Faith and Action: A National Faith-Based Initiative Case Study

The first phase of the implementation of the National Faith-Based Initiative for High-Risk Youth is documented in detail in the following chapters. Some of its initial lessons are summarized below:

1. The faith community was successful in both securing the enthusiastic cooperation of representatives of the juvenile justice community and attracting high-risk youth. Most sites developed partnerships with the justice community (including police, juvenile courts, probation, juvenile detention facilities and district attorney's offices) with relative ease. The justice community was interested in undertaking these partnerships because of what it saw as the church's assets: its presence in high-crime communities and the respect in which it is held by community residents. In addition, the justice community was itself seeking alternative responses to increasingly high rates of juvenile arrests and incarceration, and saw faith-based organizations as a viable option.

Relying on referrals from the justice system, as well as their own networks and outreach efforts, the sites succeeded in recruiting a particularly difficult-to-reach population of youth. They enrolled 494 participants, of whom the majority was African American (88%) and male (72%) with a mean age of a little over 16. More than three-fifths of these youth had committed juvenile offenses that ranged from curfew violations and truancy to burglary, robbery and assault. Sixty percent had been arrested at least once.

2. While faith played an important role in program operations, there was little evidence of proselytizing or coercion. The sites were keenly aware of the need to avoid practices that could jeopardize their ability to seek and receive public and private funding to serve high-risk youth in their communities. They were therefore careful to avoid any activity that could be interpreted as overt proselytizing.

At the same time, however, many of the sites elected to create programs that were rich in faith content. A number of faith-related practices were in evidence, prayer being the most prevalent of them. Other practices included reading and studying sacred texts, incorporating spiritual concepts into program curricula, and exposing participants to religious music. According to program staff, these practices were more an expression of the faith of the staff and volunteers associated with the program than an attempt to proselytize the participants.

3. While small- to medium-sized faith-based organizations have the capacity to form effective partnerships with the justice community and recruit high-risk youth, they nevertheless need support in implementing intentional programs that are of sufficient intensity and duration to have an impact on participant behavior. This study suggests that, though they are capable of considerable creativity in program implementation, even the best of these organizations reach a point where they need to draw on resources beyond their own to maintain their momentum, expand their capabilities, and become reliable partners with the government and philanthropic organizations in addressing the problems that beset the nation's low-income communities.

Specifically, we found that these programs need both programmatic and financial support to attain these benchmarks. On the programmatic side, we found that when alIowed to folIow their own leads in developing programs consistent with their own sensibilities, these organizations do their best when creating a safe and caring environment in which youth can gather and experience the informal, relational approach to programming common among faith-based organizations. They are less adept when it comes to the delivery of specific programs--in education and employment, for instance--that provide participants with the specific and intensive levels of instruction and information required for youth to achieve the significant improvements that can provide a meaningful alternative to criminal involvement. In their mentoring programs, they experienced similar difficulties in putting in place the kinds of recruitment, screening, training, matching and supervision practices that make up the infrastructure of more established programs.

To reach this level of proficiency, small- to mid-size faith-based organizations of the kind represented in this demonstration will require ongoing support in organizational development, program design and implementation. Such support might involve providing sites with the materials, instruction and technical assistance that translate best practices in social programming for youth into explicit program operations that they can adapt into their operations wholesale. Such an approach would not challenge them to create new program models, but allow them to more immediately benefit from proven models that have already been developed, tested and found effective.

Small- to mid-sized faith-based organizations will also need to look to government and the philanthropic community for financial support to continue this work. While their ability to draw on volunteers may offset overall costs, the increasing need for improved organizational infrastructure and professional staff will eventually outstrip their own resources.

This first look at the efforts of small- to mid-sized faith-based organizations in implementing programs for high-risk youth has confirmed their status as an underutilized resource with potential for addressing important social issues. However, significant external support is required to make this potential a functional reality.