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‘Youth work changes lives. It provides opportunities for young people in a wide
range of settings including sport, the arts and the community and the church. It helps them
develop the personal skills they need to make a success of their lives. It
allows them to influence and shape their lives and the services available to
them. And it allows them
to put something back into their communities. There are few more important
investments than in the future of young people, and few better ways of
delivering change than through good youth work. "The youth service has the
experience and potential to make a lasting difference to young people as they
make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. … to support young people in
understanding their rights and responsibilities and to develop as active
citizens and participants in our democratic processes."*
It is far less expensive to invest in youth workers that will invest in the
lives or youth of the city than it is to pay for criminal reform programs or
build prisons.
• Youth intervention programs = ($205 per year)
• Juvenile court = ($381 per case)
• Corrections confinement = ($40,200 per year)
• Residential treatment = ($75,300 per year)
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One time gift - I would like to sponsor a youth worker
for a
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I would like to be a monthly supporter
Monthly Gift - I would like to sponsor a youth worker for a
Youth work helps young people learn about themselves, others and society,
through informal educational activities which combine enjoyment, challenge and
learning. Youth workers work primarily with young people aged between 13-19,
but may in some cases extend this to those aged 11 to 13 and 19 to 25. Their
work seeks to promote young people’s personal and social development and enable
them to have a voice, influence and place in their communities and society as a
whole.
Did you know...
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In the urban community
about 80% of youth do not have a father in the home. (So who do the boys
look up to - Who is there mentor)
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only about 5% (1 in
20) churches have a full time youth worker (We can see it's not the church)
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The majority of the
problems with Drugs, Guns, and Crime stem from wayward youth. (Youth in
Church have less problems with the law and commit less acts of violence and
illegal activity - DUH)
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80% of people that
receive Christ do so before age 18 (We are losing our youth)
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Factors which prevent youth violence
(Center for Disease Control) |
Degree
to which factors are enhanced through involvement in Faith Community |
- Religiosity
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High |
- Connectedness to adults or family outside
the family
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High |
- Intolerant attitude toward deviance
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High |
- Positive social orientation
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Moderate |
- Frequent shared activities with parents
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Moderate |
- Involvement in social activities
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Moderate |
What does it cost
to work with youth
THE NUMBERS
• Youth intervention programs = ($205 per year)
• Juvenile court = ($381 per case)
• Corrections confinement = ($40,200 per year)
• Residential treatment = ($75,300 per year)
*
mentoringworks.org
or
mnyipa.org.
So what do we do ???????????????
Youth Resources has instituted
Youth workers are no substitute for a Father in the home but they often
become surrogate by being there for the mother to call for help or by
providing mentors.
See the effects of Fatherlessness
EFFECTS OF FATHERLESSNESS (US DATA)
1) BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS/ RUNAWAYS/ HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS/CHEMICAL ABUSERS/
SUICIDES
- 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders
come from fatherless homes (Source: Center for Disease Control)
- 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from
fatherless homes (Source: U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census)
- 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless
homes (Source: National Principals Association Report on the State of
High Schools.)
- 75% of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse
centers come from fatherless homes (Source: Rainbows for all God's
Children.)
- 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes
(Source: U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census)
2) JUVENILE DELINQUENCY/ CRIME/ GANGS
- 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come
from fatherless homes (Source: Criminal Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p.
403-26, 1978)
- 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions come
from fatherless homes (Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report,
Sept 1988)
- 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a
fatherless home (Source: Fulton Co. Georgia jail populations, Texas
Dept. of Corrections 1992)
- California has the nation's highest juvenile
incarceration rate and the nation's highest juvenile unemployment rate.
Vincent Schiraldi, Executive Director, Center on Juvenile and Criminal
Justice, "What Hallinan's Victory Means," San Francisco Chronicle
(12/28/95).
These statistics translate to mean that children from a fatherless home are:
- 5 times more likely to commit suicide.
- 32 times more likely to run away.
- 20 times more likely to have behavioral disorders.
- 14 times more likely to commit rape
- 9 times more likely to drop out of high school.
- 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances.
- 9 times more likely to end up in a state-operated
institution.
- 20 times more likely to end up in prison.
- Juveniles have become the driving force behind the
nation's alarming increases in violent crime, with juvenile arrests for
murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault growing sharply in the past
decade as pistols and drugs became more available, and expected to continue
at the same alarming rate during the next decade. "Justice Dept. Issues
Scary Report on Juvenile Crime," San Francisco Chronicle (9/8/95).
"Crime Wave Forecast With Teenager Boom," San Francisco Chronicle
(2/15/95).
- Criminal behavior experts and social scientists are
finding intriguing evidence that the epidemic of youth violence and gangs is
related to the breakdown of the two-parent family. "New Evidence That Quayle
Was Right: Young Offenders Tell What Went Wrong at Home," San Francisco
Chronicle (12/9/94).
3) TEENAGE PREGNANCY
- "Daughters of single parents are 53% more likely to
marry as teenagers, 164% more likely to have a premarital birth, and 92%
more likely to dissolve their own marriages. All these intergenerational
consequences of single motherhood increase the likelihood of chronic welfare
dependency." Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Atlantic Monthly (April 1993).
- Daughters of single parents are 2.1 times more likely
to have children during their teenage years than are daughters from intact
families. The Good Family Man, David Blankenhorn.
- 71% of teenage pregnancies are to children of single
parents. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.
4) CHILD ABUSE
- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
states that there were more than 1,000,000 documented child abuse cases in
1990. In 1983, it found that 60% of perpetrators were women with sole
custody. Shared parenting can significantly reduce the stress associated
with sole custody, and reduce the isolation of children in abusive
situations by allowing both parents' to monitor the children's health and
welfare and to protect them.
5) POVERTY
- "The National Fatherhood Institute reports that 18
million children live in single-parent homes. Nearly 75% of American
children living in single-parent families will experience poverty before
they turn 11. Only 20% in two-parent families will experience poverty."
Melinda Sacks, "Fatherhood in the 90's: Kids of absent fathers more "at
risk"," San Jose Mercury News (10/29/95).
- "The feminization of poverty is linked to the
feminization of custody, as well as linked to lower earnings for women.
Greater opportunity for education and jobs through shared parenting can help
break the cycle." David Levy, Ed., The Best Parent is Both Parents
(1993).
6) KIDNAPPING
- Family abductions were 163,200 compared to non-family
abductions of 200-300. The parental abductions were attributed to the
parents' disenchantment with the legal system. David Levy, Ed., The Best
Parent is Both Parents (1993), citing a report from the U.S. Department
of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice (May 1990).
This information was taken from an email message from the
Coalition of Parent Support, Inc. in the US. Any errors in describing
paraphrasing as quotes are mine.
* Charles Clarke, Secretary of State for Education and Skills,
2002 (foreword to Transforming Youth Work: Resourcing
Excellent Youth Services).
** From Stuart Birks 24 January, 1996
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