What teenagers are doing after school can be as important as what they are doing in school. With so many parents out working during the day, after-school can become a limbo time when no responsible adult is around and teenagers are most likely to become involved in risky behaviour. All children are potentially at risk, regardless of socio-economic group. "Do you know where your children are?" is a question that gardai want all parents to be able to answer confidently. This is why the Juvenile Liaison Office in Harcourt Square supports 51 after-school programmes around the State with a total budget of £4 million. Twelve more projects will be announced soon. "Miracle work" is how Garda Inspector Michael Feehan of the Juvenile Liaison Office describes the process of getting young people involved in the "alternative high" of fulfilling after-school activity. The official term is "youth crime diversionary project", although this is unintentionally stigmatising. What is actually involved is targetting early school-leavers most at risk and finding a project that they can commit to. One of the most successful of these is the Rock Challenge programme at Larkin Community College, in Dublin's inner city.
The Rock Challenge is a crime and drug prevention initiative that takes the form of a performing-arts competition. Initially developed in Australia and supported by police in Britain and Northern Ireland, the Rock Challenge is simple: after school, groups of teenagers choreograph and rehearse a 12-minute dance routine which they go on to perform in a competition against other schools.
When they join the programme, students are asked to sign a pledge promising that they will stay off alcohol, drugs and cigarettes. Teenagers who could be at risk of becoming early school-leavers are so enthusiastic about it that it has become their reason for staying in school. "The Rock Challenge has transformed the lives of staff and students in our school and it has had a tremendous impact on the wider community," says Maire O'Higgins, arts coordinator for Larkin Community College. "It develops artistic intelligence, which is often neglected. Just as excellence in physical development happens on the sports field, excellence in the arts happens in the Rock Challenge. And schools are about the pursuit of excellence." For the second year running, her students have been the only representatives from the Republic to compete in the Waterfront Hall in Belfast against eight schools from Northern Ireland. Last year, the Larkin students came home with an award for best hair and make-up. This year they came second overall and won awards for best drugsawareness project, best soundtrack and best costumes. As part of the process, students invited guest speakers to talk to them about drug abuse in their community and students presented a drugs awareness exhibition for the community. This included creative writing around the theme of drugs, research into drugs-counselling centres in the inner city and interviews with gardai, drugs counsellors and social workers. "All of this is an extraordinary feat considering that the Rock Challenge is an after-school activity which teachers, students and community workers volunteer to be a part of," says O'Higgins. "More than 11 teachers, two gardai and two drugs counsellors were directly involved in the process and others helped by doing such onerous tasks as cooking breakfast for 90 bleary-eyed students and staff at 4.30 a.m. on the day of the competition." The Rock Challenge is run in Britain by the "Be Your Best Foundation" charity. Such faith has the British police force in the success of the Rock Challenge as a crime and drug prevention initiative that they have assigned full-time personnel to the project. The "Be Your Best Foundation" was trying to establish the Rock Challenge here when the teachers' strike intervened. But they are determined to hold a number of regional events in Ireland next year with a final in Dublin. This year, sponsorship was provided by Jury's Doyle Hotel Group, the North Eastern Health Board and the Drugs Task Force. Most schools that compete have significant parental involvement, but for many of the parents at Larkin Community School, being involved with a school project was a new experience. Says O'Higgins: "A lot of the parents work during the day. Many more have such bad memories of their own school days that they will not visit the school. Others still feel inadequate and are fearful of the school environment, which reflects their own negative attitude to schooling."
With the Rock Challenge, parents had a reason to "celebrate" their children's school experience, she adds. "Larkin has many committed parents who value their children's educations. For others who may not have felt so comfortable with the educational environment, and for whom schooling is not a priority, the Rock Challenge provided an opportunity to become involved. The teachers at Larkin Community College found that parents interacted more with the school during the Rock Challenge than for any other `after' or `during' school activity." Those parents who had difficulty reading, and who would normally hide this from their children, spent time reading the information notes brought home by students. When a child missed rehearsals, parents made it their business to either ring to explain the absence or to write a note.
In some cases parents got their children to write the notes and they signed them. This may sound entirely normal for your average school, but at Larkin Community College, as with many schools, there are those whose parents see little use in finishing school. For example, some parents feel they have no choice but to keep older children at home to babysit younger children. "There are many students in our school who have opted to stay on because they like being in school, which is breaking a cycle, where before there wasn't a history of school attendance in the family." The Rock Challenge is not just for children in socially disadvantaged areas: in Britain schools from all social groups participate. What makes it work is that parents and teachers give their time voluntarily. We need more of this kind of thing, but can we manage it? Says O'Higgins: "I think teaching life will alter dramatically over the next few years. The `vocational' nature of teaching is changing. There are fewer teachers willing to commit to after-school activities.
The Rock Challenge in the UK is run so professionally and is of such a high standard that it is a pleasure to buy into it. The amazing thing about the event is the fact that all those involved give of their time freely." It's an inspiring story from a part of Dublin where inspiration can be in short supply. It also makes a lot of sense psychologically because, rather than seeing young people as problems, it emphasises their talents. This is exactly what an after-school programme should do, according to a report by the Society for Research in Child Development in the US, titled What Do Adolescents Need for Healthy Development? Implications for Youth Policy. The report states that good after-school programmes provide enriching, challenging, creative activities and give young people autonomy, while at the same time helping them to develop strong, positive relationships with adults. According to the research, teenagers prefer such life-enhancing activities to getting involved in gangs.
