Spectrum Academy

www.spectrumacademy.org

925 S. Sailfish Dr.

Gilbert, Arizona 85233

480-633-7179

Robin Engel and Bruce ‘Zen’ Benefiel, Co-Founders

Consider initiating a peer community that demonstrates a holistic living environment complete with academic, behavioral, emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual support for at-risk youth. How could business, educational and wellness delivery elements work together to create a holistic environment with sustainable financial components? We have a vision of such a place.

Spectrum Academy Summary

Vision: Spectrum Academy leads Arizona’s learning and living communities in assisting ‘at-risk’ to ‘at-hope’ youths to heal their emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual wounds which create positive and profound changes in America’s youth population.

Mission: Provide an alternative state-of-the-art holistic educational and living environment for at-hope youth 14 – 21 to find direction and purpose using proven programs that result in healthy and productive young adults who contribute to society.

Observations of Concerned Citizens

The current situation invites the analogy of taking a fish out of a dirty fish bowl, cleaning it off, and throwing it back in with expectations of survival and success. Systems of care in Arizona are diligently working to meet the needs of at-risk youth, yet an integrated long term plan to address the broad spectrum of needs, including providing a healthy environment for youth and family educational, behavioral, and transition appears to be missing.

Academic environments, unable to meet the needs of at-risk youth, cannot retain students that have little or no parental supervision. “Only 46% of Arizona youths detained by police last year were enrolled in school.” (Juveniles, p15) The truly unfortunate youth feel they are being drugged so adults can deal with them. What kind of a message are we sending? Many of these children end up in an unending cycle of correctional or treatment center programs. Worse yet, others end up on the streets with no life skills or means of support. “In 2000, using reported data and a comprehensive qualitative process - where key stakeholders were interviewed and focus group sessions were held … minority youth are still over-represented when compared to their Anglo counterparts for comparable offenses.” (Commission)

Decentralized social services inhibit accessibility and use by foster children and group home youths, expected to perform well with poor supervision and limited resources. Arizona and America’s Indian youth are caught in an even deeper dilemma with the loss of cultural history and traditions. Behavioral health services for youth, unfortunately, are driven by service dollars available and not by the needs of the youth and families. In 2003 Arizona ranked 47th among states in percent of uninsured children according to the Children’s Action Alliance.

Youth seek rites of passage, often void of guidance, without knowing what they are doing or why; causing social and spiritual issues of near epidemic proportions in our cities and an overload for our courts, educational and social service systems. Arizona’s juvenile corrections system is lacking successful programs to meet the needs for at-risk or challenged youth across all ethnic groups. Increased budgets to build more prison space do not address the problems, only the results of symptoms. Emotionally and physically jailed juveniles are simply not available to learn coping skills that help them survive and thrive as community members. Alternative programs that meet the needs of the community and the youth are low priority. According to a 2001 AZ Supreme Court document, the Rite of Passage average program cost per probation youth: $16,020.00; Vision Quest cost was $23,172.00, while the average cost for education for one year is $4,200. (Juvenile Treatment, 2001) Arizona spends 3.7 times more per prisoner than per public school pupil. Arizona ranks 49th among states in per pupil expenditures. (Children, 2003) The maximization of resources appears to be missing from this type of structure.

Recommendations of the Deloitte Consulting Core Findings included: Understand better the interventions that work with families, as well as the juvenile, increasing their effectiveness and opportunity to convert members of the family to self-sufficient, productive citizens as opposed to lifelong system users; and, couple these benefits with increased collective ownership resulting in joint action planning and implementation to achieve results. (Deloitte, 2004) “Recent statistics from ADJC show that 54% or one out of every two girls violates their parole plan. We often wonder why recidivism rates are so high, but fail to consider that these young women are often placed back in the very environment that contributed to their problems in the first place.” (Youth in Transition, 2004)

The Solution

We feel we have an answer to help change the pattern of abuse to our communities. Spectrum Academy combines a charter school, residential treatment component, and a community technology/data center as key elements in a peer community village to empower youth to change their direction toward success. Holistic education is necessary for the 21^st Century citizen to understand the new global village and the changing economic environment. Progressive programs will address a healthy future for everyone. Spectrum also includes the involvement of families and community in the construction and operation of the Academy.

We can safely agree that a radical change is necessary and that with a common sense approach we can change lives for the better. We need an evolutionary leap in youth services. We feel this is a systemic problem across America that needs to be addressed if we are going to survive and thrive as a society. It is a rare fish who survives being thrown back into the dirty bowl. We need more than a clean fish bowl, we need a new aquarium. 21^st Century youth need 21^st Century solutions to empower positive choices and successful lives. Combining the right elements in a living environment can greatly increase the emotional availability of these youth, increasing their capacity to grow into healthy young adults capable of contributing to the community. Retention of youth in a full service environment reduces reintroduction into the dirty fish bowl, dramatically reducing the potential of long term care and financial burden on the State and Federal resources.

