O.C. YOUTH COMMISSION 5 -2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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made by these at-risk youths, thus offer a future and a hope for those who live in an environment that offers them little future or hope. Presently, the boxing club has been an incentive to the youth to maintain 2.0 GPA in order to become a member of the boxing team. We do not turn any young person away. They are welcome to utilize our boxing facility and we encourage them to do so. However, once they begin to attend they quickly realize they must meet the 2.0 GPA criterion to become a member ofthe boxing team. This has proven successful, thus we plan to capitalize on the galvanizing properties of boxing team membership by increasing the required GPA to 3.0. We will offer one hour tutoring prior to boxing actiyity to accomplish this outcome. The after-school boxing club program is designed to provide character traits, in the process or training youth in the sport of boxing, necessary to meet academic and career success. The boxing team membership serves as an incentive to Santa Ana inner city "at- risk" youth to accomplish higher academic and behavioral standards. Our after school boxing club is unique in that it serves as an incentive, for Santa Ana inner city "at-risk" youth, to meet these higher standards and it serves a tool to instruct these youth in necessary character development that will ensure academic and career success. This program will increase commitment to academic achievement, thus youth will maintain or raise GP A to 3.0 and increase literacy and numeracy scores. Most of our present boxing team members have raised their GPA from as low as 1.0 to 3.5 and higher. We have not only seen increase GP A level; we haye also seen discontinued gang activity and positive behavioral changes. Uniquely, we incorporate character development curriculum in all our tutoring and mentoring programs. Here the program focuses on seven character traits: l) respect; 2) responsibility; 3) integrity; 4) compassion; 5) perseyerance; 6) initiative and 7) forgiveness. All of these character traits are necessary traits to prove successful in academic and career pursuits and accomplishments. We utilize the sport of boxing to instill these character qualities within the boxing club members. In turn, these character qualities ensure that our youth will become ethical and responsible employees after they graduate from high school, trade school and/or college. The youth attend the boxing club 5 evenings a week between 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Upon receiving the WIA grant we will have them meet at 3:00 pm for one hour of tutoring, 5 times a week to maintain or raise GP A and increase T ABE scores. Boxing team members also meet on Saturday, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm to attend tournaments. The length of this program will probably continue beyond the I-year grant agreement because it will likely prove very successful. Therefore, we will want to continue this program strategy. 6