TEEN CHALLENGE ILLINOIS

Teen Challenge Illinois (TCI) provides many services to people who are struggling with life controlling problems such as alcohol and drug addiction. The also provide food, shelter, clothing, education, medical care, counseling and life, social and job skills. They have a 14-month character development program that strives to help people to develop character and personal values. TCI believes this will help the clients to become productive members of their community. Encouragement, counseling, education, family, community and spirituality are focusing for each of the participants in residence with TCI.

TCI has been providing healing for 41 years in the state of Illinois. Through street ministry and storefront fundraising, people are given a message of hope and testimonies of the possibilities that are available through the ministry. Thousands of individuals have found an answer to their suffering through the life-changing program provided by TCI.

An average of 500 individuals annually are provided services ranging from the 14-month residential program to referrals and phone counseling. In 2001 the Chicago facility alone fielded 5117 inquiries about the program, made 259 referrals to other Teen Challenge programs in the United States, made 238 referrals to other drug/alcohol rehabilitation centers and provided residential treatment in varying lengths to 140 individuals.

TCI is supported through contributions from individuals and churches. Many of the individuals are family and friends of TCI alumni who have seen the evidence of the program in a loved one or a friend. The success stories are numerous and shares in the TCI newsletter. In addition, TC choirs from Peoria’s Redemption House and Chicago’s center often share their stories of hope that they have as a result of treatment at TC to churches on the state.

Northwestern Illinois University completed a study that documented an 86% recovery rate for Teen Challenge completers. The research also found that “nearly all had escaped the revolving door phenomenon of substance abuse treatment.” In addition, they found that in comparison to completers of other programs, TC graduates are more likely to be employed one and two years later, living normal lives and needing no further drug treatment.

Drug treatment programs have been struggling for a method that succeeds to solve the problem for people bound by addictions. TC has found it and helped countless people. TCI is a timeless alternative to freedom from all life controlling problems using traditional treatment and also including the spiritual aspect of recovering from addiction.

BRIAN ORLOFF

A senior at Palm Harbor University High School, Brian M. Orloff began his volunteer service with The Hospice of the Florida Sun Coast when he was 13 years old. Working with patients and families, he has been a teen mentor for Hospice’s sibling support groups. He is founder, writer and editor-in-chief of Inside HTV, an in-house student publication for the Hospice Teen Volunteer program. As such, he is responsible for the success of the articles and graphics in the publication, ensuring that they are timely and meaningful. Under his direction, an online version of the publication has been developed and distributed to teens in the program. The newsletter, featured on the Hospice Web site, allows readers across the country to become familiar with the efforts and contributions of teens.

Brian’s work has been published in The St. Petersburg Times and he has attended a variety of outreach programs focusing on teens’ work with The Hospice. His work with the Lifetime Legacies program involves recording patients’ memories on video, in photo journals or on audiotapes. These special projects provide the opportunity for patients to discover new meaning and purpose in their lives and represent enduring gifts of a lifetime for surviving friends and family members.

Through Brian’s leadership, teen volunteers have had the opportunity to meet hospice patients and families and to gain understanding of the importance of living each day to the fullest. The stories the hospice patients tell provide Brian the foundation for the articles he contributes to the newsletter.

Enrolled in the International Baccalaureate high school program, Brian maintains a grade point average in the honors range, while devoting his free time to hospice patients and their families.

HEATHER YOUNG

Heather Young spends her quality time working with the youth of San Juan County. She works to fulfill the five promises for the young people. Young serves on a plethora of committees that are particularly geared toward positive opportunities and encouragement. All of her commitments span throughout the county, so Young is able to touch many lies.

Young serves on the Area Resource Committee for the School District, the 21st Century Advisory Committee, the State Board for Utah Adult and Continuing Education and the Technical Oversight Committee. Young also is a part of the Inter-state Mountain Plains Distant Learning Project and coordinates student orientations for the College of Eastern Utah.

She has served with the Gear Up program, which prepares young people for post-secondary education. Young is one of the main forces in Gear Up. She helped build and fund an entire “real town” where youth participate in real-life situations they may and probably will encounter in the future. They learn about buying homes, creating budgets, bargain grocery shopping and opening bank accounts.

