guide their budding businesses, as well as help them raise Startup Money, part of which would have been saved during the 12 month Voluntary Job Placement period. Students will be assigned to year-long internships, work-study or apprenticeship opportunities with Re:LIFE’s small business and corporate partners, of which a percentage of their income will be saved. The savings will go towards starting up their businesses at the end of the 12-month fiscal responsibility session. Students will be required to build business plans, which they hope to undertake with Re:LIFE’s help. Electives: Students are required to choose two or more electives in addition to their one day entrepreneurial class and two day concentration classes. Electives that will be offered during different sessions include, but are not limited to a) Fashion designing b) Real Estate training c)Religious Studies d)Blogging e)Interior Design f) Restaurant Management
g)Videography h)Vocational Classes i.e. Carpentry, Plumbing, Green Construction i) International Cultural Studies Alongside these concentrations will be Saturday GED and College Prep/ Career Readiness/ Personal Advancement programs. Candidates without GED/ HS Diplomas will enroll in the GED classes, while those with GED will participate in Personal Advancement programs. Cultural and Heritage/ Personal Enrichment Classes: These will include classes that are geared towards Leadership, Black & Hispanic Traditions and Heritage, Personal Growth and Enrichment, Spirituality, Importance of Service and Implications of Politics, International Affairs and World Cultures among others. Challenges The main obstacle to the successful creation and operation of the Reengagement programs, however, is threefold. 1. Recruitment/acquisition of appropriate materials and expertise (personnel, teaching materials, partners and facilities): Some staff today that cater to youth are those who have minimal interest in their wellbeing. Some do it to make a living, others do it because they have to, while some others who have the passion, lack the required training to be effective. Thus, the end product is one in which the wellbeing of youth still suffers. 2. The required funding and incentives to attract and retain the best. The use of practical, proven and youth-friendly intensive strategies, as well as the development and implementation of more effective curricula, techniques and models will require ample funding. Also, the need to effectively hire and retain staff that are skilled in all aspects of the HEROES model will require an enormous amount of funding. 3. Youth Incentives and Services: The retention of youth in programs will involve addressing their problem of sustenance. As such, for programs to be utterly effective, stipends and incentives will be needed to reward students for diligence and time spent. This is important because it will be impossible to keep youth who are unemployed or seeking employment for 7 hours or more a day without a stipend. In fact, if possible, treat the program as an employment and groom them to attend it like they would a job. The HEROES model for successful youth development and the Reengagement program should be the standard program for youth reconnection and should be adopted by organizations offering services to disconnected youth. The government, foundations and donors should invest in ensuring that programs are offering more than just GEDs and job trainings, but also catering to the emotional, psychological developmental and social needs of these youth. Education should not only be encouraged but enforced. Youth should also be tracked and supported at least for 5 to 7 years after reconnection to ensure continued progress beyond reconnection programs.
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#10[references] 1. Community Service Society, UnitedWay of New York City, 2008. Mapping Poverty in New York City: Pinpointing the Impact of Poverty Community by Community 2. Hair, Elizabeth C. Ph.D., Kristin A. Moore, Ph.D., Thomson J. Ling, MA, Cameron McPhee-Baker, BA, and Brett V. Brown, Ph.D. 2009. Youth Who Are “DISCONNECTED” And Those Who Then RECONNECT: Assessing The Influence of Family, Programs, Peers and Communities 3. Treschan, Lazar (2008)Disconnected Youth Initiatives: Community Service Society: http://www.cssny. org/advocacy/disconnected_youth/ 4. Wyckoff, Laura, Siobhan M. Cooney, Danijela Korom Djakovic, Wendy McClanahan. 2008. Disconnected Young People In New York City: Crisis and Opportunity. Public/Private Ventures Brief 32
5. Treschan, Lazar and Christine Molnar. 2008. Out of Focus: A Snapshot of Public Funding to Reconnect Youth to Education and Employment. New York: Community Service Society. 6. Wyckoff et al. 7. Levitan, Mark. 2005. Out of School, Out of Work... Out of Luck?: New York City’s Disconnected Youth. New York: Community Service Society. 8. Treschan, Lazar and Christine Molnar. 2008 9. Community Service Society. 2008 10. Ibid 11. Holzer, H, Schanzenbach, DW, Duncan, GJ, Ludwig, L, 2007. The Economic Costs of Poverty: Subsequent Effects of Children Growing Up Poor. (Washington, DC: Center for American Progress) 12. Academy for Educational Development, 2007. Young Adult Capacity Initiative: Five Case Studies 13. Ibid 14. Treschan, Lazar and Christine Molnar. 2008 15. New York City Department of Education. 2008. “Graduation Rates: Class of 2007.” Retrieved 09/10/08 from New York City Department of Education at http://schools .nyc.gov 16. Wyckoff et al. 17. Academy for Educational Development, 2007. 18. Fernandes, Adrienne; Thomas Gabe. 2009. Youth: A Look at 16- to 24-Year Olds Who Are Not Working or In School
