I spent five years on the Interagency Authority on Residential Facilities for Children (1993-1997) as a voting member and was the Chairman of the Transition Committee. Many of the comments I make here came from a lot of good people such as Father John Smyth who ran the shelter system for the City of Chicago. I also have served for the last 12 years on the Advisory Board of Lincoln Challenge Academy which is a 22 week residential program for high school drop outs. About 75% come from the inner city and about 73 percent are minorities. There have been many good people on that Board there too, such as General Donald Lynn (from Mahomet) who was the original founder of the Challenge Academys now in 30 states. I say this not to boast, but to acknowledge that what I am about to say is the a very imperfect solution to a multi-faceted problem and the ideas are not mine. We are also -well past blaming the parents, the schools, and race.
Every Community and City College Campus in this State, needs a structured residential academic and independent living center where young men and women can go to at any time to escape the gangs and violence of their schools and neighborhoods. In order to get admitted to this setting, the applicant will need to be a volunteer, obtain a neighborhood sponsor such church or community organization, and agree to the terms and conditions of the admission policy. These centers would conduct individual testing, plan academic and vocational pathways, and provide individualzed case and multi-disciplinary management.
These centers would have several functions. (1) They would be the induction center for other programs like Lincoln Challenge Academy (2) They would serve as a academic enhancement center for gifted students (3) They would serve as rehabilitation centers for drug and alcohol addicted teenagers. (4) They would serve as placement and housing specialists for students returning back to the Community from places like Lincoln Challenge Academy (5) They would serve as summer bridge colleges from graduating high school students. (6) They would serve as structured living arrangements for first year college students.
Of course one does not just start building residential facilities. It is best to model programs like this in places like C/U where the best academic minds can plan all the elements of the program. The Community and City College Boards of Trustees will need to see the beneit of the program. It is obvious that there are other things that we need to do to get to this point too. Non-government Universal Health Care for Children linked to the Community Colleges and our schools are a necessary beginning to any diversion programs in the lower grades. This is where special education needs to be funded too.
John,
You are spot on with your comments about Lincoln Challenge. Thank you for your help with that outstanding effort. I know for sure that Lincoln Challenge is doing some good. Tell us more about Lincoln Challenge, how it works and most importantly, why it works.
It is a program run entirely by the National Guard. The head of the National Guard is called the Adjudant General and he is appointed by and reports to Governor Blagojevich. The program is a volunteer program for 16-18 year old high school drop outs. Kids go there to get their GED. The 22 week residential program starts with a two week orientation. Most of the kids who realize they are not going to complete it, leave then. It is very much like basic training. Whenever I asked a kid why he was there the answer was always the same-because of the discipline. The program is followed by a year mentoring program which is ok, but not the "step down" program that is needed to get a start on life.
Over the years my criticism of the program stems from the fact that there are two 22 week programs which essentially follow the semester system. When a kid needs to get out of the inner city, he needs to go immediately. I suggested staggered starts like I was familiar with from OCS, but that proved to be impossible in the current campus configuration at old Chanute. Thus you see that having a place to go to before entering would help a lot of kids get out of bad and dangerous school situations. Having a place they could go to after graduation from LCA would help too. Now many of the kids that graduate do not want to go back to the inner city and team up with 2 or 3 friends in an apartment. This unsupervised situation loses a lot of the gains that we make during the 22 weeks. You can get a better idea of the program by doing a google search.