This program will provide youth currently living below the poverty line in Harlem and the Bronx ( whose residents include 149,000 single-parents families), with expert support, counseling and educational services. These will be provided by trained personnel offering advice and suggesting activities that are safe, fun and rewarding. These underprivileged youth live in rough neighborhoods and are confronted daily with negative influences like school violence, crime, drugs and gangs.
Disadvantaged youth in the Bronx and Harlem are at high risk for negative behaviors such as substance abuse, teen pregnancy, violence, and dropping out of school. For instance, research shows that youth begin abusing substances (cannabis,cocaine,alcohol,heroine) between the ages of 10 and 15 and that young people often become sexually active at early teen and even pre-teen years. Daily they face harmful influences such as peer pressure, gang activity, poor role models and a culture of violence.
Our agents for change are educational services and the arts. Chief among the former is our mentoring program: professional personnel (carefully selected, screened and trained) provide 1:1 tutoring and guidance. Among our arts programs is Theater for Development. Actors (participants) dramatize relevant social situations (e.g., substance abuse and dropping out of school). Audiences express ideas during the performance. This serves to identify problems in the community and suggests solutions.
Measured outcomes fall into two categories-pro-social and academic achievement for 800 youth. Pro-social development includes increased self-esteem, improved relations with adults, positive peer associations and reduced incidence of destructive behaviors (re drugs, pregnancy, and violence). Re academics: Our goal is for 80% to improve school attendance and 75% to improve their grades. This will enable participants to lead socially responsible lives-helping to alleviate poverty in the community.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
