Helping youth create change by developing leadership skills
Abstract
In a downtown Chicago neighborhood plagued by violence, young people in the community decided they wanted to work towards change. In collaboration with the Chicago Area Project and their Teen REACH program, neighborhood Catholic elementary school students and staff (pre-K to 8th grade), and local baby boomer volunteers joined together to receive training—adopting a national curriculum that focuses on leadership opportunities for young people—to help them in addressing community needs. Within a year’s time there was a marked decline in violence and improved behaviors among the student population. This effective practice was submitted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory/LEARNS in December 2006.Issue
Youth violence plagues many inner-city neighborhoods. Work on the part of adults and youth alike is often ineffective. Continually disillusioned members of the community lose hope and may resort to more violence.Action
- Using the Constitutional Rights Foundation's Take Charge curriculum to teach citizenship/leadership principles, the local Teen REACH site coordinator (located at St. Malachy Elementary School) invited students ages 6–18 to participate in projects concentrating on local community needs.
- The focus of the Take Charge curriculum was on developing collaborative problem-solving, communication, leadership, and teamwork skills.
- After their initial training, students were empowered to identify the community issues they wanted to address.
- Students were required to keep journals as they engaged in these community service activities.
- Community resources — people, agencies, and funding — were utilized to help youth achieve success.
- Over twenty adult volunteers — many of them baby boomers — volunteered to help coordinate the projects, and to give needed assistance and guidance to the young people. These volunteers were there to assist students with handing out pamphlets, videotaping community events, and providing mentoring and support.
- During the course of the year, almost 200 young people were involved in community service efforts.
- Chicago area agencies and TV stations came to the neighborhood to record the views of affected community members.
Context
St. Malachy Elementary School is one of 218 elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic school system. St. Malachy has 14 teachers serving 284 students in pre-K to 8th grade, and is located approximately 2.5 miles west of downtown Chicago. The Archdiocese of Chicago's Catholic school system has approximately 102,000 students and 5,400 teachers in Cook and Lake counties, based on the 2005-2006 school year information.The Chicago Area Project (CAP) is a private, 501 (c) (3), United Way member agency, with a 60-year history of providing delinquency prevention service in communities of limited opportunity. The mission of the organization is "to work toward the prevention and eradication of juvenile delinquency through the development and support of affiliated local community self-help efforts, in communities where the need is greatest."
Committed to enhancing the quality of neighborhood life by focusing on, creating associations, and supporting the growth of assets in youth, families and communities it serves, CAP believes that residents must be empowered through the development of community organizations that:
• Improve neighborhood conditions
• Hold local institutions accountable for their actions or inactions
• Reduce anti-social behavior among young people and protect them from inappropriate institutionalization
• Provide them with positive role models for personal development.
Chicago Area Project's Teen REACH Program (Responsibility, Education, Achievement, Caring, and Hope) is a comprehensive youth development initiative that has made a big impact on the lives of Illinois youth. The program goes directly to the kids, in their neighborhoods, and involves them in a wide variety of projects, redirecting their energy into positive behaviors. Created in 1998, Teen REACH was designed to enable, empower, and encourage at-risk youth (ages 6–17) through programs that stimulate healthy growth and development. The average age of Teen REACH youth is 12.2 years.
Funding for this project also came from a Learn and Serve America grant through the Illinois Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service.
Outcome
As a result of this dynamic collaboration, young people got involved and they learned — through leadership training and implementation of these new skills — that they could make a change in their community. Each success led to more involvement and more success. Students stopped acting out and negative behavior at school was reduced.Age 50+ adult volunteers, under the direction of a dedicated Teen REACH site director, came together to help decrease violence in the immediate neighborhood.
Evidence
Across the neighborhood served by the program and school, students reported feeling "safer." Adults saw benefits to the community in decreased violence and safer neighborhoods. The principal at St. Malachy expressed her appreciation for improved behavior on the part of the students. Teachers noticed a difference.Students who participated in the original youth leadership program continued their interest and involvement. This strong support has given rise to a certain "pride" in what they did for their community. Now, only those students who are willing to maintain good behavior at school and elsewhere are allowed to continue in the Learn and Serve America project.
As a way of continuing what began with the Teen REACH program, during the 2007 school year there will be a new St. Malachy-sponsored Boy Scout troop, intended to further involve youth in successful community-building projects.
Posted On
April 20, 2007For More Information
Resources
Take Charge: A Youth Guide to Community Change, written and published by the Constitutional Rights Foundation. (Grades 8-12)Take Charge is a step-by-step manual for teaching citizenship and creating community change. Designed for school or community use, this straightforward guide shows young people how to work together to:
* Explore and define their community and identify its needs and resources.
* Look at policies that impact their lives and the life of their community.
* Interact positively with local government, businesses, non-profits, and the media.
* Plan and complete a project designed to create positive community change.
An additional "Stop and Think" component gives young people the tools they need to evaluate their progress and reflect on what they have learned.
The Constitutional Rights Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational organization committed to helping our nation's young people to become active citizens and to understand the rules of law, the legal process and their constitutional heritage.
Related Practices
Related sites
Archdiocese of Chicago Schools
Illinois Department of Human Services Teen Reach Program
Teen REACH site of the Chicago Area Project