Our Incentives Program
Late in 2006 we began field-testing the addition of financial incentives to our growth planning 
process. In this Incentives Program selected at risk Twin City and Jacksonville 8th grade or high school students can earn up to $100 per month ($1,200/year) in future-use college scholarship contributions and $25 per month ($300/year) in immediate-use cash payments for (1) building a Growth Plan and benchmarking its step-by-step progress in their everyday life; and for (2) developing and demonstrating a "Growth Planning Mindset & Lifestyle in their everyday life. [Note: different kinds and amounts of incentives can be used.]
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 @risk-w/high-potential youth** (see definition below). Evidence shows that at risk youth tend to have a present-focused, live-for-the-moment mindset and a reactive, go-with-the-flow lifestyle ... approximating what we call "A Street Survival Mindset & Lifestyle."
Most At Risk Youth Are Future-Planning Adverse. As a result, large numbers of @risk-w/high-potential youth 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.
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 @risk-w/high-potential youth. 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 @risk-w/high-potential 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 ongoing basis.
Decision To Do Follow-Up Incentives Field-Test. There is increasing evidence that the use of carefully designed financial incentives can help @risk-w/high-potential youth break old habits and develop new ones. So, we decided to field-test whether adding financial incentives 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 the Incentives Program can earn up to $100 per month in future-use college scholarships ($1,200/year) and $25 per month ($300/year) in immediate-use cash payments ... although other kinds and amounts of incentives can be used. To earn these incentives, youth must build, keep updated, and maintain quarterly forward-progress momentum towards implementing their Growth Plan . . . plus demonstrate progress in living their everyday life with a growth planning mindset & lifestyle.
Wells Fargo Provides Financial Services. The 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 multi-year Incentives Program, growth planners are 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 five 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 periodic "progress check-in meetings" and at the 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 Growth Plan updated. Participants must build and keep their Growth Plan updated using Our 12 Growth Planning Worksheets.
3) Demonstrate the progressive development of A Growth Planning Mindset & Lifestyle in their 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 their 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.
5) Maintain 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, guardian, or other selected close friend of the family gives the youth permission to participate in the Incentives Program, and that he or she agrees to regularly encourage and support their youth in fulfilling the Program Requirements.
NOTES:
* Our definition of growth planning: Simply put, growth planning is a self-identity, mindset & lifestyle change and development process that helps @risk-w/high-potential and other youth and young adults to avoid or move away from what we call a “Street Survival Mindset & Lifestyle” … and to develop and measurably move towards what we call a “Growth Planning Mindset & Lifestyle." Specifically, we define growth planning as:
"the learned art and skill of having a lifelong continuous growth 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 "@risk-w/high-potential youth" as: "8th grade, 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 high potential for success in all aspects of their life." We actively seek opportunities to work with all @risk-w/high-potential youth, with a special emphasis on working with youth and young adults of color.
We have identified Six @Risk-w/High-Potential 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.