South Carolina Youth Challenge Academy - Research Paper Example

South Carolina Youth Challenge Academy: Assessment and Evaluation In a society which is completely established and stands alone in the race towards success, it is impossible for any generation to remain unchallenged. This is because such a society strives for excellence; it produces people who master the skills of moving forward without backing down. Such a society tries its best to be stable and at equilibrium in all aspects of its existence, which include education, politics, economy, moral and social ethics, nobility and characterization. Hence, such a society proves out to be a challenge for the regions that surround it. Not only is this society on the path of good governance it also demonstrates a strengthened structure of liberalism. To elaborate this point in a better manner Galbraith (1996) has put forth the identity of people of a fine society as “They make the difference between the utopian and the achievable, between the agreeably irrelevant and the ultimately possible.” (3) Such a society focuses specifically on the youth and the young generation as they are the future of any society. It is its duty to make the youth strong and effective. Very quickly would the question crop up ‘How so?’ the answer to which is that this is done by establishing such organizations and agencies in a society that would help teach the young generation in a way that they learn how be practically motivated and well-built. To understand this in a better mode examples of agencies which are a part of the social order and are playing this role include South Carolina Youth Challenge Academy (SCYCA), Youth Challenge International (YCI), Hawaii Youth Challenge Academy (HYCA) and Florida Youth Challenge Academy (FYCA). The above mentioned academies are playing a vital role in making the lives of the youth better by teaching them in way which will instruct them towards strength and volunteering. The working and functioning of the South Carolina Youth Challenge Academy shall be discussed below and verified further, but first it is necessary that we understand the definition and description of this agency as a social system. The SCYCA was established by The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), this programme was designed with reference to a model which was prepared by the latter organization. This program constitutes of three various phases which include a two-week pre-challenge residential phase, a twenty-week residential phase and a twelve-month post-residential phase. This agency has become an important part of the social system as it aims at changing the lives of the youth by providing them with opportunities and openings towards incentives. Various groups and organizations in the society which affect the young generation are enormous in number and caste the same number of effects. This institution is amongst them and with it are linked many other organizations that are playing a vital role in bringing a change in the social system of behavior amongst the youth. But the problem that comes forth in light is that the young generation is being affected negatively as well. These negative effects originate from sources like drug abuse, peer pressure, unemployment, social deviance, juvenile delinquency and institutional drop outs. Hence, to deal with such problems of the community such organizations have been established and are being run by both private and government agencies. The units that could be related to the cause of this problem include educational institutions, medical sectors, law managements, counseling organizations, social conditioning agencies and political unions. Therefore, if any change is brought in these units or in any one of these units a massive transformation of these negatively originated consequences would turn into positive turn ups. Any community acts as a natural body of collective behaviors and outcomes. The additional roles in making this body a better and successful space for living agencies such as SCYCA play a significant role. They make the society stronger by making its people who have been misguided or misled change their journey and take the right turn. This agency is acting as a medium of social control and conformity as it helps those youngsters who have lost all hope of their lives turning out to be good. According to this agency success or failure doesn’t matter at the end, what matters is that the youngsters that sign up here are guided and learn something every day after every step whether they win or they lose the battle of going through the tough phases of life. SCYCA provides every required opportunity for social mobility for the people as it helps its member in moving on with life with a better attitude and self confidence. Not only does it help the people who have joined it but it also tries its best to make the youth realize that giving up is not the only option and that there’s always a third option in life. SCYCA is their third option. As the belief is held that in order to maintain social order in the society it is necessary for each and every one of us to realize that it is never too late. Conrad & Schneider (1985) have provided that “The greatest social control power comes from having the authority to define certain behaviors, persons and things.” (8) This Youth Challenge Program works more on the preventive exercises rather than remedial at-risk youth systems. This is done when contributors who are not employed anywhere; drug gratis and law-free withdrawers belonging to the level of high school are marked and targeted. The age limit of the participants is from 16 to 18 years of age. This organization is working with excellence in the departments which include; responsible citizenship, academic excellence, life-coping skills, service to community, health and hygiene, job skills training, leadership/followership and physical fitness. By working on the above mentioned areas this agency practices control and acts as an agent of social order and organization. Hence, SCYCA is a successful agency that is spontaneously achieving power by improving the lives of that part of the young generation that somewhere and somehow gives up on their lives and surrenders to disappointment and breakdown. This challenge program identifies the problems that are prevailing in the society and studies its causes and results. The management of this agency then targets those people who are affected