Challenges For Faith-Based Initiatives Targeting At-Risk Youth
New governance, as described by analysts, calls for the development of policies that target social problems at the ôstreet levelö and which address such problems in the context of the communities in which they occur (Maynard-Moody, Musheno, & Palumbo, 1990). To accomplish this goal, the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, under your direction has implemented a number of programs that specifically target at-risk youth, a growing segment of the American population not limited, as has often been asserted, to poor, urban and/or minority communities. Indeed, as William J. Bennett, John J. DiIulio and John P. Walters (1996) have cogently noted, while crime in general has declined in the U.S., juvenile violence and crime have increased; occurring simultaneously are new and higher-than-acceptable rate of academic failure and dropout, teenage unemployment and teen pregnancy û all problems that bode poorly for the future of the United States.
Multiple Faith-Based and Community Initiatives targeting at-risk youth û from delinquents to school dropouts and underachievers, youth in gangs, youth involved in drug and alcohol use, and children suffering from abuse and neglect or in need of safe, secure homes û are now being provided with governmental aid and financial assistance in the form of formula and other grants (Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, 2003). While many voices have been raised in American society in both the public and private sectors in support of such initiatives, there is no doubt that funding faith-based programs for serving at-risk youth can be complex and challenging (Hopkins and Cupaluolo, 2001).
Specific challenges that now confront at-risk youth programs being offered by faith-based community organizations and funded at least in part via government grants were identified by analysts. Heidi Unruh (2002), for example, noted that among these ch...