BOUT IT (Bringing Out Unity
Through Interactive Transformation) is a program developed and run by Roosevelt
University professor Dr Melissa Sisco that is designed to help mentor at-risk
youth in the Chicago area. Dr Sisco has previously mentored youth in foster
homes and behavioural health facilities (most notably at the University of
Arizona in the form of a mentorship program run jointly with Dr Julie Feldman)
but the BOUT IT approach differs from previous approaches to mentorship in
various ways.
First, it focuses on
youth-to-youth mentorship by taking students from Roosevelt University and
exporting them from the classroom into the field of practice. Through her
relationship with the Uhlich Children’s Advantage Network (UCAN), Dr Sisco
found a space to take undergraduate students off campus and place them in an
environment that would enable them to develop their skills as future
psychologists and professionals working with at risk youth. UCAN is a facility
dedicated to housing and caring for youth that have had a rough start in life,
and many of the youth at the Chicago facility have suffered abuse and
gang-related neighbourhood violence from a very young age. The BOUT IT program
(the only program like it in Illinois, Indiana or Wisconsin) brings university
students from Roosevelt to UCAN and pairs them with an at-risk youth for a
semester-long mentorship program.
The mentorship is focussed around
the concept of SMART goals. Dr Sisco states that the most important thing to
instil in a youth that has suffered trauma is the ability to dream. Youths that
are a ward of the state are entitled to free college tuition, but many of them
are unaware of this fact or simply cannot see themselves ever going to
university. The SMART goals framework enables them to visualise a dream, and
then begin to take the steps required to achieve it. Through making small steps
one at a time, these youths can find a way to achieve something they never
deemed possible. The goal of the program is to show that not only are these
dreams possible, but that we can take steps on a day-to-day basis that get us
closer to reaching them. There are now two UCAN youths that have graduated the
BOUT IT program and attend Roosevelt University. The mentors, current Roosevelt
students, facilitate the development of these goals by being a positive role
model and helping to provide a framework that enables the youth to take the
necessary steps to achieve them.
Many of the youth at UCAN are
unwilling to discuss their past, but one of the methods through which they can
express themselves is music. In particular hip-hop and spoken word can be used
as a tool for tackling their emotions. The newest BOUT IT project for these
kids involves a partnership with Chicago-based spoken word group Row Cypher.
Established by Dr Sisco, this partnership is hoped to help provide the youth at
UCAN further positive role models that can demonstrate how these kids can use
their skills to develop themselves and tell their story.
In the city of Chicago as a whole
it is estimated that 1 in every 1000 people will be in contact with police
regarding a violent crime, either as a victim, perpetrator or witness. In
certain gang-infested neighbourhoods such as Humboldt Park this figure can
reach as high as 1 in 4. Youth that grow up in these communities are at a very
high risk of entering criminality themselves, especially if their home life is
unstable. UCAN hopes to provide a sense of stability for these at risk youth
but it can only provide shelter for a 3 month period before funding for the
youth is cut. What programmes like BOUT IT hope to do is provide that stability
through the establishment of SMART goals, allowing the youth to make sense of
their own life story and take control of their future by providing them
positive role models and a means by which to achieve what they want to achieve.
As a mentor in this program I
have been consistently impressed with the professionalism of both the BOUT IT
team under Dr Sisco and the UCAN staff who go above and beyond to foster good
relationships with youths that can at times be difficult, for understandable
reasons. I have similarly been blown away to see the resolve of so many of the
youth in the program that have overcome all the odds and made it to a point
where they are ready to move on with their lives and begin to think about a
future away from violence and crime. Programmes like BOUT IT, though
few-and-far between and desperately underfunded, are essential to instilling a
sense of hope in youth that may have none. But more than that, BOUT IT takes
college kids who have had little to no experience in the field of practice and
throws them into a real world situation that is both challenging and incredibly
rewarding. For me, it has been perhaps the most educational experience of my
time in Chicago and that is solely down to the perseverance of the youth at
UCAN in the face of unbelievable hardship, and the effort put in by Dr Sisco to
enable us to take part in a program that is unlike any other I have ever seen.
Chicago is a great city with a
great potential to help its poor and disadvantaged, but the current
administration shows little interest in tackling the gang issues in the South
and West sides. With little to no government help, programmes like UCAN aim to
intervene in the lives of damaged youth and change their lives for the better. This
would not be possible without the input of BOUT IT, which both relieves the
staff and gives the youth a release where they can hang out with similarly aged
individuals who can act as role models and hopefully provide an example of what
is possible with a little hard work and perseverance. These services for
underprivileged youth are essential to ensuring our continued success as a
society, because these kids that have survived unbelievable hardship and come
through the other side are our future, and they have the potential to make an
incredible difference to the city, the country and the world.
So what can we do as bystanders
to help these programmes continue to function? The simple answer is to get
involved. Fundraise, show an interest, become a mentor, tell people about these
amazing things that are happening. Running a program like this is a constant
tight-rope walk of trying to balance the needs of the kids with the available
budget and volunteer resources. If you believe in this sort of transformational
experience as a way of changing the lives of both disadvantaged youth and college students who are gaining an
experience they can get nowhere else then take the advice of Dr Sisco and the
BOUT IT team: don’t just talk ‘bout it, be BOUT IT.
For more information on any of
these programs please visit their websites:
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