By Mary L. Crider
Times Record

Hugh Leavell, admissions coordinator for the Arkansas National Guard Youth Challenge Program, talks to parents about the goals and requirements of the GED program.



George Clark, Career Planner and Placement Specialist, administers TABE academic assessment tests to David Powell, left, Zach Humphrey and Obed Amezcua, right, to help determine placement in the Arkansas National Guard Youth Challenge Program at the National Guard Armory in Booneville.


Youths enrolled in the Arkansas National Guard Youth Challenge program receive measured doses of structure and freedom — the goal is teaching at-risk youths who want to change their lives how to do it.

“We are a very structured behavior modification program,” program admissions coordinator Hugh Leavell said.

Many students accepted into the free 22-week residential program are high school dropouts, but there are restrictions on who can enroll, Leavell said. It is a voluntary program. Youths cannot be court-ordered into it, their parents cannot make them go, and by federal law, participants cannot have a felony conviction. They must demonstrate that they want to see a change in their lives, he said.

“There are too many dropouts for the program to take in, and if you don’t want to be here, we politely ask you to leave. We don’t want to waste our time, and we don’t want you to infect others’ attitudes,” Leavell said.

“If you want a second chance, direction and purpose in your life, and if high school didn’t work out for you, this is a great opportunity. It isn’t easy,” Leavell said.

The program is 60 percent federally funded and 40 percent state funded. It costs from $15,000 to $16,000 to take a child through the 17-month program, Leavell said. The program includes follow-up for a year after graduation from its 51/2-month residential component.

The Arkansas National Guard program, based at Camp Joseph T. Robinson at North Little Rock, was one of the first pilot programs in the nation. It started in 1993, Leavell said. He joined it in September 2008.

There are 35 Youth Challenge programs in 27 states, including Puerto Rico and Hawaii, Leavell said.

“When I started with this program, I knew we had an epidemic, but I didn’t know the extent of it,” he said.

According to University of Arkansas study statistics, 10,000 Arkansas high school students fail to graduate and 2,000 drop out each year, Leavell said.

So far, the Arkansas Youth Challenge program has graduated more than 2,500 students, which is an about 30 percent attrition rate, he said.

According to program literature, there are two classes a year. They begin in January and July. Eligible students must be at least 16 years old to attend and no more than 19 years old at graduation.

The target rate for the class that will graduate Dec. 17 was 75 students. Recruiters brought in 96 students and are down to 65 as of November, Leavell said.

Leavell said he thinks the two-week pre-challenge phase is the hardest of the program’s three phases. The participants are considered candidates, not yet cadets, and they undergo a program just as intense as military basic training, he said.

During the next phase, the five-month challenge phase, instructors concentrate on eight core components. The program is staffed by five teachers and two counselors.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the cadets are in academic classes.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the concentration is on coping skills — financial management, anger management, hygiene, how to choose healthy personal relationships, developing job skills and the like, Leavell said. He said students are given a weekly stipend to manage, and they are allowed to work in any industry they choose in an internship-type arrangement.

On graduation from the program, the cadets must be placed in a job and/or back in school, he said.

Cadets who want to attend college can earn $1,000-increment Youth Challenge scholarships.

There is a school district perk, too: Act 439 of 1996 allows a Youth Challenge cadet to be placed back on school rolls, even if the cadet dropped out, which allows that school district to receive state funding as if the student was attending classes there.

Every cadet must have a mentor who stays in contact with the cadet. And the program has four case managers who follow cadets for a year after graduation, reporting on their progress, Leavell said.

“Many times kids return to the same environment, and if there is no intervention, they revert to previous activity. So we try to have proactive activities,” Leavell said.

If the case managers find a graduated cadet who isn’t placed, the program gets directly involved, helping the cadet find a job or enroll in school. If the cadet remains on-track after a year, he or she is counted as a success in the cohort.

Many program graduates go into the military, and representatives of all four branches speak to them during the program’s challenge phase, Leavell said.

Leavell said he’s trying something new this year — a round of orientation workshops throughout the state seeking recruits for the upcoming January class. The workshops started in October, and there are two more scheduled: One at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Marshall National Guard Armory in Marshall and the last one at 1 p.m. Friday at Camp Robinson in North Little Rock.

In the past, all the orientations were held at Camp Robinson, he said.

Just before an orientation workshop, a mother asked him how much it would cost to send her child through the program, Leavell said. He said he told her he’d accept whatever she thought it was worth after she heard the presentation.

When he asked her later, she asked him if $5,000 would be too little. “I told her I’d go her one better — how about free?” She was thrilled, he said.

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Kimberly Hanscom