A growing body of research shows that students who are suspended or expelled are more likely to have academic problems, drop out of school, and enter the juvenile justice system. In 2011-12, nearly 3.5 million K-12 public school students were suspended from school at least once in the U.S., resulting in a significant loss of classroom instruction time. Suspensions and expulsions disproportionately
affect students of color (particularly African American boys).....*
There is evidence to support that those who have a mentor are more likely to progress through school and attend college. Raising Youth Resilience is a leadership and mentoring youth development organization. We desire to work with at-risk youth in areas of: high suspension rate, truancy and poor academic performance. Our mission is, “strategically enhancing the capabilities of youth by providing them with the empowerment and exposure needed to navigate through the risk” Children process a great deal of resilience. As they navigate and mature, adding the component of leadership and mentoring will help to ensure the positive direction of trajectory. Our vision is “starting a new generation of youth movement through leadership and mentoring services.” Through investing time, attention and services to this area of need in return we can positively change the direction and start to improve our schools, community and city. The way Raising Youth Resilience will work is, we will create systemic approach to leadership and mentoring to further assist in the development of youth. Our idea of thought is creating sustainable cycles of peer lead cohorts, lead by their peers who are engaged with their groups through school. Geographically, we aspire to target the following areas: year 1 Stockton, CA; year 3 Hayward, CA and year 5 Richmond, CA working in West Contra Costa, Hayward and Stockton Unified School District as our pilot sites of operation. The areas listed above have some of the highest rates of poverty, violence and poor academic performance.
