"At risk of future failure" is a common phrase used to describe students who face difficulties known to interfere with their educational success. It doesn't mean that the student WILL fail, only that the student may face challenges that other students do not. Under the new, federal "No Child Left Behind" legislation, schools across the country are being told that they have to do a better job of helping "at risk" children succeed.
 
A child can be "at risk" for any of a number of reasons including:  homelessness, migrant status, lead poisoning, racism, disabilities, giftedness, substance abuse, poverty, divorce, teenage parents, limited English proficiency (LEP), abuse and neglect, etc.
 
In other words, schools are being told that students come to them with many challenges and it is up to the schools to work together with parents and communities to try to help their students overcome those challenges and achieve educational success.
 
On this page you will find articles related to the educational success of "at risk" children.

back to the top

Humble and Hopeful: Welcoming First-Generation Poor and Working-class Students to College - Students who are the first in their family to enter higher education join a rarified and often mystifying culture of rules, rites, and rituals. A first-generation working-class college student who became a faculty member offers his insights and recommendations after forty years in the academy.
 

The WhyTry Program - The goal of the WhyTry Program is to help youth answer the question, "Why try in life?" (when they are frustrated, confused, or angry with life's pressures and challenges.) The WhyTry Program teaches youth that "yes", it is worth trying hard in life. It offers real solutions and presents these solutions in a way that the youth can both understand and remember. WhyTry emphasizes a character education program that consists of ten visual analogies (pictures) that relate to specific problems and special challenges that at risk youth face in their every day lives. Each picture includes various solutions and questions, to help the youth gain insight in dealing with their own challenges.

Arise - A not-for-profit foundation providing materials for at-risk populations, evidence based, award winning life skills educational programs for pre-k-Teens, and staff training.

Schools for Troubled Teens - Troubled Teens provides advice and resource to parents searching for help dealing with defiant and/or troubled teens. Topics include substance abuse, mental health issues, certain disabilities, teen boot camps, wilderness camps, and more.

MidCourse Correction Challenge Camp
www.midcoursecorrection.org
Testimonial: "My wife and I are intensive treatment foster adoptive parents that have parented 21 at risk teens, mostly teen boys. Even with all our extra training we have come across some that need more than just the love and safety of a stable home. The MidCourse Correction Challenge camp was recommended to us by one of our boys counselors. That was two years ago. Today he is doing very well in school, no longer using marijuana, involved in school sports and a totally different boy. The MidCourse challenge staff genuinely care about the teens placed in their care. They have several follow up programs that are either free or inexpensive to mentor and continue the work they begin. My wife and I do not know where we would be today without having found this organization. It would be our pleasure to talk with other struggling parents and share our experience. We can be reached by email through the organization website." Jeff and Nancy Marchione

back to the top

Beating Prompts Burton Teen to Leave 'Wrong Crowd' Behind - Aaron Brank can remember only parts of the evening last January. First, there was the drinking at a friend's house. Then there was the beating.

Wayne County's Delinquency Wraparound Services: A Guide for Parents - Assistance for families with children that are wards of the state and emotionally challenged, exhibiting delinquent behavior or those in danger of out-of-home placement.

STUDENTS TEACHING STUDENTS: The Many Names of Abuse - Personal stories used to try to slow rise in violent relationships.
 

MI State Puts Kids at Risk, Oakland Says - County officials: Department of Human Services investigators have left children in abusive homes.

Teens’ Risk-taking All in Their Heads? - NIH study: Part of brain that inhibits risky behavior isn’t fully formed until age 25.

MI Mental Illness Stresses Juvenile Justice System - He was a whiz at origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into various shapes and objects. Leave him alone in a room with a ream of thin copier bond and he would emerge with the most sturdy three-dimensional container, a child-welfare advocate marveled. "It could hold water," said Brian Philson, director of the Jackson County Youth Center. Despite the boy's uncanny knack to craft something out of nothing, the 13-year-old was hard pressed to build a place to sort out his apparent inner demons.

MI A GED, Your Ticket To Freedom - Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed into law a bill today that would allow a judge to require someone to get their high school diploma or their general education development (GED) certificate before they are allowed to get off probation.

MI Adrian Training School to Become Female Facility - The Adrian Training School, which for decades has housed delinquent youth, will be converted into a juvenile justice facility for girls. Family Independence Agency Director Marianne Udow said the conversion will best meet the needs of single-gender juvenile justice programming for girls in the system.

back to the top

 Homeless Children and Youth: Resources & Articles

Project Jason's Come Home Program: Seeking the Missing Among the Homeless - Come Home is a new and unique national missing person's locator program sponsored by Project Jason. Come Home posters are placed at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and other locations where homeless persons gather. Project Jason has a growing database of these shelters and related organizations. Twice per month, a new poster is produced and this information relayed via email to Come Home participants nationwide.

 
MI Oakland Aims to End Homelessness - County task force undertakes effort to eradicate the problem over the next 10 years in the affluent area. David Permaloff has a name for the young people he counsels on the streets of Oakland County: the forgotten homeless. Some have fled homes filled with tension and pain. Others have been abandoned by their parents. Permaloff recalls a case where a teen went on a weekend camping trip and came home to find his parents and all their belongings gone.

