W. GUY FOUNDATION

W. Guy Foundation

W. Guy Foundation

Introduction

The W. Guy foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote health youth development, and resiliency for Bronx residents ages 10-17 years old program/project proposal. The values and strategies of W. Guy foundation are purely based on the philosophy of its mission.

The foundation has sent a RFP to local agencies and organizations to fund start up programs/projects for three years at $200,000 for each year that address:

Promote well-being and positive youth development and/or resiliency in the face of adversity and trauma.

Project Description

This proposal presents an overview of youth development strategies for Bronx residents and it shows that how W. Guy foundation is taking preventive measures and the effectiveness of existing intervention strategies. This project highlights that overlapping risk and protective features or aspects affect the occurrence of all of these issues and that anticipation strategies aimed at enhancing Bronx residents' development, reducing Bronx's specific risks, and strengthening protective factors are likely to be more successful than programs addressing the problem behaviors themselves.

Problem Statement

As the 21st century approaches, communities like Bronx across the United States remain concerned, frustrated, occasionally fearful, and sometimes outraged by the behavior of some adolescents. Issues of teenage pregnancy, school dropout, substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, and violence persist despite various attempts to deal with them. (Wynn, Costello, Halpern & Richman 1994) Being an administrator of W. Guy foundation, I personally believe that attacking problems of youths in isolation is ineffective because it ignores the considerable overlap among the causes and occurrences of youth problem behaviors. Therefore, W. Guy foundation is going to start a new development program for Bronx residents' ages 10-17 years old.

Overview

The research conducted by the W. Guy foundation over the past few months has clearly identified risk factors for these behaviors, many of which are implicated for health behaviors. Similarly, there are overlapping "protective factors" that can counter the risk factors. These risk and protective factors exist at several levels individual, family, peer group, school, and community (Hawkins, Catalano, & Associates, 1992). Therefore, a prevention strategy that assesses a community's specific risks and assets at multiple levels is more likely to reduce problem behaviors than programs addressing the problem behaviors themselves.

This proposal on the behalf of my organization named W. Guy foundation presents a national profile of youth problems and descriptive information that focuses on the causes of each of the problem areas and highlights what is known about preventive measures and the effectiveness of existing intervention strategies. Conclusions from this review encourage a paradigm shift in perspective away from a focus on correcting "deficits" in individual youths toward enhancing the potential for healthy youth development in all youths in the community.

Enactment of a youth development vision requires a communitywide collaborative effort among public officials (Jacquelynne, Eccles, Gootman. 2002), current service providers, primary institutions (such as churches, recreational facilities, libraries, and schools), and citizens (including youths themselves). In the past few years, several "comprehensive community initiatives" have begun across the ...