(This article is part of a series that focuses on the major risk factors found in Americas Promise

Alliance report, Dont Call Them Dropouts. The report details the underlying issues that causes our
youth drop out of school and go down the wrong path. To learn more about this report, please visit
http://gradnation.org/report/dont-call-them-dropouts.)
Disengagement and re-engagement both result from clusters of factors.
Often times, it seems, youth are subjected to several negative labels. Dumb, Stupid, Idiots, Thugs,
Hoodlums, and the list goes on. However, it is very rare that anyone ever dares to ask: Why do our
young people act this way and what can I do to help? The majority of our youth arent born with
maladjusted behaviors and emotional difficulties. These behaviors are learned from none other
than the adults and communities surrounding our youth. Based on Americas Promise Alliance
report, Dont Call Them Dropouts, youth that encounter physical abuse are twice as likely to
dropout oppose to youth that doesnt. Also, based on the same report, youth that have a
parent incarcerated or a parent on drugs are both three times more likely to dropout oppose to
youth that doesnt have to deal with these risk factors. In this article, we will discuss how
disengagement and re-engagement for youth both result from clusters of factors.
School principals and teachers can be trained to be more sensitive to new incoming youth. Educators
can look at obvious signs that youth may be hungry, in need of clothes, a bath, or any other external
factor that will cause youth to not be successful in school. Educators should also look for signs of
bullying of these youth and any gang activities. These are some of the main reasons why young people
will not attend school. Our foster parents need to have included in their foster care training all the
issues surrounding our foster care youth. Special considerations should be given to their individual
circumstances. (Loss of a parent, changing homes, changing schools, estrangement from their siblings or
extended family, etc.) It is vitally important that foster parents remember special events (birthdays, 1
st

day of school, sporting events, school plays) and make them as special as possible. This will boost the
childs self esteem and create life-long memories. Youth should be encouraged to attend school and to
discuss issues preventing them from doing so. Youth should be motivated to strive for higher education
to assure them a great career.
Opening Gates Residential Facility is like a family. Our youth are engaged in tutoring to meet their
needs. Our staff is always open to attend school conferences and discuss issues with the school on
behalf of our youth. Opening Gates Residential Facility realizes that a physical fit body and good
nutrition add to a youths educational achievement. We strive to provide these things as a matter of
routine. Our youth are encouraged to discuss with staff any issues affecting their abilities to attend
school and do their best. Opening Gates is involved with CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates),
which provides additional mentorship to our youth. CASA supports those youth that are involved in the
Courts system and makes sure that no youth slips through the cracks while having an opportunity for
permanency in their life.

Words from Opening Gates CEO, Shawon L. Respress
As a youth during my school age years in the Detroit area, I have witnessed many male and female
youth that were labeled as dumb, stupid, idiots because of deficiencies in reading, social skills,
inappropriate manners and improper emotional developmental levels. Many of our urban youth have
been brained washed to believe that they arent worthy of the reputation of being smart, talented,
and mature for their age. Its become easier for urban youth to become associated with a negative
identity from what is pre -determined from the superiors in charge and they believe this is the expected
behavior. Therefore they become conditioned to do and believe.
How many ever looked at the reasons behind why undisciplined youth becomes disciplined? At Opening
Gates, we have found that youth in a group that includes individualized plans of teaching and various
motor skills in combination, alternative models with subject centered academia is effective. This
information is critical to individualized learning and teamwork. Team learning typically converts into real
vocational and community oriented inclusionary activities. Youth find it easier to excel in disciplined and
structured settings. Within these settings you find conformity at its best. In these groups there are
identifiable goals and several components in the learning and coaching framework in which youth learn
to believe they can achieve. When these goals are achieved and the best outcomes are reached, the
success is apparent.
Example, WE WON this is usually where the success is given birth and extends into individual
achievement focus and away from I dont give a ----- , as well as growth and the reversing of the
thought process in their expected results from the efforts in social and community interaction. The
thugs and hoodlums are culture of their own which are also learned and encouraged primarily by the
collected failures in the normal or the changes in the morality of the community, entertainment industry
and the media. Think about this if all you hear is negative information by ones associated community
and social groups , you are not hearing or witnessing healthy stories or positive associated information
by way of connectedness to your culture, neighborhood , school, family members etc. You are what you
have learned to do and believe what has come to be said.