The value of education

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of receiving a good education.  For many, a college education forms the foundation of their future careers.  For others, it’s where they made the connections that got them their dream job.  Still for others it’s where they made the best friend they’ll ever have or where they met their significant other.  For everyone, it is a process that opens up possibilities.  If you have received a college education, take a moment to think about what your life would have been like had you dropped out of college early or never even began.  Now imagine that you never even graduated from high school.

Youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems can have an extremely difficult time finishing high school, much less moving on to college.  And it has long been understood that there is a correlation between education and crime.  This means that education can be critical in helping these youth move onward and upward.  Studies have shown that as an individual’s level of education increases, their likelihood of being incarcerated decreases.  One study demonstrated that if you increased the level of education of every person in the state of New Mexico, incarceration rates would drop by sixty percent.  At the same time, receiving a higher level education is becoming more expensive each year and school loans can be an extremely difficult burden to overcome.  None of this changes the fact that receiving a good education is just as important now as it ever has been.

City Youth Now helps youth in crisis get their lives on track and to get educated, so that they too can be exposed to the possibilities that an education can offer.  Our educational support spans a wide range of help including GED tutoring, regular tutoring in all subjects, college tours to expose youth to what is available to them beyond their secondary education, financial assistance in purchasing textbooks, assistance with college registration, and scholarships.  For youth in detention or in the foster care system, programs like ours are often the only place these kids have to turn.

Youth in the foster care system often face the additional challenge of having to switch schools each time their foster care placement changes.  Every time one of these children is forced to switch to another school, they can fall as much as six months behind the rest of their classmates.  This is a tremendous burden to overcome, especially for a child who is struggling to adapt to a new home situation.  The services we provide are essential in ensuring that they do not fall behind the rest of their classmates, leaving them at risk of dropping out and never even finishing high school, much less trying to move on to college.

If you have benefitted from an education, whether high school, trade school, college, or beyond, consider giving back so that someone else can receive the same kinds of benefits that you did.  CIty Youth Now relies heavily upon volunteers and donations.  To find out more information about volunteering as a tutor or in some other capacity, click here: http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/volunteer-today.  To make a quick and easy monetary donation in any amount, click here: http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/donate-now.  Know that your help is a critical part of our organization bridging the gap for San Francisco youth in crisis.  Your assistance will make a real difference in the lives of the children who will benefit from it.

Help Make the Holidays Happy For Another

Do you know someone who already seems to have everything they need?  Or someone who enjoys giving of their time and effort more than receiving things?  Making a donation in their name so you can help them help someone else is the perfect gift!  This holiday season, consider giving the gift of a donation to City Youth Now in the name of a friend, co-worker, or loved one and bring joy to their life and the life of the child or children that your gift will help.

City Youth Now relies on donations to support its many wonderful programs, which assist San Francisco youth in crisis in both the Juvenile Justice System and Foster Care system.  Our programs are uniquely flexible in that we are able to tailor them to the needs of individual children-regardless of what that need might be.  For one of the outstanding youth we helped last year, that need was placement and support in a foster home.

Jockuela’s mother was unable to care for Jockuela from a very young age, due to the mother’s chronic substance abuse.  Things that every child takes for granted were simply not there for Jockuela.  Thankfully, Jockuela’s great-grandmother stepped in to help out Jockuela and her younger brother.  However, Jockuela’s great-grandmother soon became ill and was unable to continue providing what Jockuela and her brother needed.  Jockuela began missing school so that she could help at home with the needs of her great-grandmother and younger brother.  Jockuela needed a foster home.

Youth who enter the foster care system often receive whatever was lacking in their lives once placed in a new home.  However, youth “age out” of the foster care system when they turn eighteen and are unable to continue receiving its benefits.  The phrase “boomerang kids” has been coined to describe the growing number of young adults who move back in with their parents or continue to rely on them for support.  Many of the youth who age out of the system do not have that luxury.  Perhaps that is why foster youth are more likely than the general public to end up in prison or to receive some form of public assistance.  Or why less than three percent of foster youth go on to graduate college.  City Youth Now provides support for those who cannot simply “boomerang” back to the safety of their parents’ homes.  A donation of $75 will help provide a youth aging out of the system with assistance preparing for their first interview, setting up their first apartment, or preparing to start college or job training.

With assistance from City Youth Now, Jockuela was placed with her cheerleading coach where she truly thrived.  In her new home, she began to excel in school and was soon researching colleges – a dream that just a few years earlier seemed impossible.  Jockuela went on to attend Johnson C. Smith University and is on track to be the first person in her family to complete college.

City Youth now thrives on helping outstanding young people like Jockuela who just need a little help or support.  You can help with a donation in any amount and feel good about giving a gift that will be worth exponentially more than you could ever imagine to the life of a child like Jockuela.  Giving a gift in the name of another not only accomplishes that same goal – it also lets the person you are giving it to know that you recognize they would rather help another than enrich herself.  Whether it comes directly from you or through someone else in whose name you give, your donation will have a direct and positive impact on the life of a child like Jockuela.

You can click here (http://www.cityyouthnow.org/success-stories) to read about other outstanding youth like Jockuela.  Click here (http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/donate-now) to make a quick and easy donation in any amount and help bring joy to the life of a San Francisco child in crisis this holiday season.