Rebecca Chávez was 15 years old when she dropped out of high school. Her story is not uncommon because she was one of Phoenix’s many disconnected youth.
“I stopped going and wasn’t doing anything,” she said. “I had just had my son and didn’t take school seriously.”
ReEngage Phoenix formed last month as a response to the city’s high rate of disconnection.
Disconnected youth include teenagers and young adults, ages 16 to 24, who are neither in school nor employed. Nationwide, one-in-seven young adults are considered disconnected, according to a 2012 Measure of America study. In Phoenix, the rate of disconnection is almost one-in-five.
Phoenix ranked as having the highest rate of disengagement in Measure of America’s study of 25 major metropolitan areas.
That report pushed for the development of programs like ReEngage Phoenix to reach out to the disconnected populace and get them reconnected with their community, adviser Kristopher Seydel said.
Seydel works as an adviser with College Depot, a program that provides free college planning services, at Phoenix’s Burton Barr Central Library. The ReEngage Phoenix program serves to help high school dropouts either re-enroll in school or obtain a GED diploma.
“We connect people who know they need their high school diploma or GED to succeed but don’t necessarily know how to go about getting it,” he said.
The program begins with an in-person assessment, where an adviser gathers a client’s basic demographic information and evaluates his or her learning style.
Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, ReEngage wants to connect people with programs that will work for their needs and lifestyles, he said.
Luis Bleuze, a veteran teacher, served on Mayor Greg Stanton’s Youth and Education Commission and was a leading force in initiating ReEngage Phoenix.
“As a professional educator, I have a very holistic approach,” he said. “The particular clients that would fit into the ReEngage program are broken. Their spirit is broken. The best thing we can offer them is hope.”
Bleuze utilized his summer break from teaching at Genesis Academy to lay the groundwork for ReEngage Phoenix. He said the guiding values he emphasized during the program’s formation were hope, motivation and accountability.
“Imagine yourself at 25 with no diploma,” Bleuze said. “You’ve had every door slammed in your face because you don’t have that piece of paper.”
The first few weeks are critical, he said. Clients are held accountable, and advisers mentor them through the process.
“We can’t package our remedy and sell it to everybody,” Bleuze said. “Everyone has different needs.”
ReEngage Phoenix works with College Depot. Clients can study for their GED, take computer classes and research colleges. Advisers counsel students on applying for financial aid, grants and scholarships.
“We follow up weekly to see what option worked best,” Seydel said. “We act as a their coach or cheerleader and help them start the next step for post-secondary education.”
The disconnection of youth has a negative impact on society as a whole, Seydel said. They have more health problems and are more likely to get involved in criminal activity.
Measure of America reported that the problem cost the government an estimated $93.7 billion in 2012 because disconnected youth are less likely to work and more likely to use government aid services.
Seydel said he knows firsthand the important role education has in a young person’s life. He dropped out of high school as a sophomore, but he earned his GED diploma in the end. He attended South Mountain Community College and transferred to Arizona State University, where he received his bachelor’s degree.
“It comes full circle,” he said. “I want to help people in the ways that others helped me.”
Chávez, now 19 years old, connected with ReEnage Phoenix through her mother. She met with an adviser, who recommended that she re-enroll in high school because she had already passed her Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards test, better known as AIMS.
She currently attends Premier High School. She said she plans attend a community college in her area and study sociology or psychology.
“I realized I needed to go to school,” she said. “I needed to have a better future.”
Contact the reporter at Whitney.McCarthy@asu.edu
