Byron Story Foundation - May 2006 Charity-of-the-Month

Byron Story Foundation
Youth Restoration Career Center Inc.
1646 Ridge Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19130

tel: 1-215-769-8544
fax: 1-215-769-8667
web: http://www.byronstoryfnd.com/
email: admin@byronstoryfnd.com

Byron Story Foundation
A Community Based Day Treatment Alternative Education, Violence Prevention Program
A Non-Profit 501c(3) Organization Serving the Philadelphia Region

Our Mission
Our mission is to enable young people to become self reliant, responsible and caring individuals whom we guide towards pathways aimed at reducing truancy, violence and drugs in our homes, schools and communities.

Building a Relationship with Students
Here at the Byron Story Foundation Youth Restoration Career Center, we make it our goal to build a relationship between students and staff that students can rely on. We make sure our students receive the best education, information, and resources possible.

Providing Pathways for Future Adults, One Day at a Time
Our Day Treatment is a non-residential, intensive and structured clinical program provided for male and female adolescents. Our Program runs Monday through Friday, 9:00 am to 2:30 p.m., and Wednesday evenings 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Class Activities
Social Development (Clinical), Alternative Education (GED), Employment and Training Opportunity, Anti-Violence/Drug Workshops, Summer Reading Enhancement Camp

Our hours of operation are:

Monday through Friday
8:45 am to 2:45 PM
Secondary Education: 15 to 18 years of age, 9th—12th grade,

*Tutoring Learning Center (TLC)
*General Education Development: GED preparation
*General Education Development Curriculum

At the Byron Story Foundation, we offer:

General Education Development curriculum which can prepare students to return to public school or obtain their General Education Diploma (GED)

Behavior Modification Component

To supplement the academic skills that students acquire at BSF, we feel that it important to foster social and emotional development so that our students may prepare themselves mentally for the challenges of adulthood. Therefore, we integrate counseling, life skills training, behavior management, job and college preparation

Anti-Violence/Drug Workshops (every Wednesday evening, 6-8 p.m.) for male and female adolescents focus on drug/crime prevention methods, conflict management skills, and the virtue of good citizenship.

Discussion topics include the alternatives to violence/drugs and the many challenges that youth face growing up in America today. Workshops help students to practice what they learn through school and community service projects. For males, workshops are on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month and for females, the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month.

CREATING A LEGACY FOR YOUTH

Goals of the Byron Story Foundation Alternative Education/Behavior Center for the Prospective Student:

* Get back on track educationally, socially, and behaviorally.

* If desired, transition back to the school.

* Become prepared to earn a high school diploma or GED.

* Develop work readiness proficiency and other pertinent life skills.

* Design and activate a post-graduation plan.

* Internships, community service, social activities, and connections to community resources are only some of the other key components that we integrate into our program in order for students to be successful in high school and beyond.

* Students will exit our program with renewed motivation and the academic and social skills they will need to succeed as young adults.

Changing our children’s fate

My son, Byron Story, was killed on September 9th 2002; the victim of a gun violence. He was 19 years old and had just graduated from Glenn Mills School in June. Graduating was one of the greatest achievements in his young life. After Graduating Glen Mills, Byron enrolled at Pierce College for the upcoming semester.

Although Byron had many obstacles that enticed him to take the wrong path, he always found his way back to the right path to overcome those obstacles and fulfill his dreams. I always encouraged Byron letting him know that he was capable of fulfilling his dreams no matter what deterrents laid ahead. But youth, who make some wrong choices early in life feel, that society will continue to punish them, even though they have already paid for their mistake, no matter what they do.

I remember when Byron came home in June; he eagerly applied for many jobs, completing application after application, but not one attempted to hire him. Once they saw Glen Mills on his application they dismissed it fearing he was still a delinquent. Society still hold the misconception that “Once a delinquent always a delinquent.”

So how can youth, trying to turn their life around, make that change when no one is willing to give them the chance to show their transformation? In an overwhelming amount of cases they can’t, do to a lack of a support system. So they revert to surviving the way they know how, going back to what is familiar and has yielded some sort of success, ‘The Street Life’.

Although I encouraged Byron not to give up; he was still caught between right and wrong, but I know that if Byron were here today he would be headed toward the right path. Byron unlike many of our youth had a loving and caring family who, no matter how society tried to limit him, let him know that he was someone special.

However many of our youth do not have these systems of support, for one reason or another, and continue to believe in these society imposed limitations.

Our society must come together to help and support our troubled youth. We must dismiss the belief that our fallen youth are hopeless, and build them up to be the great success and blessing they were born to be. We must come together in recreating our youth’s paths.

