Teen Challenge

Last updated
Teen Challenge
Teen Challenge.png
Founded 1958 (1960?)
Founder David Wilkerson
Location
Area served
110 countries
Key people
 Dr. Joseph Batluck, President
Website teenchallengeusa.com

Teen Challenge (now named "Adult & Teen Challenge") [1] is a worldwide network of Christian faith-based corporations intended to help teenagers, adults, and families with problems such as substance abuse or self-destructive behavior. It was founded by David Wilkerson in 1960. U.S. headquarters are located in Ozark, Missouri. It has over 1,000 centers worldwide.

David Ray Wilkerson was an American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade. He was the founder of the addiction recovery program Teen Challenge, and founding pastor of the non-denominational Times Square Church in New York City.

Contents

History

The ministry that would later become Teen Challenge (and in 2017 changed to "Adult & Teen Challenge") [1] was founded in 1960 by David Wilkerson, an Assemblies of God pastor who left a rural Pennsylvania church to work on the street among teenage gang members and socially marginalized people in New York City and who, perhaps, is best known for later authoring The Cross and the Switchblade and founding Times Square Church. [2] [3] Teen Challenge started its first residential program in December 1960, in a house of Brooklyn. [1]

New York City Largest city in the United States

The City of New York, usually called either New York City (NYC) or simply New York (NY), is the most populous city in the United States and thus also in the state of New York. With an estimated 2017 population of 8,622,698 distributed over a land area of about 302.6 square miles (784 km2), New York is also the most densely populated major city in the United States. Located at the southern tip of the state of New York, the city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass and one of the world's most populous megacities, with an estimated 20,320,876 people in its 2017 Metropolitan Statistical Area and 23,876,155 residents in its Combined Statistical Area. A global power city, New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, and exerts a significant impact upon commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports. The city's fast pace has inspired the term New York minute. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy.

The Cross and the Switchblade is a book written in 1962 by pastor David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. It tells the true story of Wilkerson's first five years in New York City, where he ministered to disillusioned youth, encouraging them to turn away from the drugs and gang violence they were involved with and to turn to Jesus. The book became a best seller, with more than 16 million copies distributed in over 30 languages.

Times Square Church Church in New York , United States

Times Square Church is a non-denominational church located at 237 West 51st Street in the Theater District of Manhattan, New York City. A large number of people representing over one hundred nationalities gather to worship together every week. Volunteers from the congregation participate in over forty ministries, ranging from feeding the homeless in New York City to staffing an orphanage in South Africa. A major emphasis at Times Square Church is giving aid to the disadvantaged.

In 1973, 15 years after the ministry began, Teen Challenge established a national headquarters. [1]

In 1995, Global Teen Challenge was founded to assist the growing number of Teen Challenges starting up outside the US, but struggling to acquire the necessary resources and training. [1]

In 2017, the organization officially changed its name to Adult & Teen Challenge, to eliminate confusion in regard to the fact that the organization not only works with teenagers but also works with adults in its addiction treatment centers. [1]

Mission

The official Statement of Purpose of Adult and Teen Challenge is, "To provide youth, adults and families with an effective and comprehensive Christian faith-based solution to life-controlling problems, such as substance abuse, in order to become productive members of society. By applying biblical principles, Teen Challenge endeavors to help people become mentally-sound, emotionally-balanced, socially-adjusted, physically-well, and spiritually-alive." [4]

Organization

While the residential model continue to be the primary service of Teen Challenges around the world, an increasing number of community small groups and other non-residential models are also used.

Adult & Teen Challenge USA

Adult and Teen Challenge USA is an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit headquartered in Ozark, Missouri. Its current President is Joe Batluck. Though self-governing, it also exists as a department of the U.S. Missions division of the Assemblies of God USA. [5] The US network consisting of ~85 501(c)3 corporations representing ~200 residential programs. [6]

Adult and Teen Challenge USA maintains accreditation standards, curriculum, training and resources to all Teen Challenge organizations within the United States and Puerto Rico.

