ROLE
MODEL SCHOOLS
OR LIFE
ENHANCEMENT
CENTERS
TOWARDS ESTABLISHING A SAFER SOCIETY, INC.
NONPROFIT CORPORATION
ABSTRACT
NEED FOR THE PROJECT
A recent study reported about in the Detroit News has shown that many students cannot function well in the classroom because they are sick, hungry, troubled and/or depressed.* This research shows that 50 percent of adolescents are vulnerable to moderate to high risk behavior and lack access to health care and counseling. The Bureau of Substance Abuse, Detroit Health Department, shows that in 1985, 54 percent of teenagers were involved in drug and/or alcohol use and that 3,792 youth between the ages of 10 and 16 had contact with the Detroit Police Department because of violent and non-violent behavior.
PROPOSED PLAN OF OPERATION
TOWARDS ESTABLISHING A SAFER SOCIETY, INC.,
(TESS) will attempt to provide its social education program of role
model schools or Life Enhancement Centers nationwide. TESS will
accomplish this program through the provision, supervision, and
coordination of crisis, mental health, and substance abuse counseling.
TESS will offer assistance to the indigent in obtaining employment,
food, clothing, and shelter, and will offer counseling in an attempt to
raise the self-esteem of individuals by creating within them a belief in
themselves. For youth, TESS will deal with the causes of delinquent
behavior and self-limiting concepts through individual and group
counseling, tutoring, and by offering co-operative arrangements with the
business community to give the participants work experience.
INTENDED OUTCOME
OF THE TESS PROJECT
The TESS project will work toward providing
an environment where learning can take place and will attempt to
eliminate disruptions in the classrooms, drug trafficking, and bullying
and name- calling on the school grounds. The goal of TESS is to offer an
environment where students feel important, equal to others, cared for,
and at “home”; a place where students and parents can share their
problems with others and obtain assistance from them, and thereby lessen
the probability of the use and sale of drugs. TESS aims to offer a safe
place where the confidential disclosures of parents and students will
remain confidential; where support is available to empower parents to be
able to ensure that their children will give priority to their homework,
seek help when needed, and not interfere with the education of other
students. In this environment, students would be able to devote
sufficient time to their school work, learn to accomplish their dreams
and goals, and discover that learning is both fulfilling and fun.
David C. Hakim, J.D., Chairperson
*Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century,”
prepared by the Carnegie
Council on Adolescent Development, Task Force on Education of Young
Adolescents, June, 1989, as reported in “Junior Highs in U.S. Get
Failing Grade,” Detroit News, Monday, June 19, 1ORO
n IA