By: Dr. Scott Larson
Straight Ahead Ministries, http://www.straightahead.org/
RYI Board Member
If there was a particular stretch of highway where accidents routinely occurred, at some point officials would close it down and address the core issue that was to blame – whether that be straightening a dangerous bend, clearing an obstructed view, or repairing a defective section of the road. Reasonable people would scorn a proposal of parking an ambulance nearby as a viable solution to deal with perpetual accidents.
In the United States we have only 6% of the world’s population, yet we house 23% of the world’s inmates. Simply building more prisons or passing tougher legislation is as shortsighted to public safety as parking an ambulance near a troubled spot in the road.
The fact is, many of our contemporary societal ills are more systemic than individual. When we continue to experience the same failures over and over again, it’s time to look beyond simply blaming the individual offenders, and see what system is in place that continues to perpetuate such failure. For example, overt and covert racism exists pervasively in North America at the individual level. But to fight racism only at the individual level, without addressing systemic racism, never resolves the problem.
At Reclaiming Youth International, we work to address the individual abuse and neglect of children through providing trainings and publications in positive youth development models. But now, after many years of practitioners developing best practice models, the positive youth development model has morphed into a powerful movement. And now it is time to address the systemic dangerous bends in the road of education, juvenile justice and mental health if we are going to create a safe , nurturing, and effective environment for all children and youth.
Societal transformation never originates from the top down, however, but always from the bottom up. It begins with innovative models that empower and strengthen individual youth. From there, classrooms, and departments and eventually entire organizations can be transformed through training and policies that build upon the strengths of youth rather than falling back into the same punitive or deficit-based mental health models.
When enough organizations experience and document transformative models, what Malcolm Gladwell has termed The Tipping Point, occurs. Now, the greater governmental systems that regulate, mandate, and fund individual programs can begin to be challenged and reformed.
This, I believe, is where we are at as a Reclaiming Community. It is the reason we must continue to come together to share best practice models; to serve on local, regional and national committees and councils where our voices can be heard; to conduct and publish research; and ultimately to give voice to youth who have the most to say about what works and what doesn’t.