Spectrum Academy Overview

One of the structural elements, the medicine wheel, incorporates the philosophy of facing your fears, gaining clear sight, experiencing success, and then resting only to begin the process again. Effective reintegration and transition strategies mirror the same process. Anger and depression keep youth from learning, so they need help understanding their emotions and how to deal with them. Once they are available to learn, the educational methods help them understand what it means to be healthy and part of a healthy community. Harvesting cultural values creates bridges for cultural diversity and understanding. This approach involves holistic education, which promotes the understanding of the nature of the connectedness of all things. Holistic education is concerned with the growth of every person's intellectual, emotional, social, physical, artistic, creative and spiritual potentials.

Arizona would be unique as a leader in the research, design, and implementation of holistic education using state-of-the-art technologies in a community village. Our collaborative alliances and partnerships with industry leaders will bridge 21^st Century learners with 21^st Century technology and our emerging global culture. Our youth need this new aquarium to meet the 21^st Century with skill, tact, and precision for success. Inclusion of programs that address academic, behavioral and life skills are tantamount to the success of these youth.

Progressive Realistic Programs

Spectrum’s use of initial assessments for aptitudes and skills sets help to align the person with realistic goals for success. Our peer community village includes the elements of holistic education, behavioral sciences, community participation, family/group decision making, and Vandenberg’s 12 Principles. Holistic education focuses on connecting the dots in the web of life so that youth understand the impact of their choices and decisions on themselves, their families, and the world around them. Crafting a curriculum to meet Arizona State Standards that includes diverse learning styles, life and work skills development, and peer community components offers the flexibility to meet the academic, behavioral, and environmental needs of this population. Restorative justice concepts restore personal and communal harmony. “It also involves deliberate acts by the offender to regain dignity and trust, and to return to a healthy physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual state.

Instruction in industrial arts and building trades offers historical exploration as well as math and science application, such as tribal housing design and construction. The goal is to create various cottage businesses, socio-economic links to the community as bridges for school-to-work programs, providing secondary income sources for Spectrum Academy and participants – youth and families. We provide practical applications of theory that have been missing in the developmental processes of these youth, connecting real time examples of applied theory.

Celebration of successful rites of passage, short-term goals and objectives set by the students, brings the community and families together to honor the success of the youth. Life skills are enhanced by learning how to live and work responsibly within a community. Desire and motivation for success is increased when incarceration of some form or street life are their only other choices. We suspect nearly all would choose to stay in a far superior supportive environment.

Ideally, critical staff will live on-site in order to establish the community model and to be available 24/7 for any diverse learning needs, personal development or mentoring. The scheduling of classes includes consideration for natural rhythms of learning throughout the day and evening, depending on the individual’s best time for learning, applying best practices of learning styles, emotional and multiple intelligences, and pedagogical technology. Arizona has the opportunity to be a leading pioneer of progressive programs for challenged youth and families.

Looking and listening to youths’ work, using the philosophy of art is life and life is art, helps us to uncover and better understand their needs. Arts programs have been proven to increase academic and life skills. It has been proven that musical instruction activates greater areas of the brain for cognitive skills development, including math and science. Training in culinary crafts, construction skills, and manufacturing trades are also essential for developing future community citizens. Supervised by building trades teachers, students are trained and build the necessary structures for Spectrum’s expansion, beginning with 100 students and going up to a potential 500+ person capacity over a five-year period. It is important to recognize that an expedited reintegration to previous environments is rarely a healthy transition, often contributing to recidivism. Accordingly, this program would require long term commitment in residence.

In this master planned community, youth will learn how to prepare community meals, grow and maintain gardens and landscape, perform building and maintenance repairs, and even be involved in the construction of future expansion of the facility. These programs build self-esteem and self-reliance which prepares youth for transition into community living. Many of the initial group will likely be future community leaders for Spectrum Academy’s peer leadership training, mentor programs, and village shop operators. Jobs for family and community members are created throughout the design, construction, and operation of Spectrum Academy, which increases potential employability of under or unemployed in the reintegration and transition to the community. Special housing for at-risk families, usually single parent, is included as a functional element of the applied AZ Wrap-Around Model where the advantage of centralized services act to reduce budgetary constraints while providing a better foundation for consistent Family/Group Decision Model applications.

Sustainability Features

Long-term sustainability is achieved through the union of a community technology center, multi-media communications, subscription-based World Wide Web services and on-site small business development that includes community interface elements. E-commerce was a $1.2 billion industry in 2002. It is projected to reach the trillions by the end of this decade. This includes high-demand services such as web hosting, e-curriculum storage and delivery, on-line professional development programs, web radio & television, web-based cottage industries developed by the students, and all-important computer technology such as Internet-based commerce provides a foundation for success in the community. Cottage industry development through culinary arts, arts and crafts, metal and wood working along with mini-storefront components provide hands-on training for preparation of reintegration and transition.