Each individual US corporation is self-governing, though TC USA does require a minimum set of accreditation standards be met to be able to function as an "Adult and Teen Challenge" affilliate.

Global Teen Challenge

Global Teen Challenge is an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit headquartered in Columbus, Georgia. [7]

The mission of Global Teen Challenge is to assist with the development of new centers outside the US, [8] but they also provide resources and training to the existing programs.

In 2017, Global Teen Challenge is in 110 countries representing 1100 programs. [9]

Global Teen Challenge is divided into regions with a director or representative for each region. Regional directors are listed at https://globaltc.org/meet-our-team/

Core Structure of Programs

Programs have a general duration of 12 months. [10]

The ATC-USA Board of Directors approved a "Phase" system to explain core structures of Teen Challenge. All centers of any Phase are expected to be involved in Phase 1. The phase ministry is as follows:

Another major component of the Adult and Teen Challenge structure is the curriculum created by Dave Batty. This is known as the Group Studies for New Christians and the Personal Studies for New Christians.

Studies of program effectiveness

In 1973, Archie Johnston compared results of Teen Challenge with that of a transactional analysis approach at a Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution therapeutic community, and with a third group who received no treatment.

While the numbers of subjects was small (17 in each group), he found evidence to support his recommendation that, while Teen Challenge was an "effective" treatment (with a drug recidivism rate after 29 months of 32%), Transactional Analysis was a "very effective" treatment (with a comparable 16% rate), suggesting that perhaps the lower recidivism rates were a result of TA changing the addiction concept of the self-image more thoroughly and at a slower pace. He hoped that Teen Challenge would incorporate some psychotherapy into their treatment model. [11]

A Wilder Research study of 154 former residents who graduated between 2007 and 2009 reported that: [12]

Aaron Bicknese tracked down 59 former Teen Challenge students in 1995, in order to compare them with a similar group of addicts who had spent one or two months in a hospital rehabilitation program. His results, part of his PhD dissertation, were published in "The Teen Challenge Drug Treatment Program in Comparative Perspective" [13]

Bicknese found that Teen Challenge graduates reported returning to drug use less often than the hospital program graduates. His results also showed that Teen Challenge graduates were far more likely to be employed, with 18 of the 59 working at Teen Challenge itself, which relies in part on former clients to run the program.

Much of these results were to Teen Challenge's benefit, and the high success rates (up to 86%) he found have been quoted in numerous Teen Challenge and Christian Counseling websites. [14]

According to a 2001 New York Times item, [15] some social scientists complain that the 86 percent success rate of Teen Challenge disregards the people who dropped out during the program, even though most other such programs also count only those who complete their program. Since Teen Challenge is a longer term program, often lasting up to a year, more people do pull out than do in programs that are a few days to a few weeks long. So, counting dropouts could also fail to show the true effectiveness of the program, since those individuals didn't complete the program and gain the full effectiveness of it. Teen Challenge reports that in the program's first four-month phase, 25 to 30 percent typically drop out, and in the next eight months, 10 percent more leave. In their testimony before the United States House Committee on Ways and Means, Texas Freedom Network Education Fund, have claimed that the much-quoted success rates "dramatically distort the truth", due to the lack of reference to the drop-out rate. [16] Doug Wever, author of, "The Teen Challenge Therapeutic Model" has stated, "I would respectfully suggest that the Texas Freedom Network's position here is overstated in that it's not unusual at all for the research design of effectiveness studies to look only at graduates; therefore the outcomes of these independent studies do provide a legitimate and dramatic basis for comparison given the results. At the same time, Teen Challenge must be careful to communicate what has actually been measured." [17]

