Youth

For us, youth refers to as early an age as possible. RELAY has always been a proactive and prevention-oriented program—not an “after- the-fact” reactive program. It is imperative that healthy habits and behaviors be established early on in order to establish ones characteristics. We believe in the positive and progressive development of our children from the start rather than trying to save them later. Once behavior problems arise they increase their risks of becoming a part of the criminal and penal statistics. Thus we intentionally introduce children as young as 3 years old to the concept of book ownership and teach them the importance of care and maintenance of their book collections.

We have a history of introducing children as young as 6 years old to camcorders and other video production related equipment. This served as a means of teaching them accountability and responsibility by giving them charge of the maintenance, care and responsible usage of such equipment. Our processes reinforces the concepts of sharing, working together (including networking) and listening (versus hearing). Youngsters begin to master note taking, cooperation and assisting (versus competition), and many other life long developmental concepts vital to success. These mannerisms and skills become innate qualities they will need far beyond their early years at RELAY and into their professional lives as adults.