The Young Women’s Empowerment Program
The Young Women’s Empowerment Program will provide a safe and inspiring environment for young women. The goal is to build self-esteem, encourage talents and implement long lasting relationships within the Community. We want to build a foundation that can be relied on and provide continuous support. This program will provide support with education, such as assistance with College or University applications, scholarships and grants. Enhance life skills that include driver’s education, healthy eating, health promotion and parenting classes. Provide Career Mentorship, by encouraging resume writing skills, interview techniques, business attire sponsorship and job placement.
Youth Action Plan
Youth Action Plan. The primary focus is getting to the root of youth violence and teenage pregnancy, as well as the reconstruction of the Nubian image in Canada through a constant and consistent process of giving and shared perception. Conflict resolution skills and intervention program are the main focus. Food for Thoughts reward program is an essential and unique program. Currently we have the involvement and support of over a hundred committed restaurants and convenience stores who we have secured a discounted rate for all youth involved in our program.
Food vouchers will be supplied by 2nd Chance Youth to participants which will enable youth to get lunches at local restaurants for discounted prices. A dollar or two will be able to feed youth for their thoughts, allowing them to concentrate on what they are learning.
But most of all, we need a revolution of how our youth think. A revolution of the mind! We want to encourage youth to explore, become more familiar and learn to respect their culture.
FOOD FOR THOUGHTS PROGRAM
2ND Chance Youth
Food for Thoughts Program
A food discount program available to youth involved in 2ND Chance Youth programs
Food vouchers will be provided through 2ND Chance Youth that will get youth a lunch at a local restaurant for a discounted price. A loonie or a toonie can feed youth so they can concentrate on their learning
For more information call Newton
647-705-5451
Or visit www.2ndchanceyouth.org
WE ARE PRESENTLY DOING FOOD FOR THOUGHTS PROJECT
OUTREACH PROGRAM
COMMUNITY APPROACH TO HELPING
Direct client services
Focus on outreach activities to a population that might be at risk for developing mental health problems. Community worker provide help to client either facing crises or dealing with ongoing stressors that impair their coping ability. Target populations for such programs are school dropouts, alcohol and drug abusers of all ages, people who are homeless, victims and perpetrators of child and elder abuse, suicidal individuals, victims of violent crimes, older people, and persons with AIDS, and adolescent mothers. By reaching out to those schools and communities, helper can offer a variety of personal, career, and family counseling services to at-risk groups.
Indirect client services
This consists of client advocacy, which involves active intervention for and with an individuals or a group. The community agency works to empower disenfranchise group that become split off from the main stream community. These include, but are not limited to, the unemployed, the homeless, older people, the handicapped, and persons living with AIDS. Helpers need become advocates, speaking up on their clients’ behalf and actively intervening in their client situation. Advocacy consists of focused effort to change existing policy or to influence proposed policy on behalf of specific underrepresented groups. The advocacy process is best conceived of as a way to assist groups who typically do not have power to move in the direction of acquiring tools to find and use resources, both within the community and within themselves.
Direct community services
These are attempts in the form of preventive education are geared to the population at large. Examples of these programs include life planning workshops, AIDS prevention workshops, the creative use of leisure, and training in interpersonal skills. Because the emphasis is on prevention, these programs help people develop a wider range of competencies.
Indirect community services
Are attempts to change the social environment to meet the need of the population as whole and are carried out by influencing public policy. Community intervention deals with the victim of poverty, sexism, and racism, which typically which typically leave people feeling powerless. The focus is on promoting systemic change by working closely with those in the community who develop public policy. The overall goal is the reduction of health problems, both mental and physical.
CONSPICUOUS POPULATION
We at 2ND chance youth organization abet to our workers about miscellaneous groups, especially neglected or unpopular client groups, within our community and see how we could muster community resources in meeting their needs. We keep in mind the importance of being willing to pay attention to similar feelings we are experiencing with our clients who may differ us in a number of consequential respects, even if we have not experienced their same intricate.
We work with the community as well as for the community as well as for the community. Any program that we design incorporates ways of reaching out to the target population as well as ways for potential clients to gain access to our services. We are developing educational programs in our community to provide services to these client groups. We know that education is only a first step and that educational exertions must be lineal towards maneuver programs that will bring about community betterment.
EDUCATING THE COMMUNITY
Educating the community includes educating the professionals regarding the existence and dimensions of problems as well as some steps for dealing with them; educating the broad community about the same things and, in addition, about the costs of the community of maintaining the problem; and educating potential consumer about the availability of services as well as their right to demand that they be delivered in quality.
There are many reasons people do not make use of available resources: they may not be aware of them, they may not be able to afford these services, they may have misconceptions about the nature and purpose of counseling, they may be reluctant to recognize their problem, they may harbor the attitude that they should be able to take charge of their lives on their own, they believe professional helpers are attempting to control their lives, they may perceive that these services as culturally insensitive, or they may believe they are not worthy to receive services. There are also practical limiting factors that make it difficult to use community services. For example, if clients are required to travel to the agency to receive services, community members without access to transportation may be unable to make use of the program.
If professional assistance are to nurture real and lasting changes
If professional assistance are to nurture real and lasting changes, many people argue that they must have an impact on the total milieu of people’s lives. We work with people who come for individual counseling is one way professionals can use their helping skills, but a outreach worker can also foster community change using a system approach. The objectives of and difficulties of individual clients interlace with those of many other people in the neighborhood method. Practitioners can make ripples within clique of the community even in small ways if they are committed to becoming change agents. It is indispensable that community workers focus on the capabilities and strengths within a community, for doing so empowers individuals in the community.
Our plan is to view the community or the individual as a client. We think we have a broader responsibility to address the conditions that create problems for individuals who come to see us. We at 2nd chance youth do adopt the perspective of the community as a”client,”we have many roles to be a part of in helping to improve the neighborhood.