Our collaborative alliances and partnerships with industry leaders bridge 21^st Century learners with 21^st Century technology. Spectrum Academy combines academic, behavioral, economic, environmental, social, and technological elements for a state-of-the-art model educational village. Our society has sacrificed the core community connections and values contained within this tribal village application in order to achieve the nominal success of the corporate-driven economy. It is time to restore human ethics and values in our society today. We can begin that process by addressing our worst problems first. Restoring youth and giving them hope by offering healthy opportunities is the first step toward changing the current trends in our global village. Creating the capacity for recognizing healthy choices empowers our future leaders. As the public awareness of Spectrum Academy grows, the subscription and e-commerce features will soon provide for most, if not all, the financial requirements of Spectrum Academy.

Initial Budget Forecasts (reference only)

Key Financial Start-up Assumptions

Charter School

Start up – $ 500,000

Annual Budget – $ 1,200,000

Community Technology Center – e-Curriculum Data Center

CTC/Data Center start up – $ 1,900,000

Annual Budget – $ 1,100,000

Residential Treatment Center

Start up – (staff and compliance filings) $ 71,000

20-bed annual budget – $ 1,854,000

Development Team

Facilitator, Architects, Resource Specialists $ 300,000

Land Acquisition $ 2,000,000

Construction $10,000,000

Total $18,925,000

This conservative budget is based on existing establishments as separate business units and includes a development team to work with State authorities, public and private resources for a three-year period. A synergistic budget and facility offer greater dollar per client/student services throughout all phases of development to operation. More precise reduction/redistribution or cost savings analysis and research are included in the Development Team’s reporting function. This village concept brings once disparate elements together as a functional system designed to provide a living and working environment for these youth, which is free of distractions to their success. A conservative estimate for initial facility could reach $8 - $10M including facility, program, and staff development which is spread across public and private resources.

“So, for every one of these juvenile that this system changes to living a life as a productive citizen, saves Arizona at least $500,000 in future support and aid. This does not include the taxes and other positive contributions Arizona would receive from this productive citizen.” (Deloitte, 2004) Actual numbers for current expenditures and specific cost reductions and savings will be reported as results are established. From the figures accessed and demonstrated it would appear that a greater utility and maximization of funds would prevail with this pilot program peer community constructed with a holistic systems thinking and learning organization foundation.

The Results

Forecasted Operational and Financial Elements

• 300 students – charter school is financially operational beginning the third year.
• Forecasted CTC/Data Center business unit reaches break-even in 6^th month second year.
• Cottage industries income will supplement funding of program costs
• Integrated system/peer community reduces short and long term care costs
• Potential market of program exists across state borders

Financial Assets and Future Returns

• Maximizing resources and use of funding provides better service to residents
• Village model has capacity to self-fund within five years
• Community benefits through increased business, job creation, and healthy youth
• Substantial cost reductions/savings across ADC, ADJC, DES, and ADE budgets
• Successful youth contribute to community economic growth and leadership

Additional Benefits

• Creation of jobs – i.e. construction, educators, and long-term staff
• Community and family involvement – from development and day-to-day activity
• Wrap-around model invites participation from local community and nuclear family
• Long-term commitment to continued community development and stability
• Alternative incarceration programs for facility maintenance – utility of ADC/ADJC funds

We have developed a short presentation that includes these elements and further explanation of programs and systems integration across academic, behavioral, economic, and treatment arenas. Our desire is to assist Arizona’s best efforts to empower families and youth to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing economic and social environment in the 21^st Century.

References

Children in Arizona, © 2003 Child Defense Fund, [WWW Document] URL: http://www.childrensdefense.org/familyincome/childreninthestates2003/az.pdf

Commission on Minorities (2002) Equitable Treatment of Minority Youth in the Arizona Juvenile Justice System: A Follow-Up to The 1993 Equitable Treatment Report, Arizona State Supreme Court, Phoenix Arizona

Deloitte Consulting (2004) Evaluation of Arizona’s Juvenile Justice System

Deloitte Consulting Core Findings [WWW Document] URL: http://www.governor.state.az.us/cyf/children/JJDP_Programs/evaluation_JJ.html

Juveniles Processed in the Arizona Court System FY03 (2003) Produced and Published by Arizona Supreme Court, Juvenile Justice Services Division, Phoenix, Arizona

Juvenile Treatment Services Fund (2001) Outcome Data Report – Fiscal Year July 2000 – June 2001, Arizona Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Courts, Juvenile Justice Services Division, Phoenix Arizona

Melton, Ada Pecos, President, American Indian Development Associates (2004) Indigenous Justice Systems and Tribal Society [WWW Document] URL: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/rest-just/ch1/indigenous.htm

Youth in Transition (2004) ASU Service Learning Course Description [WWW Document] URL: http://www.asu.edu/duas/servicelearning/Youth%20in%20Transition%20Course%20Objectives.doc

Spectrum Academy Plan
… including financial projections.
Price: $125