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The Valley conducts research to learn about schools. This information is obtained through private research companies and through the administraters of the schools. Currently, the Valley has several outlets in the New York City public schools. The Valley seeks schools that appear to need help that it can provide. The Valley also talks to the organizational officers at the schools and uses the information it gets to reorganize specialized help to the different schools. For example, a school with many immigrants would receive more bilingual and English as a Second Language help than another school. Although the Valley uses information to make the help it provides better, it has a policy about not getting involved with the school itself. The Valley started out as an organization that helped to create future leaders. The original program started out in the Church of St.John the Divine, which is still where its headquarters are located. It still has a program that meets regularly, whose target is to help develop its participants' courage and leadership qualities. The rest of the programs that it provides all stem from this original program, and now include karate, dancing, basketball, and tutoring. Some of the physical activities involve both the youth and adults, again encouraging personal growth and self-sufficiency. By interacting with other adults in the after school activities, they learn to form healthier relationships with adults they meet in the future.
The Valley also
uses rites of passage to help mend the problems that the participants
have. The Valley, along with several other organizations, starts its
students off with a long period of self- improvement. Often this includes
lessons that are taught outright, incorporating ideals like the proper
ways to treat the opposite sex and why it is important to succeed at
school. Also, these important life lessons are incorporated with the
various sports programs that it sponsors, by maintaing these standards
while they play. Eventually, each of the participants in the program
is ready to graduate; graduates will associate success with their newly
acclimated manners. Overall, the Valley is dedicated in its attempts
to positively shape the leaders of the future. It uses research to allocate
its specialized personnel to where they are needed most. It still maintains
its creedo of building up the internal drive and leadership skills its
students need to succeed in life. The true success of the Valley lies
in the large proportion of its graduates who have seen the value of
community service and now work to help their communities. Also, the
Valley uses of rites of passage to instill values within the students
it supports.
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The
success of the public schools in Harlem is erratic. Some schools are
effective at keeping students under control amd helping them graduate.
Unfortunately, other schools are not as successful; some of the children
that attend these schools have caused so much trouble that they have
almost been deemed "unsalvageable." The Valley is a program that
works with the schools to help out these students and any others that
come to them with problems. And the students have definitely had a positive
response with there presence; some even stay for hours after school
just hanging out in the Valley's outlet, an office that performs duties
unique to that school.
While
the Valley is dedicated to mobilizing specialized help to the different
schools, it also keeps a good distance between the school system and
its work; It has a strict policy of not interfering with the school's
dealings. It is normally used by schools as a way of dealing with so-called
problem children; Some of the youths that the Valley works with are
the kinds of students who harass teachers and bring in weapons. The
Valley, while it generally does not actively seek its participants to
join a specific program, is persistent in its quest to make healthy
after-school activities available.
The
things that people do once they have graduated from the Valley system
are interesting. The vast majority of them apply to college. Also, it
has many contacts within large companies, who intern many of the youths
while they are in one of the Valley's programs. This often gives them
a leg up, helping them find steady jobs later in life. Recently, there
was a motivational dinner, celebrating the 21st anniversary of the Valley's
establishment. For the dinner, they had 21 of their graduates come back
and talk, to show how the Valley's system can encourage people to be
leaders.