The Annual Storytelling Festival is a major event for the Blanding community. Young is an integral part of this. She coordinated the event each year. Young is involved in every stage. Her work is seen in the planning, trouble-shooting and coordination aspects of the Festival. She uses her talents and skills to mobilize other volunteers and get more people in Blanding involved for the next year.

The 4th of July and Pioneer Day Parades are important community events in Blanding. Young also coordinates these events. Young is especially involved with organizing all the floats and parade entries for the College of Eastern Utah as well as recruiting other volunteers.

In addition, Young volunteers countless hours for the Youth and Families with Promise (YFP) program. She is a mentor as well as a training instructor. Her responsibilities with YFP include a monthly instructional seminar for the mentors. Young is a role model for others who want to be involved, and she proves one person can make an impact.

COLLEGE BOUND

College Bound, Inc. (CB) was founded to create an opportunity for at-risk youth to gain insight into the work of higher education. Since its inception, CB has provided quality services to the community with limited resources, expanded services, increased the volunteer pool by 18% and diversified the student body.

CB has worked with hundreds of District of Columbia public school students from underrepresented communities to help them achieve their goal of a college education. CV pairs an adult volunteer professional in a one-to-one partnership with students to form mentoring and tutoring relationships. Because of the relationships, students have developed academic, college and career-readiness skills. Also, in addition to academic support, CB offers financial support by rewarding selected students’ commitment success with a $6,000 college scholarship.

To support the academic development of the students, CB offers SAT/ACT review sessions, and financial literacy workshops. During the summer, rising seniors are required to participate in a four-day college application workshop. Finally, to ensure that the students have a voice in the design of the program, the students elect two student ambassadors for each site. For the past two years, CB students graduated from high school at a rate of 100%. This means that CB students graduate from high school at approximately two times the rate of their counterparts, and they attend college at an even higher rate.

The relationships between CB students and volunteers are the foundation of CB. Students and partners meet for two hours a week at one of four community locations. During the weekly meetings, students participate in a range of academic and enrichment activities designed to prepare them academically and socially for college. Later in the year, students attend workshops on securing financial aid and preparing for college life.

In addition to its core program, CB offers several enrichment activities. Annually, offerings include two college tours, a career fair, a college fair and each program year closes with an “End of the Year Celebration” scholarship and certificate awards banquet. CB successfully connects adult volunteers, community leaders and institutions of higher learning with junior and senior high students to prepare them to enter college earn a degree and achieve their personal and professional goals.

DEBI JOHNSON & TERRI McCALLISTER

Debi Johnson and Terri McAllister are advocates for the children in the Salt Lake City, Utah region. They give the children of Mill Creek Elementary the special attention they need to have a healthy educational start.

They both have served as the PTA president for Mill Creek Elementary School and always demonstrate a sincere interest in the well being of the students. Both Johnson and McAllister are always available and willing to help, but they are also very open to constructive feedback. They use the feedback to make their volunteer efforts more effective.

The staff, students and school community respect Johnson and McAllister and are receptive to their strategies to help students achieve their full potential. Since they began volunteering, Johnson and McAllister have envisioned, created and directed various projects at the school.

The pair organized the parent community to sew patriotic fleece hats to wear to Mill Creek’s Olympic events. Johnson and McAllister also initiated a school wide reading incentive program. The school goal was 11,000 books read during the 2000-2001 school year, and the next year they followed and increased the goal to 14,000 books.

Johnson and McAllister also started an artist in residency program, which culminated with a dance recital. This program was very well received and attended by 12,000 parents. A safety program that included a calling tree, classroom water and snacks for every classroom was also an idea brought to the school by this two-person team. In addition, they organized and served on a media committee within the school to bring in more books and to help label them along with organizing two fundraisers, which enabled students to go on field trips.

Johnson and McAllister also worked in the media center to help the students obtain resources when the instructor was unavailable, offered medical assistance to the school in the sickroom, and established a store for positive behavioral awards for the children. They have also served as volunteers on the playground during recess and structured game time along with directing a well functioning PTA.

