“Living in the problem is a better way to find the solution….”
Tens of thousands of youth travel internationally for opportunities in community service, tourism, wilderness, language study, home-stays, academic enrichment and cultural exchange adventures. Many of these programs will take students into rural or remote areas of the developing world, based on the best practice that by traveling further from their cultural and environmental context youth can achieve increased outcomes in terms of self-transformation. Exposure to new ideas and ways of living as well as seeing the world is not only useful in equipping youth with the skills to overcome challenges in their own lives, but is also essential to their successful integration into our globalized world.
The vast majority of students who go on these programs are of middle or upper class backgrounds, and are not representative of the ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the USA. Some programs exist to identify individual young people from underserved backgrounds and place them in existing programs, but very few programs specifically work to take groups of these youth on a program abroad together. Furthermore, no program does so while considering long-term outcomes in the form of social entrepreneurship and employment, making Global Potential a unique offering.
Removing at-risk youth from the context of their difficult environments has been proven to be an excellent method in giving them the skills to deal with their challenges. Privileged youth who have had these opportunities in the developing world attain outstanding outcomes in terms of cultivating life skills, problem solving, leadership, and decision making abilities. Some positive outcomes from these types of programs are increased participation in community service, further development of their leadership skills, deeper understanding of the host country and it’s culture, maintained contact with people from host country, and greater understanding of international issues. There is no reason why at-risk youth should not also have these opportunities. In fact, it may be them who need them most.
Furthermore, it is known that
-76% of students from high-income families obtained a Bachelor’s degree by age of 24, compared with only 10% of students from low-income families (2007 data, see RootCause.org)
-The mean annual earnings of a bachelor’s degree holder are $27,400 higher than those of a high school graduate(see http://www.socialimpactresearch.org/research).
-High-performing initiatives like Global Potential use a holistic approach in order to provide at-risk students with foundational knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal resources for academic success (see http://www.socialimpactresearch.org/research).
Our Theory of Change: provide high quality holistic services for youth from low-income and at-risk backgrounds to fully attain their real potential through social entrepreneurship, international cultural exchange, leadership, social venture initiatives and much much more!
