Genesis and Light Center, Inc. | Beginning to Enlighten Our Communities

YOUTH PROGRAMS

(ABC) A Better Consequence PROGRAM

Genesis and Light Center seeks to partner with parents and public school districts with our newly developed “ABC” Program (A Better Consequence). Rather than suspending or expelling students from school for minor offenses and sending them home, students will be placed in the “ABC” Program. Parents will drop their child off at our center before work. While here, students will participate in an organized educational program and reflect on their behaviors prior to entering our program. We seek to avoid conditioning students to believe that they belong in alternative schools, juvenile detention facilities, or jail. Children will not value education if they assume they are destined to fail. Negative behaviors without owning up to what you’ve done or not understanding the severity of your actions and their consequences will no longer be tolerated. Individuals have to be held accountable and go through self modification and only then will we see true progress. This program may sound harsh, but through years of seeing this strategy in use, we can stand behind its good works.

The ABC program goals include:

1) Building the self-esteem of at-risk youth through the use of mentors who will promote academic achievement and substance-free lifestyles.

2) Providing the opportunities for academic enrichment, including tutorial services to help students who attend low-performing schools, to meet state and local student achievement standards. While also offering content standards in core academic subjects, such as reading, language arts, and mathematics.

3) Offering students a broad array of additional services, programs, and activities that are designed to reinforce and complement the regular academic program of participating schools including youth development activities; drug and alcohol prevention courses; counseling; art, drama, music, and recreation programs; technology education and character development.

4) Offering families of students literacy opportunities and related educational development.

5) Assisting in the healing, recovery, and promotion of the social and emotional well-being of the child and family who are exposed to the streamlining of aforementioned factors.

6) Building skills and capacities that will contribute to a healthy, positive, and productive adulthood.

7) Encouraging teachers, parents, students, families, and other community leaders to offer suggestions to the program and also invest in the educational betterment of youth within the community through volunteering or recommending a child for enrollment.