CHARLES SHANE

Charles “Chuck” Shane exemplifies the true nature of volunteerism, the giving of one’s time and talents without monetary compensation, to make life a little easier for someone else. Last year, Shane, as he calls himself, volunteered over 1,000 hours through RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program) for a number of different programs in Kalamazoo County. When calculated by the Point of Light’s value of $16.05 per volunteer hour, Chuck’s volunteer effort comes to $16,050 dollars worth of free service. Agencies that benefited form Chuck’s time and talents are the American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, Hospice of Greater Kalamazoo, Kellogg Biological Station, Fontbonne Manor, St. Joe’s Church and the City Kalamazoo.

Last year Chuck Shane impacted many lives by means of his volunteer efforts. Cancer patients were provided rides to their appointments, veterans were driven to the VA Hospital, and blood banks were set up and maintained. Hospice patients had companionship, seniors were taken to community events, tourists and local residents were given tours of dairy farms and maple sugar events and the Sister of St. Joseph were provided transportation in the wheelchair van driven by Chuck Shane. As if these weren’t enough, people as far away as New York City were the recipients of this 80 year old’s drive, determination and generosity, often volunteering as much 16 hours a day, answering the call of the Red Cross National Disaster Team following September 11th.

SCRAP METTLE SOUL

Founded in 1996, Scrap Mettle SOUL (Stories Of Urban Life) involves the Uptown/Edgewater neighborhoods of Chicago in an oral history-based performance process that empowers individuals, bonds the community and seeds further community-building activity. The plays are professionally produced and based on experiences of the people of the community and performed by people of the community.

This nonprofit company has several programming and outreach initiatives, including the Spring Performance Project – consisting of original choreography and music and the Fall Outreach Tour – an abridged version of the Spring Show taken on the road to community organizations. Other programs include Park Kids after school drama classes at Margate Park, Park Kids Summer Sessions, Youth Outreach Programs and Story gathering workshops where a diverse group of Uptown/Edgewater residents learn to articulate their experiences and create stories for performance.

Scrap Mettle SOUL’s (SMS) volunteer cast profits from the benefits of professional artistic training – usually someone who resides in the local community. SMS keeps the ticket price to the Spring Show low and offers discount tickets to youth and seniors. Because economically disadvantaged populations are the core audience, those who want to attend the show and do not have the funds to do so are never turned away.

In 1994, Dr. Richard Owen Geer began a community performance project in Chicago’s Uptown/Edgewater, where he lives. SOUL began with 60 teenagers as collaboration for a positive youth alternative and as a means of generating more use and better services at local parks. Adults volunteered to help the project grow.

In 1995, the power of the performances attracted Lakefront SRO, a nonprofit developer of permanent, affordable housing for the formerly homeless. The participants of Lakefront SRO decided to name themselves “Scrap Mettle” to denote the addition of age. In 1996, the teens and SRO participants merged and became Scrap Mettle SOUL. Volunteers not only consist of cast members, but they are also story gatherers, a writing apprentice, a director, a production assistant, a graphic designer and a Web master.

ANTONIO ALONSO

Antonio Alonso, Dean of Student Services, has been an outstanding leader at Tulsa Community College in creating programs and services that have promulgated accessibility to higher education by members of the community who have traditionally been underserved in their immediate community. He has raised the consciousness of the entire College with respect to the need to strengthen the participation of all peoples in the educational process of our country. He truly kindles and promotes the dream of participating fully in society by taking advantage of educational opportunities.

Alonso’s commitment to serve inspires many to reach their maximum potential and to also serve in the community–especially in service to the young people of all cultures upon whose shoulders rest the future of our society. He has a passion for community outreach highly motivated by his own personal experiences.

Alonso coordinates the Community Outreach Program at TCC, reaching a level of service that is far beyond that required of his position. This program serves to increase the number of minority students attending colleges in Oklahoma and to promote volunteerism at TCC. He also creates and implements programs and services which have resulted in an increase of minority students at TCC from 12 percent of the students population in 1989 to over 28 percent of the current enrollment at the Northeast Campus.

