WYPR: Baltimore's 'Boy's Hope Girls Hope' Program Uses Strict Discipline to Help Students Graduate (2008-03-20)

There are many approaches to saving a child from poverty. Baltimore's Boys Hope Girls Hope program takes a rather drastic approach: it takes children out of their underprivileged environment entirely. The national program run by Jesuits has been operating in Baltimore for six years. Later this year, it plans to begin construction on a girls' residence. Until then, the program caters strictly to boys. WYPR's Sarah Richards files this report.

Chuck Roth is showing off a house pet, Missy the tabby cat.

TAPE: (13 SECONDS)

IC: We have a few pets, but we kinda had to put the brakes on pets for a little while. Nobody wants to take care of the litter box, so that's the big issue.

Roth is the executive director of the Baltimore branch of Boys Hope Girls Hope. He's in charge of a house full of boys. The young men are living here because they share a similar story: each is a promising student. And each has a home life in turmoil. Boys Hope invites the boys here to stabilize their lives-- not the easiest task when it comes to teenagers. Chuck Roth.

TAPE: (12 SECONDS)

IC: We require a lot. There's a strong academic expectation, 3.0 or better in a private school setting. We ask that they give back to the community so they're asked to do 100 hours of community service a year.

The students are also expected to do extra-curricular activities at school. And at 16, the boys get jobs. Two-thirds of their earnings go toward college. To top it off, if they don't keep up their grades, they lose privileges, like access to video games. It's a new life with new rules and some of the boys struggle to adapt.

TAPE: (5 SECONDS)

IC: My mother gave me a lot more freedom, so I could go out and do whatever I want.

David is 18. He's been participating in the program for six years.

TAPE: (10 SECONDS)

IC: Coming here, they laid the rules down here's the rule, you follow them. You don't good-bye. But after a while, you get used to them.

Before this, he was living with his single mother. She was having trouble supporting him. Some of the boys here have parents who are struggling with drug addiction. They stay in touch with their families with weekly or monthly visits. When you ask them what's different about living here, many say the same thing: finally, I can concentrate on school.

TAPE: (3 SECONDS)

IC: It's been much easier to do my homework.

Davon (DAY-von) is 17.

TAPE: (10 SECONDS)

IC: I say my grades went up since I been here, but I think mostly it's because I been able to do my homework quietly without being distracted.

Boys Hope's big beige house sits on a quiet street in the Overlea-Hamilton area. Georg Barber is one of the program's live-in residential counsellors. He says the fact you won't hear gunfire or police helicopters on this street is important. He says those sounds remind many young men in this city of a seemingly inevitable fate.

TAPE: (20 SECONDS)

IC: Just not to have that energy, not have that defensiveness, not have that knee-jerk reaction, bodes well to having a much more relaxed body, having a much more relaxed spirit, to be able to be able to really contemplate and be in control of what's next.

Boys Hope was founded in 1977 by a Jesuit Father. Chuck Roth says the program emphasizes academic achievement.

TAPE: (19 SECONDS)

IC: Prior to moving in to this home, which was January of last year, we had the highest GPA in the country for the previous two years. That's of 17 U.S. programs. We have about a 3.5, 3.6 cumulative average for two years in a row.

The Baltimore program has recently slipped a little in the standings because it expanded, and some of the newer students have yet to improve their grades. They're still adjusting to the change, and that can take months. Davon says it's not easy.

TAPE: (17 SECONDS)

IC: It's definitely tough. Being one of the oldest, biggest in the program, they rely on me to be one of the leaders, so it's hard trying to be their friend and their leader and take control sometime.

Davon's one of four students allowed to take part in the program without living in residence. Still, he doesn't get off any easier. On weekdays, he goes to school, and then comes here, where he does homework and eats supper. He leaves Boys Hope at nine-thirty at night so that he can sleep at a friend's house. With its emphasis on rules and personal responsibility, Boys Hope can seem old fashioned. But Roth says that appeals to many donors, who relate to the program's balance of discipline and support.

TAPE: (5 SECONDS)

IC: It's a little old-school, as our kids would call it, but you see the results.

Erin Masters was a substitute teacher for two years in Charles County public schools. She now tutors here two days a week.

TAPE: (22 SECONDS)

IC: You know, kids will be kids. But for the most part... Ms. Erin', Yes ma'am', No ma'am.' And that's one thing I was taken aback with when I started with the program. Most of them are from the inner city, but they're still so respectful and so intelligent. I was very, very surprised when I came here.

AMBIENCE: sizzlin' fry

Charlene Fitch is standing over a metal frying pan so big, it looks like something more at home in an auto shop. It's full of frying chicken. Fitch is a fulltime student, but she cooks here four days a week. Tonight, she's making dinner for the boys, the staff, and a visiting parent.

TAPE: (10 SECONDS)

IC: So I get, what five-point-something pounds, and I usually go through two, two-and-a-half bags, so that's about what... 12 pounds of chicken...

On weekdays, evenings culminate with dinner. Everyone sits down at a long wooden table in the kitchen.

AMBIENCE: dinner chatter

It's an important ritual an almost subtle way of teaching the young people how to talk; how to listen. And also how to interact with each other. Roth says they also have meetings to diffuse any tensions that arise amongst the boys.

TAPE: (24 SECONDS)

IC: So many kids have come from tough neighbourhoods, where fighting is how you solve issues. We try to teach a little more methodical ways of dealing with it...trying to get them back to the point where it started off with being disrespectful in a verbal sense, and if you don't do that, then it doesn't escalate to a physical component.

In two months, the first batch of graduates from Boys Hope Baltimore will leave high school and go on to college. David says he'll probably be going to La Salle University in Philadelphia. He's earned a 48-thousand-dollar scholarship. Once again, he'll be starting fresh. And he's feeling conflicting emotions.

TAPE: (14 SECONDS)

IC: Nervous, but excited, I guess you can say. I'm really scared to do it just because I've never been on my own-- on my own-own. I've had the staff here. But I really think I can do it. So, I'm ready. I'm ready to go.

A possibility that seemed so distant just a few years ago.

This is Sarah Richards reporting in Baltimore for 88-1 WYPR.