Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy

Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy

San Bernardino County, California, is currently ranked as the 3rd highest county with gang activity nationwide, with 40,558 gang members. Wow! Those are huge numbers. It appears that many of these gang members are at-risk youth headed toward potential crime and eventual incarceration, putting yet more burden on the already over-taxed California prison system.

In 2001, a non-profit organization called Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy was developed to help enrich the lives of at-risk youth through life-building activities and instruction in education, employment, health, mentoring, and community service. The Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy provides training in academic development, violence prevention, employment development, leadership and life skills development, teen pregnancy prevention, and more to help at-risk youth live more enhanced lives without serving time in a correctional facility.

“We provide effective services for at-risk youth emphasizing and encouraging the 3 Es: Education, Empowerment and Engagement.”

Recently, the Academy developed green job training as part of its employment development program. This program offers training and employment in “green-collar” work, addressing the philosophy of sustainability domestically and worldwide. The program hopes to instill respect for the earth, responsibility, commitment, and social contribution in its students. In May of 2012, the Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy will host a green job fair hosted by the California State University in San Bernardino.

Other programs that the Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy is involved with include an annual Toy Drive for the holidays, mentoring with the San Bernadino Police Officers Association, the Forward Focus Leadership Program, after-school tutoring, college counseling, community outreach, and the youth employment development program — giving youth the experience of real-life business skills and on the job training. They also work in conjunction with shelters for homeless youth and runaways.

What is so inspiring about the Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy is its commitment to educating and empowering at-risk youth with nowhere else to turn to. It would be great to see more preventive programs such as this to keep our youth from being incarcerated.

“We appreciate working in partnership with Young Visionaries to continue to change lives for the better.” Michelle Scray, Chief Probation Officer, San Bernadino County Probation Department.

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