Troubled Teens Resources

One of the most effective form of teen crisis intervention is that undertaken by individual celebrity athletes. The ones that take the time to visit and speak with the troubled teens who look up to them. In many cases athletes can raise money for programs for troubled teens that otherwise would have to scramble and fight for every thin dime.

Such is the case where a community program was saved via community efforts and the blessing of some football greats.

“Former San Francisco 49er Randy Kirk brought smiles to young faces and a $10,000 check to the El Toro Youth Center.

“Work hard, always do your best, and you’ll be able to achieve your dreams,” Kirk told a group of more than 30 children last week.

The Oct. 18 visit was great news for a program bouncing back from the brink of bankruptcy last June.

The staff breathed a sigh of relief as efforts to raise $100,000 came closer to a happy ending, with $93,000 raised so far, according to Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate, one of the community leaders working to save the center for at-risk youth in the community.”

Teen programs depend heavily on the generosity of the community and often flounder and fail for lack of funds. When that happens, the entire community suffers.

“The center has been a resource for low-income…families for about 20 years, providing after-school and summer programs for needy children and parents. Many low-income and single-parent families rely on El Toro for childcare and academic support. The center also serves as a hub of information on other social services available to low-income as well as immigrant families.”
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One of the most valuable gifts that schools for troubled teens can provide their willing students is the gift of themselves. Away from the battlefields of drugs and family hardships, in the growing strength of being drug free, a teen has time and peace enough to explore their skills, talents and abilities. Often they are amazed to discover that they are writers, or artists, or sculptors, or engineers.

When it isn’t possible for juveniles to enter troubled teen boarding schools, you hope to be able to find local teen programs that can teach the same lesson. One such program that brings art to troubled teenagers was started by a woman who made the same long journey as the troubled teens that she helps.

“Price Davis’ affinity for troubled teens stems from her own difficult childhood, she said. Alcoholism, abuse and poverty all played a role. She married two days after her graduation…

It wasn’t until eight years later, divorced and with two children to raise, that she entered college. This time she paid her own way through, working four or five part-time jobs to make ends meet.

“My ticket out (of poverty) was my brains,” she said. Her mission is to help young people find their own particular strengths.”

Her brains are responsible for the successful Arts Prevention Program for troubled youth, a program that can give a teen the gift of themselves.

“I know because of my psychology background that making art reduces resistance and changes behavior. It bypasses that counter-argument mechanism. When they’re in that zone or flow of the moment, they’re much more able to hear.”

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Boot camps, military boarding schools, troubled teen boarding schools, local non-profit teen programs, mentoring; all of these various programs dedicated to teen help achieve success by inculcating in the troubled teen one lesson and giving back a couple gifts.

The lesson comes in teaching the teen how to harness the power of his or her own will by choosing the discipline of commitment, exercised by perseverance.

Independence and self-possession are the gifts. Independence from addiction, independence from the negative influence of popular culture and peer pressure, independence from the dependency of victimhood. And that delivers the troubled teen’s life back into their possession, free to make of it what they will.

And those gifts come by way of the teen committing to do what it takes, no matter what it takes, to gain mastery over their life. The simplest way to learn that is to get a job and develop a work ethic that will hold the teen in good stead the rest of their life. The basics are boring, initially unrewarding, but pave the way to life long habits of success.

Many communities have put together such programs, underwritten by non profits or the business community. Waco, in the story below, is one such town.

“Through the program, teen parents, dropouts, juvenile offenders, homeless youth and others learn fundamental trade skills that will land them high-demand jobs and — for some — a chance at a college education.

Over the course of six weeks, a dozen youths rebuild their lives with little more than self- discipline and simple carpenters’ tools.
[..]
Brandon turned it all around after being accepted into Summer Building Trades…“I was able to see the result (of my bad decisions) and correct things,” he said. “You can’t get a job if you’re behind bars.”
[..]
He recently scored a football scholarship to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and said he’d like to become a teacher or a social worker.”

(Source)