Changing the Statistics

When I left the classroom I knew I was not finished teaching young people, I just needed a different avenue to do it. While I look back on my two years in Teach for America, almost in regret for what MORE I could have done, I am hopeful that my current position offers me the opportunity to serve a new group of wandering young adults.

YouthBuild serves the students the school districts lost. I work with the most amazing group of 16-24 year olds who made a decision to get their lives on track. My young people devote themselves full time to GED course work, improving their community by rehabbing homes for low-income families, and developing themselves into tomorrow's leaders. While I have fewer "classroom management" headaches, my heart often feels heavy for the daily struggles my young people endure.

This is specifically about two young ladies who participated in YB with bellies growing, full of another life. One girl was a teen mom, she was about 10 weeks pregnant when she started with the Program. The other, who was having her second child, was previously a teen mom and was about 15 weeks when she started with the Program. Both girls had dropped out of high school, one had spent a significant time in jail, and neither really had a plan of what was supposed to "come next". While each of my young people face significant struggles, the obvious challenges of living in poverty were going to be exacerbated for these two young girls and their unborn children.

With every new student, I perform a pre-program interview. I want to know WHY they want this Program. Why is it important RIGHT now, HOW do you know you are ready. With these two young women, the answer was forcefully in front of me before they even spoke.

The statistics are stark:
- Children of teen parents are 50% more likely to repeat a grade and are less likely to graduate from high school than children of older parents

- Only 77% of children born to teen parents will receive a high school diploma compared to 89% of children born to older parents

- Children of teen mothers are more likely than those born to older mothers to experience adolescent childbearing, homelessness, juvenile delinquency, and incarceration

- Consistent contraceptive use is less likely among children of teen parents, who are more likely to be sexually active by age 14. As a result, these children are at higher risk of becoming teen parents themselves

- Though children of teen parents have more health problems than children born to older parents, they receive only half the level of care and treatment

(sources: Healthy Teen Network: www.healthyteennetwork.org The Parenting Project: www.parentingproject.org National Network for Childcare: www.nncc.org )

I am often the proud mama of my Program. I brag about my students intelligence, their ability to understand the world around them, and the heart that they put into their work. I explain that they are not just society's misfits, or the kids you see in a rap video, but young people looking for PURPOSE. I talk on end about their successes, small and large, and smile greatly when they THEY know they have accomplished their goals.

That being said, I may sound redundant when I say these girls were smart, but they were SMART - quick as a whip and different than others because they COULD have finished high school (let me qualify that by saying that my students were not always completely to blame for their departure from compulsory education). Jaime and Molly had common sense, they were problem solvers with great attitudes and a thirst for more. They were natural leaders, but not in the sense that I was. I command rooms because I am loud (my students say I sound like I am selling a car when I am teaching) and I demand respect with my no-nonsense tone. Jaime and Molly were quiet leaders, commanding their peers mostly by their attitudes, kindness, and sense that they just "got it". I admired their strength to WANT to do this Program (even when therewasnowayinHiamlettingyouupaladder CRAZY LADY) :-).

Most of my participants have a year to complete the Program, but Jaime and Molly did not have this luxury given that they had growing time bombs in them, ready to come once 37 weeks passed. We HAD to work fast, and these ladies DID. Molly and Jaime knew the chances smacking their kids in the face as soon as they were born. They KNEW that if they didn't get their GEDs their children were less likely to get their education, they KNEW if they didn't get their GEDs getting a job would be harder then ever, and they KNEW that living a life on food-stamps and K-TAPP wasn't going to be for them long term. Their drive to work and work well was inspiring to everyone around them.

BOTH Jaime and Molly earned their GEDs before their children were born. They changed the statistics for their children. They knew their children deserved a different life and it started with their education.

I worry some times that what we are doing here at YB is not enough. I struggle and worry if we are REALLY saving lives and a community. I want to know that I am living the life that was paved for me, to inspire the minds and lives of young people. When I think of Molly and Jaime, I am lucky to think that we were 100% successful in changing the statistics for their unborn children. I am lucky to know that their lives in a sense were saved. YouthBuild was a game-changer for Molly and Jaime and I got to watch it happen.