Our Incentives Program
Late in 2006 we began field-testing the addition of financial incentives to our growth planning 
process. In this new Incentives Program selected at risk Twin City and Jacksonville high school students can earn up to $100 per month in future-use college scholarship contributions and $25 per month in immediate-use cash payments for (1) building their Growth Plan,and then for (2) developing and using the self-motivated personal discipline of benchmarking to implement their Growth Plan in their everyday lives.
WHY FIELD-TEST INCENTIVES?
In today's media-driven, consumer-oriented youth subculture, growth planning* (see definition below) does not come naturally for most teenagers, especially for at risk youth** (see definition below). Evidence shows that they tend to have a present-focused, live-for-the-moment mindset and a reactive, go-with-the-flow lifestyle.
Most At Risk Youth Are Future-Planning Adverse. As a result, large numbers in the entire U. S. youth subculture today (especially boys) are what we call, future-planning adverse. This means that they actively resist creating an integrated set of specific, measurable goals for their current and future lives, as well as lack the ability to stay focused on demonstrating the proactive, self-motivated, results-oriented personal discipline needed to achieve those goals. In short, while they love to dream about their future, they hate to do the hard work of planning for it and making it actually happen.
[Click this link - How Growth Planning Helps Close The Achievement Gap - for a complete description of our view of the at risk youth situation in the U. S. today, as well as how our growth planning process is specifically designed to help at risk youth succeed in life.]
Mixed Results From Initial Field-Test. To help address this underlying future-planning adverse issue, in 2005 and early 2006 we field-tested our growth plan development process
with 103 high school and college age young people, most of whom could be considered at risk. As described in detail in our Field-Test Results Report, results were mixed. They were very encouraging in that youth rated the 2-3 month process of developing their Growth Plan to be very helpful in setting life-goals. However, subsequent data has shown that at risk youth tend to get distracted with other things going on in their lives before developing the self-motivated personal discipline needed to implement their Growth Plan goals on an everyday basis.
[Click this link - Teachers, etc. Section - to see a summary of these initial field-test results. Or, to request a copy of this report, Click Here.]
Decision To Do Follow-Up Incentives Field-Test. There is increasing evidence that the temporary use of carefully designed financial incentives can help at risk youth break old habits and develop new ones. So, we have decided to field-test whether adding financial incentives to our growth planning process can make a measurable difference in keeping young people engaged in growth planning long enough and deep enough for them to begin demonstrating the self-motivated personal discipline they need to implement their goals on an everyday basis ... thus breaking the hold that their future-planning adverse mindset and lifestyle seems to have over their everyday lives.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Can Earn Scholarships & Cash Payments. Young people accepted into this Incentives Program field-test will be able to earn up to $100 per month in future-use college scholarships and $25 per month in immediate-use cash payments. To earn these incentives, they must build, keep updated, and maintain quarterly forward-progress momentum towards implementing their Growth Plan. This incentives field-test is being funded by grants from our donor partners, including the Building Doorways organization.
Wells Fargo Provides Financial Services. The growth planner's future-use college scholarship earnings are deposited in a Wells Fargo Bank tomorrow's scholar college savings plan account opened in their name. The tomorrow's scholar account meets the requirements of Section 529 of the Federal Internal Revenue Service code.
Focus on Intrinsic Satisfaction. Throughout the 12-month Incentives Program field-test, growth planners will be reminded that their ability to earn extrinsic financial rewards is a temporary inducement to help them develop the intrinsic satisfaction of being self-motivated in demonstrating the personal discipline needed to achieve their goals and be successful in life. Since developing this day-to-day growth planning discipline may take longer than one 12-month period, as long as funds are available, Incentives Program participants may re-apply for continued participation in the program throughout their high school years.
Program Requirements
Once accepted into the Incentives Program, there are four requirements for remaining in the Program:
1) Attend progress check-in meetings. Once their Growth Plan is built, Program participants must have outstanding attendance at the about monthly informal "progress check-in meetings" and at the formal Quarterly Performance Progress Review Meeting at which the previous quarter's Growth Plan implementation progress is reviewed and new Quarterly Performance Progress Benchmarks are set. Parents and Support Network members are encouraged to also attend these meetings.
2) Keep your Growth Plan updated. Participants must build and keep their Growth Plan updated using Our 12 Growth Planning Worksheets.
3) Demonstrate Life-Skill use in your everyday life. Participants must show increasing understanding and actual use of Our 10 Growth Planning Life-Skills in their everyday life.
4) Demonstrate results in achieving your benchmarks. Incentives Program participants must show strong commitment and actual measurable results in maintaining forward-progress momentum towards achieving their Quarterly Performance Progress Benchmarks, in spite of inevitable setbacks or failures along the way.
Parent Participation. As a part of the application process, youth under 18 will be given a Parent Agreement Form to complete and return to their Growth Plan Coach. It states that their parent or guardian gives them permission to participate in the Incentives Program, and that he or she agrees to regularly encourage and support their youth in abiding by the four Program Requirements listed above.
How To Contribute. Individuals, corporations and foundations interested in providing funds for this Incentives Program field-test should click here to let us know of their interest.
NOTES:
* Our definition of growth planning: SIMPLY PUT, GROWTH PLANNING IS A MINDSET & LIFESTYLE CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESS. More specifically, we define growth planning as "the learned art and skill of having an optimistic, positive, and future-focused MINDSET and a proactive, self-motivated, and self-disciplined LIFESTYLE that uses the three skills of (1) visioning, (2) goal-setting, and (3) step-by-step benchmarking to continuously improve our self as a person and to achieve our vision and goals."
** We define "at risk youth" as: "high school or college age young people in danger of not successfully completing high school, college, a trade school, or skill training program ... thereby limiting their ability to live up to their full potential for success in all aspects of their life." We actively seek opportunities to work with all at risk youth, with a special emphasis on working with youth of color.
We have identified Six At Risk Youth Early Warning Signs, any one or a combination of which could put a young person severely at risk: 1) A severely disruptive family life, without several caring adults significantly involved in their child & youth development; 2) A history of poor grades or repeated behavior problems at school; 3) Risky sexual behavior that could result in disease or a teen pregnancy; 4) Repeated incidents with the law; 5) Frequent use of drugs or alcohol; and 6) Allowing society's prejudicial barriers or what others think of them to keep them from succeeding at school or in other aspects of their life.