-- Juanita Story-Jones

The Beginning of the Byron Story Foundation

Instead of Juanita Story-Jones letting her son’s passing be just another statistic of tragedy she wanted her son’s passing to have meaning, just as his young life did. She felt that she did not want another family to bear the pain and loss she experienced.

One month after losing Byron, Juanita decided to create a foundation in her son’s memory. This Foundation would be dedicated to Byron and other young adults who have died at the hands of violence. Their spirits will be used as a vehicle through which our program can ignite the flames of life back into the minds and hearts of youths who have lost the capacity to dream.

In October 2002 BSF was formed. Its mission, to enable young people to become self reliant, responsible and caring individuals whom we guide towards pathways aimed at reducing truancy, violence and drugs in our homes, schools and communities.

By May 2003 The Byron Story Foundation got its first building. The organization started by offering recreation and summer enrichment programs for inner city youth. The summer enrichment program, geared towards preteens, focused on reading enrichment, education activities, arts and craft, trips, and even Spanish.

By September 2003 BSF added a GED preparation program for teens that were not able to receive their high school diploma or finish school.

By the end of the year 2004 BSF had reached many of the goals we had set and as well as help enhance the quality of life in the community.

Currently BSF sponsors healing services for families whom have lost their loved ones to violence. We hosted many youth events, talent shows, back to school, informational sessions, and family festivals.

Our services have now expanded to include more educational programs and collaborate with many other community based organizations and schools.

Our program services now included: behavior management therapy, GED classes, one-on-one counseling, employment and training, ABE tutoring, Anti-Violence/Drug workshop, summer camp reading enrichment, and employment and training opportunity.

Collaborate Organizations: Department of Human Services, Juvenile Justice System, Redi Wrap Program, Lifers Inc. of Graterford Prison, and Philadelphia Police Department, and Heads Up program just to name a few.

Byron Story Foundation Education Services overview

The Byron Story Foundation (YRCC) provides comprehensive services that address academic and behavioral needs for male and female adolescents who have failed the public school setting and those who are in school as a result of their behavior related to coping skills and who have impaired family functioning.

Our main goals are to help youths who live in the Philadelphia Regions and attend Public Schools to reach a higher level of spiritual and social development in which enhances their conduct manner, educational performance in society through the support of our behavior management therapy, GED classes, one-on-one counseling, employment and training, ABE tutoring before or after school and during a summer camp session

Program Components

* Clinical plans include Initial Interview/Psychosocial Assessment and Individual Therapy sessions. Interventions are a critical component of treatment for youths at the BSF. Very often, children with behavior difficulty have serious problems in relationships with family, peers and in society. Youth who overcome these problems do better in the long run than those who continue to have problems with family, peers and in society. There is scientific basis for youth-based treatments for behavior difficulties that focus on family, peers and societal relationships.

* Anti-Violence/Drug Workshop plans include the alternatives to non-violence/drugs and practice what they learn through school and community service projects. As they participate in BSF activities, students learn drug/crime prevention and conflict management skills and the virtues of good citizenship, civility, nonviolence and drug free. As a youth agency we are well aware of the many challenges that youth face growing up in America today.

* Academic lesson plans include the General Educational Development (Comprehensive Study Program for the High School Equivalency Examination), and CIERA (Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement) strategies through guided reading.

The over-all focus is on the five subject of the GED examination:

- Language Arts, Writing, Social Study, Science, and Mathematics
- Depending upon student needs, any one of these dimensions can be emphasized during a tutoring lesson.

* The summer camp reading enrichment lesson plan follows the pattern of: word work, reread familiar selection, read a new selection, skills work, and use of a manipulative such as a game to reinforce the skill(s) taught. With most students we use the Wright Group Guided Reading (McGraw-Hill) materials and tutor guide as the basic teaching program and branch out from there as students need more reinforcement or other types of instruction.

BSF summer camp also offers other activities such as:
sports, drama, music, nature, science, arts and crafts, swimming, field trips to parks, museums, and the Freedom Theatre.

* Employment and training opportunity plans includes once the educational goal has been obtained, the opportunity for assistance with occupational training may be available. Participants will undergo an assessment to identify high-interest areas and assist in matching career options within high-demand fields.

* Students attend our Day Treatment, After School, and Summer Program regularly Mon-Fri, 9am-2:30pm and 3:30pm to 5:30pm during the school year and five days a week during the summer months. Students also attend our Anti-Violence/Drug workshops every Wednesday evening all year round.

* By providing alternative educational programs such as BSF we are still implementing the No Child Left Behind policy, which is necessary for the student academic and behavioral progress to fill in the gaps and be providing the added practice and affirmation, we have shown that students DO become productive! For some students, alternative education is the key to opening a new world of hope and vision for them.

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