Overview of the New Model

I. Type

Our type of boot camp would follow along with the combination of all the traditional models of boot camps. We will be combining the concepts of traditional military-style programs, educational and vocational programs, rehabilitation programs, and substance abuse programming. We believe that with the combination of all the traditional models, we will be able to get the best outcome and improvement for the juveniles attending the camp. Taking the beneficial factors from all the boot camps will help us create the most influential boot camp that there could be. We will be combining the physical activity of the military boot camps, the education of the educational programs, and the therapy of the rehabilitation programs. Substance abuse programming will also be provided for juveniles who struggle with substance abuse.

II. Improvements to the Traditional Model

In terms of traditional military-style boot camps, we would change the unfair treatment and harshness of the disciplinary actions that occur throughout the camp. One of the setbacks of the traditional military style was that it set the stage for abusive punishments. They were expected to undergo days of hard physical labor that were not fit for juveniles. In these juvenile military boot camps, children would often be expected to carry out physical activities that were detrimental to their physical well-being. In our boot camp, we would have juveniles carry out activities that are beneficial to them. Instead of forcing them to do manual labor that benefits them in no way, we would have them do exercises that benefit their health and physical being. This would consist of daily training exercises such as push-ups, crunches, and running miles.

The exercises that the juveniles will perform will not be rigorous or too hard to handle. The exercise is purely meant for the juveniles to stay in shape during their stay. This will also help them determine a schedule to perform this exercise and will create willpower in them to carry out the exercise.

Another setback to the traditional style of military boot camps is the harsh verbal punishments that the juveniles endured. We believe that yelling at children and demanding them in harmful ways is not the most effective way to improve a juvenile's attitudes and behaviors. Discipling them in harmful ways will only cause them to act more harmfully and will cause them to be violent once they are finished with the bootcamp. Because of this, our boot camp will make sure that we only use positive reinforcement that does not contain any harsh or unnecessary punishments, name-calling, or overall emotional harm. We will use encouraging words that will help them get through their exercise and will empower them to work harder for their own merit. Any form of emotional abuse or violence is banned from our program, and any presence of that coming from our staff or juveniles will not be tolerated.

During previous boot camps, juveniles endured a lot of emotional harm that only resulted in them being more delinquent in the long run. Because of this, we will set up a design where the participants of the boot camp can meet with a therapist weekly and make sure that all their basic care needs are met. During these meetings, juveniles are encouraged to talk about why they lash out in the behaviors that they do and if there are any contributing factors that make them act that way. Once we can determine why a juvenile reacts out of delinquency, we can face the problem head-on and try to solve it in the most successful and beneficial way possible. Again, we will only be using positive reinforcement and will not tolerate any harsh forms of punishment. Our boot camp is designed to be accepting of every participant attending, and our goal is to make them an improved version of themself.

In an article written by K. Gultekin, the authors review the effects of juvenile boot camps and if they are effective or not. Their findings show that previous military-style boot camps were full of inconsistent philosophies, policies and procedures (Gültekin, 2012). They believe that aggression is increased throughout the boot camp training and can lead to even more delinquent behaviors. These types of boot camps negatively impact the juveniles that attend them and leave them with trauma and newly found aggressive behaviors. They may also cause lower self-esteem in juveniles and contribute to the negative stereotypes of males in our society. Because of these findings, we strive to improve and differentiate our camp from traditional juvenile boot camps.

We want to create a positive impact rather than a negative one. The U.S. Department of Justice has confirmed that shock-incarceration programs have done little to reduce recidivism and that recidivism rates for juvenile boot camp graduates are extremely high (Tyler, 2001). The U.S. Department of Justice also found that Georgia’s juvenile boot camp systems had displayed

behaviors that caused juveniles both physical and psychological harm. We believe that this is due to the harsh punishments and unfair treatment displayed throughout the camps. With our reinvention of the camp with different strategies, we believe that we can change these statistics and make a change for the better through the use of positive reinforcement.

III. Organization

The name of our organization is Camp of Champions. Contenders for this camp will be any child between the ages of 12-17 years old who has a history of juvenile delinquency. Contenders for this camp can be recommended to our camp by their parents or guardians. They could also be assigned to our camp through the legal system during trial. We serve as part of a rehabilitation program for children who are on parole as well. The system is open to any child between the ages of 12 and 17 who is struggling with engagement in delinquency or problems with the legal system. Any child is welcomed into our program regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, or social class. We have an anti-discrimination policy and guarantee all participants that they will be welcomed with open arms and will not be subjected to hate of any kind.

Our boot camp will take the course over the duration of three months depending on the individual, our boot camp may take up to a year to be completed. The duration of the juveniles' stay depends purely on their mental and physical well-being, and whether we believe they have improved or not. If we feel like the individual still has improvements to be made, we will encourage them to stay longer. We require each participant to check back in with us after 1 month since the boot camp has been completed. From here we can reassess how they are doing, and if they need any further guidance or help. Resources will be given to them once they leave our facility. After the one-month check-in, we will then encourage them to check back in after an additional three months. Something we strive to achieve from his boot camp is to create juveniles who improve to be their best selves. We strive to achieve this through maintaining positive behaviors after the course of our boot camp is completed. The key to this program's effectiveness is continued guidance and supervision in the community (Macdonald, 2003). “Returning re-socialized offenders to their pre-incarceration environments without continuing guidance dooms them to failure.” We will provide each participant with resources that will help them once they graduate from our camp.

