The Youth Corp Movement was founded at the Arnett branch Y.M.C.A. in Rochester New York in 1970, during my term as physical education director. The rise of juvenile delinquency and gang violence in and around the Y.M.C.A. area, forced the executive committee to take action. As physical education director, I was asked to join the youth director in addressing the problem. The issue prompted the idea of a youth movement.
Having served on youth boards and actively participated as a staff member with several of the youth agencies in the Rochester area, I wanted to do more than the routine pattern of just entertaining youth, keeping them off the streets and out of trouble until the program funds ended, a typical case scenario of practically every youth agency I've ever known. I felt that the issues and problems of youth needed to be seriously addressed from a spiritual perspective, as well as a social and delinquent point of view. To assure this approach, I established the Youth Corp Movement, as a private non-profit organization, geared toward crime prevention rather than crime treatment.
Our American youth are living in the most confusing era of our nation's history. Between poverty, broken homes, dysfunctional families, child abuse, negative peer pressure, violence, crime and drugs, our youth of today are steadily losing hope in the future. Our society sends them a very hypocritical message, "Stay in school and get your diploma so you can get a good job." Instead of supporting this message, society demonstrates how much fame and wealth there is in such business areas as entertainment, sports and other lucrative ventures that don't require a good education. The school dropout rate is alarming! Illiteracy is a continuing problem. Drugs and violence have invaded the schools. Teaching and learning have become secondary to law and order. Today's youth are at an extremely disadvantage economically. That disadvantage is being tripled by their lack of sufficient education, both academically and technologically. Their needs as humans are being misidentified and often times ignored in the confusion of our social criterion on age limits. As adults, we fail to realize what time, evolution and the television has done to the brain of the average youth. A thirteen year old today is just as mature, informed and developed physiologically and psychologically as a 21 year old was a few decades ago. Yet in still, they are being treated like wandering children and suppressed by a social system that only cares about controlling their behavior. The hopelessness and helplessness in their lives gives reflection in our nation's teen suicide rate, the highest in the world, with the state of Nevada leading the nation. Teen suicide is indeed an epidemic, an embarrassing epidemic to the wealthiest nation on earth.
More than 500,000 teenagers attempt suicide every year. Approximately 20 out of every 100,000 teens in America succeed in taking their lives. Statistics show that suicide is the third leading cause of death among those 15 to 25 years of age, and it is the 6th leading cause of death among those 5 to 14 years of age. Yes 5-year-old children are killing themselves! Suicide has surpassed homicide with over 33,000 deaths annually. Religious leaders, professionals of psychology and institutions of knowledge are baffled by this epidemic. There isn't any more room under the rug for teen suicide to be swept nor will the problem just evaporate on a very hot day. It has become a moral and intelligent responsibility to address the subject with effective measures by Americans of power and influence.
The suicide crisis has prompt the Youth Corp Movement to take serious emergency measures in helping young Americans realize the alternatives to taking their lives. The future belongs to them, right now! All they need is knowledge and guidance on how to take charge of it today. Youth are this nation's true investment into its future.
Two of the most effective factors in properly addressing the youth problems are, Discipline and Education. With education, health and self-discipline as the cornerstones of our Youth Corp Movement, we anticipate raising the levels of intelligence, productivity and consciousness of our young members.
The results are expected to bestow upon them, greater economic security, a higher standard of living, rewarding vocations and a future worth living for.
Being the greatest nation on earth, that greatness should definitely bear witness on our youths. The Youth Corp Movement will definitely take that challenge.