Downloadable Booklet: Legal Tools to End Youth Homelessness (PDF; size=308k) - The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) has just finished a new booklet on "Legal Tools to End Youth Homelessness." The booklet discusses access to shelter/housing, public benefits, job training, public school, college and emancipation for unaccompanied youth. It also talks about mandatory reporting of runaway youth. The booklet is in a Q&A format designed to be accessible to non-lawyers. The booklet can be freely copied and shared. Comments and feedback can be shared with Patricia Julianelle, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, 1411 K Street, N.W., Ste. 1400, Washington, DC 20005. Phone (202) 638-2535 or 1-800-741-8034.
 

back to the top

ED Mulls Migrant Student Database - For children in migrant families, school is more like a way station than a final destination, which poses significant challenges for the teachers who are charged with their education. Now, a proposal from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) would track those students as they travel along traditional migrant routes, ensuring that school records follow them wherever they might go. [Free login/registration required to view this article.'

back to the top

MI Programs for Youth Sponsored by the Michigan National Guard - Michigan's youth are its future. To this end, the Michigan National Guard is involved in a wide variety of youth-oriented programs. In addition to the officially sponsored programs, Michigan National Guard members participate in countless community-based programs as mentors and volunteers.

APSAC (American Professional Society on Abuse of Children) is dedicated to a multidisciplinary approach to professional services to maltreated children and the adults who share and influence their lives. APSAC members come from law enforcement, medicine, social services, mental health, psychology, law, social work, social and behavioral sciences, education and allied professions.  Membership in APSAC costs $75-145 per year and includes an automatic membership in the state chapter, (MiPSAC in Michigan) and subscriptions to the official journal, Child Maltreatment; the quarterly practice newsletter, the APSAC Advisor; and for Michigan residents a subscription to the MiPSAC Newsletter, a practice journal addressing issues in Michigan.  A membership application is available online at www.APSAC.org.

Eva’s Place provides a safe, supportive environment for victims of domestic and sexual assault.  Every person has the right to live a non-violent life, free of fear (located in Sanilac County, Michigan).

back to the top

back to the top

MI Students Could Not Be Kicked Out For Being Truant Under New Legislation - Children couldn't be kicked out of school for being chronically absent from school under legislation that received its first hearing in a Senate committee this afternoon.

We would love to expand this section. Please send recommendations for articles and resources to deb@bridges4kids.org.

back to the top

Michigan Camp is a Haven for Gay Teens - At this Michigan camp, in between the water games, craft projects and hikes through the woods, 14 teens are talking about ways to tell their friends and family that they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. They're learning how to be advocates for gay rights and getting guidance on being comfortable and confident with their sexuality. At this camp there is no harassment. It is a safe haven, a place where these teens are free to be themselves.

Advocates Say Educators Too Reluctant to Tackle Bullying of Gays, Lesbians - Last month, 5,500 educators from 36 states signed up as participants in the second annual No Name Calling Week, an anti-bullying program addressing verbal harassment of students, including gay and lesbian students, in middle and high schools.

CA Anti-Gay Harassment in Schools Shows the Problem is Widespread, Dangerous & Preventable - Despite an anti-harassment law that took effect four years ago, more than 200,000 of California's middle and high school students are targets of harassment based on actual or perceived sexual orientation, according to a new study by the California Safe Schools Coalition. The Safe Place to Learn study found that such widespread bullying has dangerous academic, health and safety consequences for students. [Source: PEN]

U.S. They're 'Out' at School, and Tension is in - Philadelphia high schools are struggling with a new problem in student behavior: rising tensions between heterosexual and openly lesbian girls. Nationwide, lesbians increasingly are declaring their sexual orientation and publicly displaying their affection for each other at younger ages, and Philadelphia appears in step with that trend.

back to the top

Gryphon Place: This website lists warning signs, myths and facts, statistics, research, and prevention.

Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program - A comprehensive community-based Suicide Prevention Program. Call 1-800-615-1245 24 hours a day/7 days a week for Community Mental Health or 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433). For teen advice visit http://www.teenadviceonline.org/. For teen help visit http://www.teenhelp.org/.

back to the top

back to the top

MI Lawyers Exit From Kids' Cases - More than 1,000 abused and neglected children in Wayne County Family Court cases are getting new lawyers to represent their interests in child protective proceedings.

Child Abuse Hotlines

Child Abuse Hotline/Dept of Social Services 1-800-342-3720

National Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-792-52000

Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline/Voices for Children 1-800-422-4453

Provides multilingual crisis intervention and professional counseling on child abuse. Gives referrals to local social service groups offering counseling on child abuse. Has literature on child abuse in English and Spanish.  Operates 24 hours.

Boys Town National Hotline 1-800-448-3000
For children and parents in any type of personal crisis. Trained counselors will provide help in abusive relationships, parent-child conflicts, pregnancy, runaway youth, suicide, physical and sexual abuse. Operates 24 hours.

back to the top

back to the top