by these problems and persuades them to become members and explains their mission which is to mediate in and retrieve their lives, by generating program graduates with the better standards, life dexterities, tutoring, and restraint necessary to thrive as prolific citizens. People belonging to SCYCA believe that the focus of their hard work shall be on collaboration, close order drill, code of conduct, leadership and followership and physical fitness training. Which teaches the participants a better way of dealing with social problems and eliminating their causes. These phases of exercises help the contributors to solve personal as well as social problems with accomplishment and also to volunteer in maintaining social order in the society by helping others as well. Other than this, SCYCA is also coordination with both inter community governmental and non governmental agencies which are also targeting the provision of social order and organization. This coordination is taking place as the management plays a vital role in keeping a reciprocal relationship. The clients who assign to this agency require their programs to match their needs. This is done only if SCYCA has analyzed the problems properly. To prove that this has been done in the required manner lies on the stories provide to us by the people who have been already graduated from this agency. The process of assigning the contributors with their programs is one which has both easy and difficult practices. Hence, selection and use of appropriate generalizations, principles, and concepts from the social work profession’s body of knowledge is required. The factors which appear the most critical or crucial are those which are linked to the social deviants and conservative mind set holders. Therefore SCYCA, provides all sorts of resources, keeps its operating systems stronger and ponders on the motivations which may or may not affect the clients. The most important factor that in my perspective the agency shall be focusing upon is the process of intervention or counseling. This point directly or indirectly may relate to health of the people who apply. As it is truly said by Durant Drake (2005) “Health is in itself a great contribution to the intrinsic worth of life”. This could be done by implementing a counseling sector in the agency which can work on the interventional procedure by setting a feasible goal of primarily directing its clients towards betterment. In this sector the clients shall be provided with alternatives and outcomes so that they can understand and join the program in a much recovered manner. This sector shall also focus on changing the efforts of the clients by explaining to them their roles as a worker and participant of this agency. In this sector the worker’s knowledge and skill of the time which is going to be needed to implement shall be focused on and presented with details. This is to be done by following the IIC (Ignorance, Inability and Choice) process; this agenda is to be kept in mind that if ‘they don’t know what you want, they can’t do what you want and they won’t do what you want.’ Hence, this process shall eliminate any misunderstandings from the client helper relationship. But the main point to ponder here upon is that whether the plan is going to be successful or not? The idea of making guesses would be one that carries perils and exposures of the client being less trusting. But the process and point of intervention through assigning tasks and providing services and resources to be used can help in a better way. By this the participants can get a better idea of the entire systematic working of the plan and the preparation of what lies ahead. But incase a participant moves away from the proper functioning s/he shall be immediately terminated with reference to the situation. This procedure is based on the evaluation of task accomplishment and meaning of process with reference to the client. But to maintain the gains it is necessary that plans to cope if an engagement is ended shall be made and kept ready. To evaluate the procedure this shall be mentioned that when adapted the above procedure proved of enormous help as it kept the continuity of the process of challenging the youth and made it more spontaneous as the clients were more satisfied with the working which circulated around the interventional approach. Also the purpose which was to strengthen the relationship of the client and the service provider with reference to entire procedure in which the participant is diverted from a path of vanishing and being a particle responsible for social deviancy towards betterment and self acknowledgment; was achieved. This analysis provides that the methods which have been mentioned above were applied and the point that the clients shall not be left in any sort of ambiguity or perplexity was accomplished. This was done through proper communication coordination with both the clients as well as the outer agencies. The difficulty of not being able to get through the patron was avoided in all circumstances, as Wilson & Dobson (2008) “If people don’t know what you want, the problem isn’t with them-it’s with you. Even if you know you’ve told them, don’t assume the message has really gotten across.” (86) Hence, with the above inclusion and all together role of the SCYCA can become a mean of complete effort to maintain social organization and gain social control for establishing a well approached society in which the youth can play an effective role of changing and adapting their lives. This in turn would form a strong society and a strong state. Hutchcraft (1996) validates that “When challenging the faith of teenagers, success does not mean they offer the right answers. This generation full of right answers, is living wring lives. Answers don’t do it. Understanding is what does it.” References Conrad, P. & Schneider, J. W. (1985). Deviance and medicalization: From badness to sickness. Princeton, NC: Merrill. Drake, D. (2005). Problems of conduct an introductory survey of ethics. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger. Galbraith, J. K. (1996). The good society: The humane agenda. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. Hutchcraft, R. (1996). The battle for a generation: Capturing the hearts of our youth. Chicago, IL: Moody. Wilson, S. B. & Dobson, M. S. (2008). Goal setting: How to create an action plan and achieve your goals. New York, NY: American Management Association. Read More