A military-style residential program designed to help at-risk teens receive a quality education stayed on track with the announcement of a lease agreement between the U.S. Army and the California National Guard that will bring the Youth ChalleNGe Program to the Sharpe Army Depot in Lathrop.
“Serving at-risk youth is a core mission of the San Joaquin County Office of Education,” San Joaquin County Superintendent of Schools James A. Mousalimas said. “The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program brings a five-and-a-half month residential program to this community that gives the opportunity to these youths to get out of their environments and into a structured environment run by the National Guard and an educational program provided by the San Joaquin County Office of Education.”
Last week, Mousalimas went on a tour of the Sharpe Army Depot with Brigadier General James L. Gabrielli, Congressman Jerry McNerney and California Assemblywoman Susan Eggman. “This program would not be coming to San Joaquin County without their leadership and determination,” Mousalimas said.
The effort to bring the program to San Joaquin County is four years in the making. It will be the first Youth ChalleNGe program in Northern California and only the third in the state. Statistics show that the program has been effective in assisting the at-risk teens it is designed to reach. After the students leave the residential component, they continue into a 12-month mentorship phase.
Each year, two groups of approximately 200 male and female students will participate in the program at Sharpe Army Depot. As part of the program, they will also engage in thousands of hours of community service in San Joaquin County.
The benefit of the program goes beyond the students going on to finishing high school, entering college or getting jobs.
“It’s going to benefit these young men and women, it will benefit their families and it will benefit this community,” Mousalimas said.
The first class of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program could move in and begin instruction as early as January 2017.
To read more about the program and the announcement of the lease agreement making it possible to bring the program to San Joaquin County, please follow the links to stories in local media: The (Stockton) Record, News 10 and the Manteca Bulletin.
For more information about the program, please follow this link to a National Guard Youth ChalleNGe website.
(San Joaquin County Superintendent of Schools James A. Mousalimas, left, on a tour of the future home of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program with California Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman and Congressman Jerry McNerney.)