The Problem
Objectives Include
The Problem
Challenging youth and educators often find themselves in a struggle for survival and are unable to resolve differences. Their cries are too often ignored while the crises in their lives continue to grow. Many of these youth are ending up in the Juvenile Justice System where judges have few options that are aimed at helping them get back to school and live productive lives. Too many educators do not have the training or experience required to meet their needs.
What We Do
Objectives Include
The Problem
Spark unites struggling youth with UWG students in a campus classrooms for 10 weeks for:
- Icebreakers
- Sharing life stories (COSMOS)
- Inspirational guests
- See youth as sacred
- African drumming
- Art projects
- Reflective questions
- Games and refreshments
- Forming authentic friends
- Dissolve the disconnect
We focus on creating a non-judgement, safe environment, igniting a spark in the youth that motivates them from within.
Objectives Include
Objectives Include
Objectives Include
- Reduce recidivism and prevent them from becoming adult offenders
- Spark interest in vocational and educational pursuits
- Inspire hope that things can change
- Provide the youth with a positive view of themselves while helping them rediscover their own voice
- Spark a desire to reengage in their educational pursuits and respond to issues in their lives in a constructive way
- Prepare UWG pre-service teachers to meet some of the challenges they will face with youth in the classroom
- Reconciling the differences between pre-service teachers and struggling youth
- learning more about themselves
- learning how to turn form healthy, meaningful relationships
Youth Comments
- "You all, the Spark college people, are just very nice, have stuff in common with each other, and like to talk a lot. that's a good thing too. You're just fun to be around."
- "I don't really have label to fit into, a group, but I like to just be my own person."
- "If I wasn't in this program, I know I would be in jail."
- "We're human beings. We're equal one way or another and I want you to treat me like that."
- "I see myself in all of y'all"
Student Comments
- “It’s amazing to me. This whole time the SPARK kids thought we were helping them out, but truth be told, they were helping us out!”
- “I came into it with a lot of baggage. This past year, I had finally come to the conclusion that I needed to get out of my comfort zone in order to become the teacher, writer, and person I wanted to be.”
- “The SPARK program taught me there’s still a lot I need to learn about myself before I can get in a classroom, but I think it got me a lot closer to the real ME. I was starting to think I lost her.”
- “We didn’t tell them what was right and what was wrong, we told them what we did and who we really are. They thought we were some really cool, interesting figures, and we thought that we’re just like them.”
- “I LOVED the vibe in the room. Week after week I went back, I could see the walls that the kids had AND the walls that my fellow SPARK interns had begun to fall.”
- "I'm no longer talking at them. I'm talking with them."
History
SPARK initially evolved out of a heart-felt conversation between Dr. Peterson and the late Judge Dan Camp. Dr. Peterson explains that, “I had a discussion with the late Judge Dan Camp one day about his work and what he did at the time. I was surprised and saddened when he told me countless stories of the young people who stood before him in court. He described many of them as having ‘dead eyes.’ He added, they seemed to have no direction, no goals, and little focus or stability in their lives. It was then I decided to do something to help.”
In addition to that initial conversation, students in Dr. Peterson’s “Investigating Contemporary Critical Issues in Education” class took the initiative to develop a new service project to assist local teens, which is now a part of the curriculum for the course, and serves as the foundation for Dr. Peterson’s approach to preparing his students for the classroom.
SPARK provides a new, engaging, and personal way of reaching teens through positive peer intervention for youths ages 13 to 18 who have appeared at least once in the juvenile courts in Carroll and Coweta Counties. SPARK’s mission is to inspire hope in the lives of troubled youth through an emerging developmental community-based mentoring program. SPARK also seeks to encourage UWG students to aspire to be teachers who seek authentic connections with their students and exhibit integrity. SPARK utilizes non-traditional activities through the university such as art and sculpting, West African drumming, touring, music, inspirational speakers, and good old-fashioned fun to promote a holistic connection with their teens.
The goal of SPARK is to create a space for teens to be themselves, and foster a meaningful relationship between a mentor and youth, opening opportunities for dialogue, tutoring, exploring, learning and examining one’s life.
Since 2009, SPARK has provided support to over 100 youth and their families in the Carroll and Newnan County communities. In addition to mentoring, nearly 300 UWG students have participated in the partnership with SPARK youth, and have learned invaluable instructional and social skills they can carry with them into their own classrooms. The UWG students are quick to take ownership of developing relationships with the youth when they arrive for the first meeting. This unique multifaceted model and approach to working with youth is designed to provide a spark, and an awakening of the youth’s very souls, and a sense of hope and possibility.
The collaborative partnership also provides the UWG pre-service teachers with a unique opportunity to identify, meet, and relate to students who may have challenges beyond the classroom.