19. Community Service Society. 2008. 20. Wyckoff et al. 21. Community Service Society. 2008. 22. .Cuomo, Andrew M., Colleen C. Gardner.(2012) NYS Economy adds 21,500 Private Sector Jobs in March 2012. New York State Department of Labor http://labor.ny.gov/stats/pressreleases/pruistat.shtm 23. US Census Bureau. (2008). Poverty thresholds for 2007 by size of family and number of related children under 18 year. from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/ threshld/thresh07.html. 24. Ibid 25. Academy for Educational Development, 2007 26. New York City Department of Education. 2008. 27. Fernandes and Gabe. 2009. 28. Wyckoff et al. 29. Ibid 30. Treschan, Lazar and Christine Molnar. 2008 31 MaCurdy, Thomas, Bryan Keating, Sriniketh Suryasesha Nagavarapu. 2006 Profiling the Plight of Disconnected Youth in America 32. Wyckoff et al. 33 Pew Center on the States, (2011) State of Recidivism: The Revolving Door of America’s Prisons: The Pew Charitable Trusts 34. New York Civil Liberties Union.(2012) New NYPD Data Shows Racial Disparities in NYC School Arrests http://www.nyclu.org/news/new-nypd-data-shows-racial-disparities-nyc-school-arrests 35. Wald, Michael, Tia Martinez, Stanford University. 2003. Improving the Life Chances of the Country’s Most Vulnerable 14-24 Year Olds by 25 36. MaCurdy et al. 37. Levitan, M. 2005. 38. Li, Wenhui, Joseph Kennedy, Darlene Kelley, Gil Maduro, Allison Curry and Tara Das. 2007. Summary of Vital Statistics 2006: The City of New York. New York:Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Statistical Analysis Reporting Unit and Research and Surveillance Unit. 39. Hoffman, Saul. 2006. By the Numbers: The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing. Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. 40. Wyckoff et al.
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41. Ibid 42. Ibid 43. Ibid 44. Ibid 45. MaCurdy et al. 46. Hair et al. 47. Academy for Educational Development, 2007 48. Community Service Society. 2008. 49. Academy for Educational Development, 2007 50. Ibid 51. Franklin K. Lane High School (n.d) In Wikipedia (2012). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FranklinK_ ._LaneH _ igh_ School 34
52. Academy for Educational Development, 2007 53. Ibid 54. Ibid 55. Ibid 56. Ibid 57. Ibid 58. Ibid 59. Holzer et al. 60. Ibid 61. Academy for Educational Development, 2007 62. Ibid 63. Ibid 64. Ibid 65. Ibid 66. Ibid 67. Ibid 68. Ibid
69. Ibid
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70. Ibid 71. Ibid 72. Ibid 73. Ibid 74. Ibid 75. Ibid 76. Ibid 77. Community Service Society. 2008. 78. Ibid 79. Ibid 80. Ibid 81. Ibid 82. Ibid 83. Ibid 84. U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, (2008) Crime in the United States, Table 38: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2008/data/table3_ 8.html 85.Perkins, Craig A., (1997). Age Patterns of Victims of Serious Violent Crime. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report: US Department of Justice http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/apvsvc.pdf 86. Community Service Society. 2008.
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[about the author] Chike Ukaegbu is an alumni Fellow of the prestigious Colin Powell Center for Leadership and Policy Studies. He studied Biomedical Engineering at The City College of New York where he is currently a Math Instructor. He also teaches Math at CUNY’s Hostos Community College in the Bronx. Chike has been involved in youth policy research and evaluation for more than 7 years. He develops and implements effective youth programs, and presently serves as Co-Founder and President of Re:LIFE Incorporated. Re:LIFE is a NYC based Non-Profit Organization with the mission to empower youth through education and entrepreneurship. Chike’s research focuses on positive engagement, development and empowerment of youth by addressing the problems of youth disconnection, youth poverty, educational disadvantage and opportunity divide. He is the creator of the HEROES model for positive youth re-engagement, and has designed several programs that incorporate the HEROES model. As an education and entrepreneurship specialist, Chike’s efforts and dedication to youth development continues to engineer the successful transition of youth from disconnection to entrepreneurship or higher education. He is also a youth motivational speaker who has spoken to audiences locally, in Europe, and in Africa. He continually draws on his experiences to motivate, encourage and inspire urban/at-risk youth to achieve, regardless of past histories, experiences and challenges. Chike also serves a s a consultant on Organizational Branding and Marketing and is a recurring speaker at the Center for Nonprofit Success’s Lecture Series on organizational branding and marketing strategies for budding entrepreneurs, Non-profit Executives, Development and Marketing Directors and PR personnel. His lectures include strategies on how to establish and maintain online presence, the importance of individual and organizational branding in the social media age, and effective brand marketing strategies. He is also the originator of The {Black:Higher} Black:Spring series, which is a Black history Month commemoration of Black History, Struggles and Experience via literature and discussions that explore the state, achievements and influence of Black Culture in America and its impact on our youth. He continues to invent several initiatives that positively impact youth lives. He contributes to Re:WORD blog and Re:LIFE’s blog.