Public policy effects

In 1995, auditors from the Texas Commission for Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA) demanded that Teen Challenge obtain state licensing and employ state-licensed counselors. As a result, (then) Governor George W. Bush publicly defended Teen Challenge and pursued alternative licensing procedures for faith-based organizations. “Teen Challenge should view itself as a pioneer in how Texas approaches faith-based programs. I’ll call together people, ask them to make recommendations... licensing standards have to be different from what they are today,” then-Governor Bush said. [18]

Bush then created a state Task Force on Faith-Based Programs, to identify and lift regulatory barriers for faith-based social service providers. The task force included J. Herbert Meppelink, the Executive Director of South Texas Teen Challenge. The resultant 1997 and 1999 Texas legislation exempted Faith-Based Programs, such as Teen Challenge, from state licensing and the health, safety and quality of care standards that accompany that licensing.

Later, when Bush became US president, Teen Challenge was cited in public policy debates as an example of why such programs merit the federal funding of faith-based organizations. Its documented success rates played a role in the establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2001.

Conversely, such funding has come under attack through comments by John Castellani, the former President of Teen Challenge USA, during a House Government Reform subcommittee, examining the efficacy of religious social service providers. During the hearing, Castellani said Teen Challenge does not hire non-Christians as employees and, when asked if the group takes non-Christians as clients, he said yes, and boasted that some Jews who finish his Teen Challenge program become "completed Jews." [19] [20] Critics of faith-based funding cite this as an example of how religious intolerance could be publicly funded. (The "completed Jews" phrase has been used by some Christians and Messianic Jews to refer to people who previously followed Judaism and have become believers in Yeshua (Jesus).

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 https://www.teenchallengeusa.com/about/history
  2. ↑ Randall Herbert Balmer, Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, Westminster John Knox Press, USA, 2002, page 677
  3. ↑ Christopher D. Ringwald, Principles of Addiction: Comprehensive Addictive Behaviors and Disorders, Volume 1, Academic Press, USA, 2013, page 289
  4. ↑ http://teenchallengeusa.com/about
  5. ↑ http://usmissions.ag.org
  6. ↑ http://teenchallengeusa.com/centers?type=all_residential
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-10.
  8. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-10.
  9. ↑ Teen Challenge, Our Story Archived 2017-01-08 at the Wayback Machine ., Official Website, USA, Retrieved January 7, 2017
  10. ↑ Christopher D. Ringwald, The Soul of Recovery: Uncovering the Spiritual Dimension in the Treatment of Addictions, Oxford University Press, UK, 2002, page 138
  11. ↑ Johnston, Archie (September 1973). "Heroin Addiction: Teen Challenge vs. Transactional Analysis: A Statistical Study". Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  12. ↑ Wilder research, Minnesota Teen Challenge follow-up Study - January 2011 [ dead link ]
  13. ↑ Bicknese, Aaron (1999). The Teen Challenge Drug Treatment Program in Comparative Perspective. Illinois: Northwestern University.
  14. ↑ "Significant research that everybody should know". Archived from the original on 2009-02-21. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
  15. ↑ Goodstein, Laurie (2001-04-24). "Church-Based Projects Lack Data on Results". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-12.
  16. ↑ "Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Human Resources and Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures of the House Committee on Ways and Means". House Committee on Ways and Means. 2001-06-14. Archived from the original on 2009-01-12. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
  17. ↑ Doug Wever of Alabama Teen Challenge and Global Teen Challenge in an interview, June 2009, Seale, AL
  18. ↑ Maynard, Roy; Marvin Olasky (08-05-1995). "Governor Bush backs Teen Challenge". World Magazine.Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ↑ "Faith-Based Group Draws Criticism for Telling House Congressional Committee about "Completed Jews"". Americans United for Separation of Church and State. 2001-05-24. Archived from the original on 2008-05-13. Retrieved 2008-04-01.
  20. ↑ Goodstein, Laurie (2001-05-25). "A Reference to Jews Heats Up Aid Debate". New York Times. p. A19.
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