INTERVENTION
LCUL intervention work is designed to keep vulnerable and at-risk youth from making choices that may have a negative impact on their futures. We use a variety of approaches to help youth modify their behavior.
LCUL has two intervention models:URBAN YOUTH ADVENTURE CHALLENGE
Urban Youth Adventure Challenge Participants ready to Kayak at the Wellington Reservation.
The Urban Youth Adventure Challenge (UYAC) brings young people ages 13-17, in contact with a series of challenges provided in natural settings at various Metro Parks and other locations, which will help them to better understand their inherent abilities to control emotion, maneuver through volatile situations and overcome obstacles detrimental to reaching academic, personal, and professional goals. The UYAC also provides a safe haven where individuals can explore the margins of community, culture, and leadership in an ongoing search for new and sustainable ways of "being in the world." UYAC engages youth in activities which will help them to control fears and anxieties while building self-esteem and confidence. Forty-five to fifty youth are accepted into the program each summer from June through August. The program is cost free to participants due to scholarships provided by project partners the Lorain County Metro Parks and Lorain City Schools. This program meets every Friday from 4:30pm through 8:00pm and on Saturdays from 9:30am through 4:30pm throughout the summer months. Eligible participants are Lorain middle and high schools students recommended by their principles, teachers, juvenile authorities, concerned parents and community activists. Prior year program completers who have demonstrated academic progress, emotional and social growth are also allowed to return to the program the following summer. Those participating in the program get picked up at one of three bus sites on Lorain's West, South and East side. Activity locations include the Lorain County Metro Parks in Oberlin, Lorain, Grafton, Amherst, Wellington, Carlisle Township, and Elyria. Fieldtrips also include locations in Cleveland and North Olmsted.
Approach
The program provides anger management and emotion control training through a series of hands-on challenges which include swimming, kayaking, horseback riding, canoeing, camping, hiking, orienteering, astronomy, first aid, and several other fun learning activities, allowing youth to problem solve as a team, while learning to control fears and anxieties, strengthening their bodies, minds and ability to adapt to pressure filled situations. The project has proven it improves grades and behavior in targeted youth during the following academic year. Youth also demonstrate their connection and commitment to community by completing community service projects within the program period.
What Has Been Accomplished
Over the past 6 years, more than 350 youth have successfully completed the program and through demonstrated behavioral, academic and social accomplishments returned to the program in subsequent years. Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland contracted with the LCUL to create similar challenges for youth throughout Ohio involved in the "Closing the Achievement Gap" project funded by the State. The UYAC has demonstrated that it can play a significant role in addressing student behavior, absenteeism and academic challenges for at-risk youth. In 2010 and again this year, the Lorain City Schools asked the LCUL to convert the program into a full-year Leadership Academy serving the needs of students attending the Credit Recovery program at Masson School, in addition to a continued UYAC program during the summer months.
For more information on the UYAC, contact Michael Ferrer at: 440-336-1501 or by email at mferrer@lcul.org.
IN-SCHOOL MENTORING
Students and their mentors ready to get on the road to a Cleveland Cavalier Game
The In-school Mentoring Program,
which has been operating consistently in seven middle school buildings in Lorain, Elyria and Oberlin, was started in 1994 by Betty Nicholson. The Lorain County Urban League now operates the program in partnership with the Elyria Salvation Army.Why Mentoring? Researchers from Columbia University and the University of Massachusetts found that young people who overcome poverty to reach college often share a common bond: a mentor, or several mentors.
What we have accomplished: Our evaluation records over the past 17 years indicate that over 90% of students who participate in the program for two or more years graduate from high school on time.
For more information you can contact Elizabeth Nicholson at: 440-282-3822 or Mr. Dale Jones at: 440-323-2026