We inspect closely our own commitment to community intervention by thinking about how are the human services needs in our community, what are the special needs of low-income individual and families. Where can people go for the social and psychological services they need. We will make individuals know the resources that are available to assist them; we will direct them to those sources. We will also make known some of the forces within our community that contribute to the problems individuals and groups are experiencing.
We do know the main assets to empower people in our community; we also know the prevailing attitudes of the people of our community, and the range of the human services in the community. We will build on these attitudes if they are positive, and attempt to change these attitudes if they are negative.
The role that we at 2nd chance youth in helping improving the community. We begin by looking at the community approach.
Traditional psychotherapy focuses on resolution of internal conflicts as a pathway to individual change; the community approach on social change rather than merely helping people adapt to their circumstances.
We have a community orientation, which requires outreach worker to design interventions that go beyond our office. We trained in individual helping models who work in the community need to develop a more expansive notion of who the client is. The community orientation is based on the premise that the community itself is the most appropriate focus of attention and that resources for solutions lie within the community. The community approach addresses unmet community needs, helping the community identify and develop its resources, and employing measures that ultimately strengthen the community itself.
OUR CRISIS INTERVENTION MODEL
We educate methods of dealing with a miscellaneous of crisis situations in our supervised field placement, and we have many practices with these kinds of skills. In writing about the development of the crisis intervention model, Kanel (2003) shows how this model in linked to community-based mental health programs. The community health movement emphasized prevention programs, and much of crisis intervention theory is based on interventions aimed at minimizing psychological impairment and promoting psychological health.
Although the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 was originally intended to serve chronically mentally ill patients, community workers soon began seeing clients who were experiencing psychological problems that were typically dealt with in the private practices of therapists. Later, the Lanterman Petris Short bill of 1968 established more specific requirements for providing mental health services in the community, emphasizing short-term crisis intervention for people who were not chronically mentally ill. The short-term crisis intervention model is considered more cost effective than traditional forms of psychotherapy, which made crisis intervention a preferred approach by most health maintenance organizations (Kanel,2003).
SCOPE OF THE COMMUNITY
Many of the problems people face are the result of being disenfranchised as individuals or as a member of a community or group from system that hold valued resources for them. The goal is to work towards greater degrees of enfranchisement. Cultural skilled community worker particularly understand how the sociopolitical influences impinge on the experiences of racial and ethnic minority groups. For example, immigration issues, racism, stereotyping, poverty, and powerlessness can all severely damage individuals. Culturally responsive helping does not restrict its focus to race and ethnicity but includes other key aspect of diversity such as disability, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Competent helpers must have cognizance, knowledge, and skills to effectively address the range of issues that I client may present.
Various function of outreaching
By engender opportunities for our community member to develop skills and abilities that contribute to the vitality of the community, we help to develop the community, not merely attend to some of its problems. Our aim is to elevate the quality of life in the community and expand the members’ capacity to confront current and future challenges.
Option Roles
Facilitator of intramural support system. Many ethnically diverse clients, people in rural environments, and older people would not consider seeking professional counseling or therapy. However, they are willing to turn to social support system within their own communities. We will encourage clients to make full use of resources within the community, including community centers,churches,extended families, neighborhood social network, and ethnic advocacy groups. Community workers can work with church leaders in influencing social policy and community change.
Facilitator of intramural healing system. In many cultures, human service professionals have little hope of reaching individuals with problems, many of whom may mistrust traditional mental health approaches and professionals. We are aware of the kinds of healing resources that exist within a client’s culture (autochthonous resources), they can refer a client to a folk or spiritual healer from his or her culture. At times it may be difficult for an outreach worker to adopt the worldview of their client. In such instances it could be hopeful to work with an indigenous healer.
Adviser
We at 2nd chance youth handle the adviser role similar to that of a consultant. It differs in that of the community worker as adviser initiates the discussion with client about ways to deal with environmental problem that contributes to their personal problem. For example, recent immigrants may need advice on immration paperwork, coping with problems they will face in the job market, problems that their children may encounter at school, and resources for the amalgamation of language skills.
Consultant
Operating as consultants, community workers can encourage individuals to learn useful skills to interact successfully with various forces within their community. In this role, the client and the outreach worker cooperate in addressing unhealthy forces within the system. As consultants, helpers can work with racial and ethnic minority clients to design preventive programs to reduce the negative impact of racism and oppression.
Change agent
We at 2nd chance youth are functioning in this role, community workers do what they can to confront and bring about change within the system that contributes to, if not creates, the problems client face contends that the cause of problem is not so much within individuals as it is in intolerant or restrictive environments. Thus, the best way to address problems is to eradicate the impediments in the system. In the role of a change agent, helpers assist client in recognizing oppressive forces in the community as a source of their problem and also teach clients strategies for dealing with these problems. As systemic change agents, community workers assist client in developing power, particularly political power, to bring about change in clients’ social and physical environment. A change agent recognizes that healthy communities produce healthy people. The main purpose of community change is fostering healthy communities.
Advocate
Because ethnic minority clients are often oppressed by the dominant society, outreach workers can speak on their behalf. Helpers especially need to function as advocates for clients who are low in acculturation and who need remediation of a problem resulting from discrimination and oppression.
YOUTH ADVOCACY
It is our view that an increasing number of youth and families are unable to cope with the demands of their surroundings and are receptive to the idea of professional assistance. As people overcome the stigma attached to seeking help, the demand of community service will increase. We at 2nd chance youth is going to assume an advocacy role for disenfranchised youth whose background make it laborious for them to utilize professional assistance. We need to challenge long standing traditions and preconceive conception that stationary in the way of satisfactory development.
