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YMCA
OF Honolulu
Youth
Service Center's
Leeward
YMCA
Kalihi YMCA
Kaimuki YMCA
OFFICE OF YOUTH SERVICES - Funding Source
OYS
- Youth Service Center is a community outreach
program. The program targets youth who tend to be
over represented in Hawaii's juvenile justice
system. The objectives of this program are to assist
youth who may be experiencing the consequences of
school failure or truancy, family, legal, or delinquency
problems by providing: |
- Safe,
adult supervised, drop-in, recreation, education,
skill building, counseling and community service
for youth to gain new experiences and reduce
at-risk behaviors.
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- Information
and education to assist the youth in improving
social, vocational, coping and decision-making
skills.
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- Support
services to family members and significant others
to enhance family relationships.
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Services
are available
to youth between the ages of 10 and 18 years,
who live or go to school in the areas of
Waipahu/Ewa, Aiea/Aliamanu and Kalihi/Palama
(West of Pensacola Street to Middle Street).
The
youth served through this program are referred
by community members, school personnel, their
peers and by themselves. These individuals
may be isolated from their parents, teachers,
and other adults they view as authority figures. Often,
these teens may be reluctant to accept services
from programs designed to help them.
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To
address these issues, the YMCA provides two different
services: 1) Community
Outreach; and 2) Support & Counseling |
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Community
Outreach |
 A
youth involved in this component of the program is one who
needs help in developing a positive structure in his or her
life that will support efforts to stay out of trouble. The
focus of service would be the development of rapport and
trust between a counselor and youth. Youth and counselors
work on developing positive relationships with parents, authority
figures and peers.
Services to youth include individual and group sessions. Individual
sessions help youth to stay focused on the goals they set
for themselves. The curriculum used for the group sessions
is the Kalihi YMCA Life Skills Program. The Life Skills
Curriculum includes information, activities and discussion
in the following topics: Communication, Problem-Solving,
Decision-Making, Alcohol and Other Drug Education, Self-Image
and Improvement, Stress Reduction and Coping Skills.
A vocational and employment curriculum is used to
introduce and assist youth with job search, resumes, applications,
interviews and on-the-job skills. Counselors help youth
with the application process for financial aid and college.Youth
are also connected with other service providers for
military careers or vocational programs.
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Support & Counseling
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A youth who is appropriate for this program would be
one who is already experiencing some life problems. This
could include family, school, legal, substance abuse
or interpersonal problems.
The YMCA Outreach Services program, through the Support & Counseling
component, will create opportunities for youth to achieve
individual goals, improve school performance, eliminate
at-risk behaviors, make responsible decisions, and become
contributing members of society.
The YMCA O.S. counselor and youth would work together
to identify goals and create an individualized service
plan. The desired outcomes for teens in the Support & Counseling
program are: 1) increased ability to make responsible
decisions, 2) increased involvement in community projects,
3) less illegal behaviors, and 4) improved school attendance
and performance.
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Mentoring
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Through
regular contact between counselor and teen, a sense
of trust develops. This trust is what allows
a mentoring process to take place. Each counselor
develops a one-to-one relationship with a youth participant
in a way that provides real support to the young
person. The mentoring process means that the
youth comes to value the guidance of the counselor. When
the counselor's guidance is valued, the youth becomes
more willing to act on suggestions or ideas offered
by the counselor.
This
means the youth will be more open to dealing with
school conflicts, family disagreements, vocational
opportunities, and many other activities identified
by the youth and counselor. Through this mentoring
relationship, the youth becomes more willing to identify
those activities that may help structure her life
in a positive way. Some of the activities that
teens can choose as part of our program are the YMCA
youth in government program, the annual Pacific Region
Conference in San Francisco and a number of opportunities
to grow as a youth leader.
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Group
Activities
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When appropriate, youth
are encouraged to participate in educational or recreational
skill building activities. YMCA O.S. structures
these activities to ensure that there is a small youth
to adult ratio. In this way, the youth has an
opportunity to receive feedback from the other youths
and adults present. This process supports a youth
to practice the skills that are being taught. This
ensures that key concepts and learning are reenforced
for all youth. Some of the specific activities
in this area may be education around tobacco use, teen
pregnancy, the dangers of drug use and many other teen
related health topics. This is also an area where
community resource people come in to talk with the
youth about the natural environment and what can be
done to improve it. Out of these sessions, youth
volunteer for a variety of community service projects. Some
of these projects include feeding the homeless, providing
activities for hospitalized children and other activities
like graffiti paint outs. While the YMCA O.S.
Youth Service Center program initiates and directly
provides many activities through the program's own
resources, supplemental services and activities will
be provided through other resources in the community.
Some of these resources are outlined in the Collaborationbspp
Section of this proposal.
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Positive Alternative Activities
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When appropriate, youth
are encouraged to participate in educational or recreational
skill building activities. YMCA O.S. structures
these activities to ensure that there is a small
youth to adult ratio. In this way, the youth
has an opportunity to receive feedback from the other
youths and adults present. This process supports
a youth to practice the skills that are being taught. This
ensures that key concepts and learning are reenforced
for all youth. Some of the specific activities
in this area may be education around tobacco use,
teen pregnancy, the dangers of drug use and many
other teen related health topics. This is also
an area where community resource people come in to
talk with the youth about the natural environment
and what can be done to improve it. Out of
these sessions, youth volunteer for a variety of
community service projects. Some of these projects
include feeding the homeless, providing activities
for hospitalized children and other activities like
graffiti paint outs. While the YMCA O.S. Youth
Service Center program initiates and directly provides
many activities through the program's own resources,
supplemental services and activities will be provided
through other resources in the community. Some
of these resources are outlined in the Collaboration
Section of this proposal.
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