ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

FALTERING STEPS

When SERVOL began its dialogue with the community by asking the now traditional question: "How can we help you?" by far the most common response was "help our 15-19 year old children who have either not succeeded in getting into a secondary school or have dropped out of secondary school or who have finished their schooling but are unable to find employment."

So SERVOL began to do just that. The organisation opened a welding shop in 197, a plumbing facility in 1972, a woodwork shop in 1973, an electrical training centre in 1974, food preparation and garment construction in 1975 and an auto mechanics garage in 1976.

An on-going process-oriented evaluation was conducted on these vocational skill training units and this revealed that they were only moderately successful; there was a high drop-out rate (35%) and even more discouraging quite a number of those who finished the course were not particularly successful in looking for or finding employment. A careful study of the profile of these adolescents revealed that an alarmingly high percentage of the apprentices had a very negative self-image and low self-esteem, traits they had acquired from their lack of success in the overly academic life of secondary education which characterised the current system of education in vogue.

it was agreed that SERVOL had to do much more than skill training to meet the needs of this target group. A bold effort had to be made to help those young people who had been conditioned to failure by their life experiences. Over a period of our years, by dint of a great deal of experimentation and trial and error, an adolescent development programme was put together rather like the way in which a jigsaw puzzle is assembled. Thus was born the SERVOL LIFE CENTRE programme.

 ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Although the hundreds of adolescents who sign up for this programme are all interested in learning a marketable skill, they all begin by following the Adolescent Development Programme (A.D.P.). This programme is designed to prepare them for subsequent training by allowing them to understand themselves and to open themselves up to caring, sharing and loving. They are also given basic knowledge of their country and in many cases basic skills of reading, writing and counting.

They spend short periods in each department so that they can make a final decision as to the trade they wish to learn. During this period they are given talks on self-understanding, self-awareness and spirituality, helped to understand the role of the subconscious in their lives, to overcome complexes, prejudices and hang-ups they may have acquired along the way and to discover how they are all-too-often trapped in a cycle of violence which is born out of an enormous amount of repressed anger.

They are also exposed to an adolescent parenting programme designed to make them aware of the responsibilities involved in bringing children into the world, in caring for them in an enlightened fashion. During this period, they are helped to develop emotionally through a relationship-training programme in which they are guided to form relationships with small children (through spending time in the day nursery, working, feeding and playing with babies and toddlers), as well as with adult males and females who are members of the SERVOL staff and who take the place of parents. Through everyday activity at the Centre they are given the opportunity of being offered some basic moral and spiritual guidance through special lectures by trained professionals on sexuality, drugs, AIDS and social responsibility.

After this three and a half month period they move into the skill training departments where they spend up to one year learning a specific skill. During this period they spend four months doing on-the-job training with a firm, company or institution which specialises in the skill they are acquiring as a preparation for the world of work.

Finally, they return to the centre along with an evaluation from their temporary employer. At this point, work is done with them to correct weaknesses in their attitude, behaviour and performance.

After completing their training a number of our young people approach Fund Aid, SERVOL's sister organisation, whose function it is to grant loans to enable them to buy equipment to set up small businesses. Simple courses in business management are provided and assistance and advice given in the areas of production and marketing. A number of the young graduates have become successful entrepreneurs with the help of Fund Aid.

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THIS HOLISTIC PROGRAMME

The introduction of the three month human development segment to the adolescent skill training programme has been one of the most innovative and successful ideas ever dreamed up by SERVOL. Most importantly, the adolescents, without exception, welcome it with enthusiasm and are emphatic in proclaiming it as one of the best things they have ever experienced. Concrete proof of its effectiveness is evidenced from the drop-out rate which now hovers around five (5) percent. Secondly, a recently conducted study by a University based group indicated that the graduates from the SERVOL programme retain and put into practice what they were exposed to 10-15 years ago. Finally, SERVOL has discovered that the Adolescent Development Programme can be adapted to and used in other independent programmes.

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