Ward 1

Heather Ward

Diana Watkins

Comp 1

2 May 2019

At-risk Youth is a Community Problem

My vision is to start an organization that empower at-risk youth in Payne County to

create their own individual life plans and support them in achieving their goals. This program will

promote school success and stability for youth who face neglect, poverty, abuse or homelessness. My

plan for the program will include providing an advocate that will create and monitor individualized

educational plans, that will empower and support the youth, while ensuring there is a supportive network

in the school. I would also provide lunch to students during the summer months while they are receiving

tutoring services because I want to ensure they are getting enough to eat so that they can concentrate

while studying. When they are successful in school they are less likely to engage in illegal activities.

Where we came from does not define where we are going, so why do the two always need to go hand in

hand? We have to intervene before its to late.

At-risk is a term used when talking about someone who requires temporary or ongoing

intervention to succeed academically; also, they are less likely to transition successfully into adulthood.

Success can include academic success and job readiness. Without this they are less likely to be financially

independent and rely on welfare. At-risk can also refer to the ability to become a positive member of

society by avoiding a life of crime. When we use at-risk to refer to families, we mean families who may
 Ward 2

find it difficult to keep their children safe. Addiction, poverty, violence/domestic violence and/or mental

health issues are the most common risk factors linked to child abuse and neglect.

“According to the Oklahoma State Department of Education student dropout reports in 2016-

2017 Stillwater Junior High School had 1 percent dropout rate for 397 students enrolled for that school

year and Stillwater High School had 1.8 percent dropout rate for 1175 students enrolled for that year. The

state average is 1.9 percent”. (Student) That’s not even counting how many drop outs Lincoln Academy

had dropout that year, I could not find numbers for them.

In Stillwater Middle School 6th – 7th there are 20 families homeless living in their cars. We have

Mission of Hope Shelter that cannot house all the homeless in Stillwater leaving families on the street.

Wings of Hope can only take in so many domestic abuse victims and their children. These shelters alone

cannot fix the problem we are facing. We cannot expect to put a band aid on the problem and the problem

be solved. We must do something now to prevent at-risk youth from repeating the same pattern.

Stillwater currently does not have a Boys and Girls Clubs of America whose mission statement is

“Imagine a place where who you are, where you’re from or the circumstances that surround you don’t

determine your access to experiences or opportunities”. (Our) We do not have an organization that offers

a curriculum like the one from ARISE. Their mission statement is “Our mission is to provide valuable

ARISE life skill and staff training to at-risk youth and the adults who care for them. We enable youth of

all ages, and young adults to achieve their highest potential as law abiding citizens through ARISE group

sessions conducted by well trained, caring ARISE Facilitators”. (About) On their site they have lesson

plans that cover all types of life skill lessons that included making a budget to learning how to manage

stress. They teach basic hygiene and parenting skills. On their site they have a quotation from the

founders, “‘Life skills are hereditary; they must be taught. With this in mind, we dedicate ourselves to

building social and emotional fitness in youth and young adults.’- Edmund and Susan Benson, founders

of the ARISE Foundation”. (About) There are many programs out there to model after or can be a useful

resource that can be used to help at-risk youth.

 Ward 3

My first steps to becoming involved is by getting a degree in secondary education. This is

important because I need to see it from a teacher’s point of view to understand what we can do to help

more. I have personally experienced how hard it is to succeed as an at-risk youth. I dropped out of high

school in 10th grade and had my first kid at 18. I come from a home with poverty, drug addiction and

neglect. I at least was made to get my GED right after dropping out but that is not the case for everyone.

It took 15 years and 4 children later before I decided to go to college. In August I will be taking college

classes and helping catholic charities get their GED program off and going. I am hoping that during my

time in college I can start working on building a model for my organization to help at-risk youth to

succeed.

It is important that people get involved even if they are just donating a few dollars or items we

might need. The children are our future and we are investing our time and effort in our future by investing

in them. People think this is not their problem to deal with, maybe they think it is a waste of time, money

or effort. “Over 80 percent of the incarcerated population is high school dropouts- making this an issue

that truly impacts every member of the community… As a society, we are not just paying into public

assistance program for dropouts, but we are paying to protect ourselves against the through

incarceration…if we invested that money, or even half of it, into efforts to enhance the learning

experience and programs to prevent dropping out, what would that do to dropout [rate], poverty and

incarceration rates”. (Lynch)

With this program I want to help prevent those students from reaching the put of dropping out.

At-risk students are endanger of not graduating or meeting educational goals. As classroom sizes grow it

makes it harder for teachers alone to pin point who is at-risk. By helping teacher identify who is at-risk

and refer them to a local organization that works with the schools to insure these students graduate and

are better prepare for adulthood. Programs like this one can be found all over the country but currently we

do not have a program like this in place. At-risk youth need to have someone in their corner cheering

them on to succeed in life.