What is the "Moment of Discovery?"
When young people do things they previously thought impossible, they have an outlook-altering moment of discovery. They discover they are agents. They discover they can overcome limits. They discover that at least one part of their environment can give way to their will power and abilities. This changes everything.
Interrupting the ACEs Cycle
Children growing up in poverty can face a range of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that include domestic violence, neglect, witnessing or being the victim of violence, sexual abuse, or substance abuse. Kids who experience these things grow up in a world of broken promises. They experience a lack of self-worth. All of this leads to a sense of hopelessness and passivity that can lead to a repeating cycle of ACEs. How can this self-reinforcing cycle be interrupted?
Discovery Cycle
At New City Kids we respond to the ACEs cycle by inviting youth into a completely different cycle that at first happens simultaneously. Youth are invited into a loving community. They are told they are valuable and capable enough to be trusted with leadership. They are trained and then given real responsibilities like teaching a music class or tutoring their younger peers. They are then given real rewards and recognition. Gradually the hopelessness is replaced with the realization that promises can be kept. The breakthrough happens when young people find themselves doing the very things they assumed they could never do.
Virtues Released...
As these young people experience this cycle repeating itself week after week, and month after month, mental and behavioral habits form. These include delayed gratification and responsibility. As the youth work with younger children just like them, empathy and a sense of service develop. A healthy sense of risk-taking and entrepreneurship develops as they are challenged to design and implement small businesses. All of this leads these young people to take ownership of their businesses, classrooms and, ultimately their lives.
I was invited to be a drum teacher at New City Kids at a young age. What I thought was just a job and extracurricular activity was much more. I was challenged with the responsibility of leading children who were a couple of years younger than me. I received training and began believing, "I can do this," and I DID IT! At that moment, I discovered that if I could lead a classroom of my peers, I could do so much more...
Greg Nelson, New City Kids Alumni
Brain rewired for hope
The neuroplasticity of the brain means that even youth who have been through severe trauma can have the brain rewired for hope. As “moments of discovery” begin to pile up and youth experience a stable environment of love in which they are the agents of change called on to help others, they experience a coalescence of biological, emotional and spiritual healing.
