Backstreet Beacons: Austin's Roving Leaders
Abstract
Austin's Get R.E.A.L. (Recreation, Education, Activities, Leader) program has already made significant, positive impacts on youth in this rapidly growing south central Texas city of 3 50,000. Since February 1998, eight Roving Leaders (RLs) and their assistants have gone into the city's neighborhoods to work with kids who are particularly vulnerable to gangs, drugs, violence, and alcohol. Their overall goal is to be a beacon to guide kids into healthy lifestyles and help them make good choices for the future. The program's actual and potential value to the community is rooted in its success in turning youth away from crime, alcohol, drugs, gangs, and premarital sex and toward healthy, productive lives.
Specific program goals and strategies for achieving those goals were profiled in the March 1999 issue of Parks and Recreation (Witt & Baker, 1999). The current paper presents evidence on whether stated goals are being achieved. The evaluation included tracking selected program participants and interviews with the Roving Leaders (RLs) and their supervisors.
The program continues to achieve its ambitious goals with new and veteran participants. The RLs appear to be committed to their jobs and are proud of the results they are achieving. However, there have been instances in which goals have not been fully met with specific individuals. RLs recognize that participants are being pulled by numerous positive and negative forces, and what happens to them when they are not with the RLs cannot be fully controlled. RLs recognize that there will be occasional slips when participants revert back to behavior that they know is not acceptable for continued inclusion in the program. The RLs are also concerned about how their close relationship will influence the participants if the RL takes another job or reduces the time he or she spends with some participants in order to begin working with other participants. Other problems that the RLs have faced are issues having to do with there being too many potential program participants. RLs have also reported some difficulties with recreation center staff when they try to integrate their participants into center programs. In some cases, the recreation center staff are not prepared to give the level of individual attention to the "RL kids" in order to facilitate a smooth transition.
While more RLs are necessary to reach other youth in the city, this type of work requires very special people. Roving Leaders must have the right motivation and personality to interact with and gain the respect of youth. They must be able to relate to youth of all ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities. They must also be comfortable working in potentially dangerous areas and be flexible in the hours they work.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Sagamore Publishing LLC (hereinafter the “Copyright Owner”)
Journal Publishing Copyright Agreement for Authors
PLEASE REVIEW OUR POLICIES AND THE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT, AND INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS BY CHECKING THE ‘AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS COPYRIGHT NOTICE’ CHECKBOX BELOW.
I understand that by submitting an article to Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, I am granting the copyright to the article submitted for consideration for publication in Journal of Park and Recreation Administration to the Copyright Owner. If after consideration of the Editor of the Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, the article is not accepted for publication, all copyright covered under this agreement will be automatically returned to the Author(s).
THE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT
Assignment of Copyright
I hereby assign to the Copyright Owner the copyright in the manuscript I am submitting in this online procedure and any tables, illustrations or other material submitted for publication as part of the manuscript in all forms and media (whether now known or later developed), throughout the world, in all languages, for the full term of copyright, effective when the article is accepted for publication.
Reversion of Rights
Articles may sometimes be accepted for publication but later be rejected in the publication process, even in some cases after public posting in “Articles in Press” form, in which case all rights will revert to the Author.
Retention of Rights for Scholarly Purposes
I understand that I retain or am hereby granted the Retained Rights. The Retained Rights include the right to use the Preprint, Accepted Manuscript, and the Published Journal Article for Personal Use and Internal Institutional Use.
All journal material is under a 12 month embargo. Authors who would like to have their articles available as open access should contact gbates@sagamorepub.com for further information.
In the case of the Accepted Manuscript and the Published Journal Article, the Retained Rights exclude Commercial Use, other than use by the author in a subsequent compilation of the author’s works or to extend the Article to book length form or re-use by the author of portions or excerpts in other works.
Published Journal Article: the author may share a link to the formal publication through the relevant DOI.
Author Representations
- The Article I have submitted to the journal for review is original, has been written by the stated author(s) and has not been published elsewhere.
- The Article was not submitted for review to another journal while under review by this journal and will not be submitted to any other journal.
- The Article contains no libelous or other unlawful statements and does not contain any materials that violate any personal or proprietary rights of any other person or entity.
- I have obtained written permission from copyright owners for any excerpts from copyrighted works that are included and have credited the sources in the Article.
- If the Article was prepared jointly with other authors, I have informed the co-author(s) of the terms of this Journal Publishing Agreement and that I am signing on their behalf as their agent, and I am authorized to do so.