Our facility will be held in a school-like setting. Our camp will hold classes each day for the juveniles to learn and still obtain an education. Their class periods will take place over the course of a 7-hour school day. Four hours will be committed to class time, one hour will be committed to lunch, one hour will be committed to group therapy and one hour will be committed to physical activity. Our program has classrooms designed throughout the building. Each participant will be divided by grade. There will be seventh-grade (12-year old's), eighth-grade (13-year old's), ninth-grade (14-year old's), tenth-grade (15-year old's), eleventh-grade (16-year old's), and twelfth-grade (17-year old's). There will be four teachers in each grade, and each teaches a different subject. So, in total, there will be around 20 teachers. There will be 20 students in a class or less, depending on how many juveniles are in the program. In these classrooms, they will get their general education which will work towards their high school diploma or GED. These classes may be history, English, math, foreign languages, etc. Providing an education for our participants is our main priority. Participants will also have a class that educates them on how to stay out of trouble and how to prevent themselves from becoming juvenile delinquents. In this class we will also teach them life skills that we believe will help them after leaving our camp. We plan to keep classes entertaining to keep students attentive to the material they are learning. We may include bonding exercises, activities, and tasks around the camp.

Our facility has a nurse and a therapist who remain on campus during the designated school hours. Juveniles will remain in the facility during their stay and will be provided with housing to remain in. There will be dormitories for each participant, and there will be two children designated in one room. They will be provided with their own bed, dresser, desk, and bathroom to share. There will be a girl's dormitory and a boy's dormitory, which will take place on separate sides of the buildings. Our camp will take place all throughout the US. Each state will have its own Camp of Champions that juvenile delinquents can go to.

Our boot camp will have individual therapy sessions for each participant weekly at the end of the week. During these therapy sessions, participants will give their therapist a weekly recap and how they felt during the week. In each individual therapy session, participants will be encouraged to talk about their individual struggles as well. We will try to find a reasoning behind the cause of their delinquency, which will help us put an end to it. Therapists and juveniles will discuss ways to improve their attitudes and behaviors. This will also help their emotional well-being, which is one of the main priorities of our camp. We will also have group therapy sessions every day. This way participants can freely talk about their emotions which will help create a nurturing and comfortable environment. Group therapy sessions will be held so that everyone can hear other experiences, which will in turn make them feel better about their own situation or will help them relate to others going through the same thing. This will also help create positive relationships and teach individuals how to interact with others in a positive manner. These group therapy sessions may also help create better connections once the boot camp has been completed. Therapy sessions are highly confidential and information outside of these sessions will not be shared with others. Participants are also encouraged to speak about their own experiences but are never forced to share something they don’t want to. The purpose of our therapy sessions is to help the individual and make them feel comfortable, forcing them to speak about matters they don’t want to will ultimately be harmful to our participants. For juveniles struggling with substance abuse issues, we will have certain measures in place to overcome that obstacle in their life. The main contributor to this part of our camp would be substance abuse education and prevention. We will teach participants healthy coping habits and how to refrain from using alcohol or drugs as their form of therapy. To do this, we will introduce better coping habits into their life such as painting, drawing, playing an instrument, gardening, and many more.

Maintaining an adequate structure is something that we strive for in our boot camp. Having a consistent schedule with a comfortable environment is what we believe to be the best way to change these juveniles' behaviors. With the combination of all traditional styles of boot camps, including physical activity, therapy, and rehabilitation, we believe that we will get the most success seen out of any boot camp there has been. A recent study examined the effects that boot camps had on juveniles and how they were more beneficial than traditional correctional programs. From their study, they found that juveniles perceived both the external environment (structure, control, etc.) and the therapeutic environment (care, justice, programming, etc.) as more conducive to treatment (Styve, 2000). With this information, we believe that the structure of our camp will produce the best success and will prepare our participants once they leave our camp as well.

IV. Functions/Activities

In order to keep our participants engaged and obedient, we will have activities that we do throughout the course of the camp. To maintain an uplifting environment for participants, we want to refrain from putting too much stress on them. So, in addition to schooling, therapy, and exercise we will make sure to create fun activities for participants to do during their stay at our camp. Although the camp is designed to discipline them for their delinquent behaviors, we feel the best way to guarantee that they learn is through making sure they have a good time during their stay. These activities may also help teach them life skills. Some ideas would be having cooking classes, learning how to work on a farm, doing firefighter training activities, and many more.

In our camp, we would like our participants to develop healthy relationships with their peers and the staff. Most juveniles in our camp may not have a healthy relationship in their home life, which is the reason why they act out in the behaviors that they do. Because of this, we would like to help them create and learn about those healthy relationships in one's life. To do this, we plan on creating bonding and trust activities every week. This way everyone gets to know each other a little better and it also helps develop trust within each other. We are hoping that with these measures put into place, participants will be more motivated to improve their behavior.