Alonso coordinates the Day of Vision – a motivational program that has provided to hundreds of African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, and low-income whites, information on TCC and other state colleges as well. In addition, Alonso volunteers as a tutor/mentor for Monroe Middle School, a school consisting primarily of African American and Hispanic students, and as pastoral counselor to Hispanic elderly in nursing homes.

In addition, Alonso supports the Association of Black Collegians and other ethnic student organizations with personal contributions of time and financial support. He serves as a motivational speaker to African-American and Hispanic youth in the Tulsa area, and he publicly promotes volunteerism and diversity through frequent newspaper and television interviews. Alonso received a community service leadership award from the NMCP in 1997 and the 1998 National Council on Student Development award for Exemplary Programs in Student Development from the American Association of Community Colleges.

Alonso has also been recognized by being chosen to serve on the President’s Task Force on Racial Reconciliation in 1999. He was one of two Oklahomans chosen for this task force. He was also the recipient of the 2000 Martin Luther King Commemoration Society Keeping the Dream Alive Award, received the Red Cross Award for promoting diversity in fall of 2001 and was the recipient of the Tulsa Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s Service Award, 2001.

CURTIS SLIWA

Since 1978, Curtis Sliwa has been fighting crime with “The Team” safety patrol. He and his buddy, Don Chin began to clean up crime on one of New York City’s toughest subway lines, the #4 train. This was not a job for two, but a job for 13 and so the group became the “Magnificent 13.”

The Magnificent 13 went from 13 members to hundreds in a matter of months. Thus, it was time to change the name. They went into subways as a group of magnificent youth and they emerged onto the streets as the Guardian Angels Safety Patrol.

Not only did the Guardian Angels have to deal with the criminals and drug dealers but they also had their challenges with the police and government officials. The Guardian Angels, many young citizens, have taken on the major issues of crime and violence at a completely volunteer level. During the group’s beginning, a safety patrol of young people was unheard of and even ridiculed. Overwhelming public support, coupled with Sliwa, was how the Guardian Angels spread all over the nation.

Sliwa’s opinions are heard and shared by millions of his WABC radio-talk-show-listeners. As he has matured so has have the Guardian Angels and their programs – from the inner-city subways to cyberspace and after-school programs for troubled and ungrounded teens.

Sliwa created one of the first U.S. “recycling centers,” essentially by himself, when he was 14 years old. Known as the teenage “neighborhood junk collector,” he collected empty cans, glass bottles, newspapers and scrap pieces of metal, storing them in his basement after having prepared them for recycling. Once a month a tractor-trailer truck would collect his storage drums filled with these items and Sliwa used the money he collected for neighborhood projects to benefit children in the community.

Additionally, he saved a family from a burning building at the age of 15 and was named The Daily News “newspaper boy of the year” for his heroism. At 16, Sliwa was invited to the White House to meet President Nixon, as a result of his community projects.

CLIENT AS VOLUNTEER/JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF GREATER WILKES-BARRE

The Client As a Volunteer program is one in which clients of Jewish Family Service of Greater Wilkes-Barre make a commitment to themselves, the agency and those they serve in the community.

The clinical staff at Jewish Family Service recognizes that whether a client is dealing with depression, anxiety, low self-esteem or other mental health issues, they want to feel useful. By delivering meals to those who are homebound, driving someone to a doctor’s appointment, cleaning a person’s house or just making a friendly visit, positive differences result. Clients not only serve those in need, but also enhance their own self-esteem.

After agreeing on workable and attainable goals and a minimum of three visits to the clinician, the counselor presents several volunteer opportunities. The client then makes a commitment to do a service and discusses what is expected. The client goes through training for the assignment and is given the opportunity to accept or decline it. As the volunteer effort progresses, the clinician receives feedback from the client with respect to how the client’s life and views have changed. Observations are recorded about the client’s motivation towards counseling.

Confidentiality is also stressed in the process. The person for whom services are offered does not know that the volunteer is a client of Jewish Family Service. By having the client help someone else, the focus is shifted from the needs of the client to the needs of someone else.

“When families need help, Jewish Family Service is there. It gives aid and comfort because they really care,” stated a Client as Volunteer.