PHASE V

The time for action is long since past!

We have already seen the crippling effects of our own inaction on our nation’s youth. Poverty, gangs, drugs, and poor education all contribute to the inner city trap, leading to crime, alienation, anger, frustration, higher taxes, and a host of other social ills. The inability of our leadership to get over petty differences sacrifices our children on the altar of myopic self-interest.

Those of us not caught in the endless cycle of poverty and despair pay the costs of a society that is broken. We cannot help “them”. We do not help ourselves.

Rather than wringing our hands in despair, though, the Pathways To Excellence program actually offers a legitimate and viable course of action – both for “them” and “us”. Working with community and youth centers, both children and adults learn how to better manage the realities of the street.

Properly structured, those without the advantages of birth gain a chance to overcome many of the difficulties associated with poverty and poor education. Those who had advantages but never applied them effectively get a second chance. Basic opportunities – those others may take for granted – are set in place, providing skills for a productive life within the structure of organized society.

As a public service, PTE offers a nine-point argument for community leaders interested in developing the structure and organization needed to develop such centers, which:

Lend themselves beyond the inner city, as troubled children exist everywhere; and should be funded by the private sector and those recognizing the benefits of a stronger consumer, citizen, and society.

The original concept: Composite Structuring

Creates a medium for offsetting abuse, combining sports, counseling, education and job training, creating proper role models for the target population.

Community centers: The great equalizer

Matches services with needs, providing a safe haven within which to build healthy personal relationships, benefit from educational and sports opportunities, and learn from community-based mentors.

Economics and politics

Being funded by the private and corporate sectors, community centers tend to be more efficient by demanding a demonstrable return on investment. In addition, by building a visible bridge to the community, rather than shunting participants to the periphery, these centers raise awareness of social problems, improve opportunities for center members, and provide opportunities for mainstream society members to reach out in the interests of community and commercial expansion.

Who benefits?

Focused energy and directed activities have  positive effects on individuals, families, and the community at large. Immediate impacts are seen as inner city children examine their mindset and learn why they think the way they do. This, in turn, helps them become more mainstream, overcoming marginalization, gang issues, and other impediments to their growth and development.

Critical role of youth/community centers

These centers create options to gang pressures, getting kids off the street with athletic opportunities, educational opportunities and positive role models. Unlike the environment provided by gang pressure and power, youth/community centers isolate the troubled youth from the gang population, helping them to stay sober and in school. Most gang members, consciously or not, desire a better life than that offered by gangs. Centers and similar outreach programs provide the hope of an improved life.

What the participants gain

Participants have a chance to become pro-active in their view of the world, rather than reactive. The very act of creating a framework for processing incoming information inspires members of this turnaround community to create their own framework defining what their behaviors should be like. Attainment of socially acceptable goals become a means of positive reinforcement, and are built into the framework and processing mechanisms used by the participants.

Participants and Administrators

Professionals focus on communications; procedures; volunteering; training, and interfacing at schools.

Participants focus on building social skills, grooming (hygiene, appearance), talents for work and education, and physical fitness.

This mutuality of goals creates a unity of focus for the two complementary groups, increasing yield, consistency and stability both within the organization and within the community.

Strategic position in the community

Youth/community centers have the power to facilitate positive social change by being at street level. Absent many traditional political restraints, they have the potential to appeal to a wide range of political, social and economic audiences. By impacting on the streets of communities ranging from the inner city to suburbia, they can simultaneously:

Decrease criminal behavior

Reduce drug use

Lessen gang activity

Create hope

Improve family relationships generally and juvenile behavior, specifically

Making it work

Using the profile, center professionals will be positioned to analyze the needs of inner city children and the funding impacting them, matching target programs with target donors. Specific programs are developed according to the needs and goals of a specific target market.

By determining the need for after-school programs, state and federal funding can be targeted with tie-ins developed into the juvenile justice system. These programs can then be marketed to private sector patrons, eliciting corporate sponsorship in the form of financial and/or in-kind contributions of everything from tissues to computers. Corporate sponsors should quickly see the value of connecting with these centers and their participants as a matter of mutual interest, providing boasting rights for their marketing and publicity efforts.