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“Reaching the Unreachable”
Justino Alarcon IIISeeking to Empower Endangered Kids (SEEK)Email: [email protected]
Overview
Risk Factors
Reflections on my Journey
Strategies on how to Build Bridges to Reach High-risk Youth
Why Do Our Kids Gravitate Towards Delinquency?
Contributing/ Risk Factors
Five Domains of Risk Factors:
Family
Community
School
Peers
Self
Source: Catalano and Hawkins
FamilyNo discipline or structure
Poverty
Dysfunction (drugs, alcohol, violence, etc.)
Inexperienced parents
Present but absent parents
Single-parent household
No male role model
“...when you don’t have a father in your life; you feel like no one is guiding you through your life growing up.”
10th Grade Student
CommunityThe likelihood that a young male will engage in
criminal activity, doubles if he is raised without a father and triples if he lives in a neighborhood with
a high concentration of single-parent families.
Lack of resources
Low socio-economic status
Gangs/ violence
Instability/ Mobile populations
School
Lack of connection to school/teachers
Lack of engaging programs
Lack of resources
Location
Peers
Association with peers who model problem behavior
Peer pressure
Gang/drug involved
Poor coping skills
Poor communication skills
Self
Lack of life-skills
Uncertain of their identity (where they belong, etc.)
Low self-esteem
Poor impulse control
Emotionally illiterate
The Numbers Say it All...
63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (US Dept. of Health and Human Services)
85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes (US Center for Disease Control)
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
Conduct Disorder (CD)
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes (Source: National Principal’s Association Report on the State of High Schools)
70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions come from fatherless homes
Only 13% of juvenile delinquents come from families in which the biological mother and father are married to each other
Reflections of My Journey...
What Happened???1-3 yrs. old: Both parents in the home
3-11 yrs. old: Parents divorce, father incarcerated, poverty, exposure to violence, drugs, broken relationships, etc.
12 yrs. old: Jumped into gang
13 yrs. old: Alcohol/drug abuse began, promiscuity, truancy, incarceration
14-15 yrs. old: Gang activity increases, incarceration, ward of the state
16 yrs old: Life sentence in adult prison...
17-21 yrs old: Prison crash course 101...
How did I
get here?
No male role model
No discipline in home/ lack of structure in home
No community support
Poverty
Poor impulse control
Dysfunctional family
Core values not enforced (empathy, sympathy, compassion, and remorse)
Crossroads...
Building Bridges...
Strategies
Understand your students
There’s always more to their story
Educate in creative and interactive ways
Introduce foreign concepts such as empathy, sympathy, compassion, remorse...
Core Values- Empathy
Empathy
Identification with an understanding of another’s feelings, situations, and motivesPutting yourself in someone else’s shoes
Apathy (opposite of empathy)
Lack of emotion or feelingLack of interest or regardColdness, insensitivity, detachment, and unconcern
Core Values- Sympathy
Sympathy
Pity or sorrow for the distress of anotherThe ability to understand and to support the emotional situation or experience of another being with compassion and sensitivity
Disdain (opposite of sympathy)
Indifference or hateArrogancePrideRidicule
Core Values- Compassion
Compassion
Concern for the suffering of another, together with the inclination to give aid or support or show mercy
Cruelty (opposite of compassion)
ColdnessHeartlessMaliceViciousness Wickedness
Core Values- Remorse
RemorseAn emotional expression of personal regret felt by a person after he or she has committed an act which they deem to be shameful, hurtful, or violent.
Callous (opposite of remorse)Showing or having an insensitive and cruel disregard for othersInsensitiveUnfeelingHeartless
Strategies Continued...
Introduce Impulse Control
Role plays
Discuss choices and consequences
Identity (adolescence)
Erik Erickson’s Developmental Stages
“I Am” Poems
Instant/ Delayed Gratification
Be a Role Model/Mentor
Contact Information
Justino Alarcon
Email: [email protected]
Cell: 619.370.0021
