Programs
HYLIFe
Summer Enrichment
Emergency Support
Leadership Dev
Technology Initiative
Volunteer Information
TIA
Cultural Heritage
Affordable Housing

Hispanic Info
NCCIU
Nat'l Council of La Raza
Latino.Com
Hispanic Business
Ascento Latino
Ayudate
Hispanic Heritage Month
FirstGov en Espanol

Hoke Youth Life In Focus (HYLIFe):
Teens Taking Action to Create Positive Opportunities for Life

Program Abstract--Year Three

The Blue Springs-Hoke County Community Development Corporation, serving as the lead agency for this project, in collaboration with the Hoke County Health Department, Hoke Juvenile Justice Center, Hoke County’s Sandhills Mental Health, Hoke County Department of Social Services, the Hoke County Schools Support Services and FirstHealth of the Carolinas; with support from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will continue year three of an innovative youth development project: Hoke Youth-Life In Focus (HYLIFe): Teens Taking Action to Create Positive Opportunities for Life. This Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative (TPPI) program was successfully piloted during fiscal year 1999-2000. The program components include the integration of "Best Practices" perspectives, popular educational approaches, health screens, and life-skills training program activity to foster responsible behavior and healthy life choices deliberation among student participants. This participant group is comprised of youth who are at high risk for un intended pregnancy.

Since beginning the program, Hoke County has improved from number one in adolescent pregnancy rate to number seventeen.  This is an indication of what the project is helping to achieve in Hoke County.

HYLIFe is staffed by a full-time Program Coordinator - Nodean Jeffers -and a correlative male staff member- Kenneth Clark . They have the responsibility of recruiting participants, building bridges in the community, and delivering program components. The Office Administrator, Peggy Davis, adds clerical support and assists in the management of program data flow surrounding volunteers, HYLIFe participants, mentors, parents, additional youth participants, and the Community Advisory Board.

This TPPI project builds on the work began with Positive Alternatives aimed at Intervention Strategies through Role-modelS (PAIRS), a female mentoring program launched in 1998, and expands the focus to include males who have largely been the "absent" factor in the pregnancy prevention equation.

Hoke Youth Life In Focus (HYLIFe) operates as an outreach and direct service project for young women and men, ages 12-19. HYLIFe program components are delivered after-school at the Hoke County High School. Structured activities, preventative health services and education, are combined with support services aimed at decreasing premature parenting and teen pregnancy. Female and male participants meet four times weekly, Monday through Thursday. Contact sessions, provided in 3-hour time frames, alternate TOP and Wise Guys "best practice" curricula guided components with tutoring and one-to-one mentoring, life-skills training, economic literacy education and computer training.  An Advisory Board comprised of community leaders, HYLIFe collaborative partners, and HYLIFe parents serve as an additional program support mechanism.

The third-year HYLIFe program will continue providing the outlined scope of services as it die with the initially enrolled sixty (60) participants and increase its participant size by 25% —adding 15 additional slots — with the goal of reaching seventy-five (75) young men and women in the Hoke County Community. Two additional program components-- "rites of passage" experience and apprenticeship/entrepreneurial training-- served as step-up areas of involvement for second year HYLIFe participants. The second year budget was $95,852; reflecting a funded grant of $75,000 by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Fayetteville Observer article based on 1998 data.

Fayetteville Observer article on "Baby Think It Over"

Go to computer training pages.