Our bootcamp prohibits any form of technology. At the start of the camp, we will make sure to have participants leave all technological devices behind at home or wherever they reside. We believe that technology inhibits bad behavior and can encourage bad habits to form. We also want participants to be engaged at all times, so refraining from having any technology is the best way to make sure this happens.

V. Institutional Environment (Juvenile Staff)

Our staff will consist of adults who have a bachelor's degree or higher, and they must have experience in childcare. There will be multiple different roles throughout our boot camp, so we will hire people based on what role we think would fit best for them. In our boot camp, we need teachers, licensed therapists, P.E. teachers, nurses, police officers, and social care workers. Each must have at least one year of experience in their field to fit our roles. A rigorous interviewing process will take place to decide who would be the best fit for each position offered. We will ask each interviewee a series of questions that determine whether they are the right fit for our facility or not. Background checks and drug screenings will also be conducted for each of the staff members. If any of the interviewees fails a drug test or has a criminal history, they will automatically be out of the running for a position in our boot camp. We want only the best staff with the best educational background, and who display positive attributions and qualities. The purpose of our camp is to rehabilitate children and guide them in the right direction, so only positive role models are what we aspire to hire.

Each staff member will undergo a 4-week training session before they can begin working for our program. This training session will include classroom training and hands-on training. In this training session they will learn how to deliver the best care to juveniles, how to diffuse stressful or dangerous situations, and how to communicate with the participants in the most effective way possible.

VI. Predicted Outcomes/Success Measured

Our predicted outcome of this camp is to improve the overall performance of each individual and create them to be a better version of themself. We would like to discuss all the problems that they face as they enter the camp, and as time goes on, we will work on each factor separately.

Not only are we trying to prevent each participant from being a juvenile delinquent in the future, but we also want them to be set up to succeed in life once they leave our camp. Each participant will be treated as their own person and will not be seen as just another number. It will be a priority for us to get to know each individual in a personal way and design our camp around their needs. This will help keep the juvenile out of trouble and out of correctional facilities. We want the best for each of our participants and will make sure that they not only improve while they attend our camp, but that they also become the best version of themselves that they can be. We will also create measures to make sure that these new and improved behaviors are maintained after they leave our camp, and that they remember each lesson learned and how to apply it in their everyday lives. Making sure that they don’t regress or relapse after leaving our camp is another one of our main priorities.

We will measure success based on how much they have improved before and after our camp. As each juvenile enters our camp, we will make sure to interview them and find out what is causing them to act out the way that they do. We will observe the psychological factors as well, and make sure that there are measures put into place that will help them in those instances. Some questions that we would ask during the initial screening would be, “How often do you participate in delinquent activities”, “What age did you start partaking in delinquent activities”, “How is your family life at home”, “Have you ever had trouble with psychological issues in the past”, “Have you ever been abused by a family member”, “What caused you to act out in delinquent behaviors”, “Have you ever used alcohol or drugs as an escape from reality”, “Has alcohol or drugs caused you to partake in delinquent behaviors”, and many more.

Once the duration of the bootcamp has been completed, we will go back and revisit those same questions. We will ask the questions once again and see if there has been any change or improvement in their responses. Depending on their response, we will then decide if they need more rehabilitation or help and will discuss whether they should stay longer or not.

VII. Audience

Our audience for our program is a senior official representing the Georgia Law enforcement that deal with juvenile offenders, child psychologists, and attorneys who prosecute and defend juveniles once brought into the system. We also direct our focus to the families and friends of the juveniles attending our camp.

In our boot camp, we are attempting to maintain a stress-free environment. For the participants to improve as individuals, we need to take out the majority of their stressors, so that we can achieve the best results. We do this through events and frequent therapy sessions. It is extremely important to us that our participants have a stable mental well-being so that our boot camp is effective for them.

To keep our participants accountable, we will make sure to reinforce them and redirect any bad behavior that we may witness. Forms of punishment will not be harsh and are only intended to make sure that the juvenile learns from the experience, which will help them improve in the long run. Punishments may include extra physical activity for the day, participating in work hours, or extra therapy sessions. Extra physical activity for the day may involve them running an extra mile. Participating in work hours would involve the participants helping clean up around the camp or assisting staff members. Extra therapy sessions will be used for juveniles who may not be adhering to the other types of punishment. Our sole purpose of the boot camp is to determine why this type of behavior happens, so talking with the participants one-on-one will help us redirect this behavior and help us try and resolve their issues.

To ensure that our participants stay out of trouble after our boot camp training, we require that these individuals get aftercare services once they have left our facility. These aftercare services include therapy, employment, and community service. We require that they receive aftercare services for four months after leaving our facility. After these four months, we will then have a mandatory check-in to see how each participant is doing. If we feel that a participant has not resolved their behavior, we may require that they re-enter our boot camp for additional training. If we feel that their behavior has improved, we will continue to give them access to outside resources and will have another check-in after six months.