Social Entrepreneurs Learn the Power of High Expectations

High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.

Charles Kettering

Youth social entrepreneurs discover their power as transformative agents for people they invest in.

For example, last week 17 year old, William Bradley who was selected to teach chess at the newly formed chess club at St Leonards House in Chicago took 1st place at a Chicago Public School chess tournament. William is a self taught chess player who has embraced the high expectations of the Barrington chess community and is working with the non profit Outside the Walls to use chess as one of the means of reducing recidivism among the ex prisoner population.

"More than 500,000 individuals are released from prison each year. As they return to their communities, they face obstacles in finding employment and housing, as well as significant debt, outstanding fines, and restitution payments. Two-thirds of this population are arrested again within three years. St. Leonard's House in Chicago offers voluntary, supportive housing for men exiting prison. Program clients receive housing, substance abuse treatment, psychological services, life skills, mentoring, and education and vocational services. Authority researchers used qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, as well as quasi-experimental design and advanced statistical analysis, to examine outcomes after program participation, including arrests, convictions, incarcerations, and employment". The Barrington community at the Peter Wulff Center, Salem United Methodist Church and Chess Without Borders collaborated with Rev Johnson the CEO at Outside the Walls to create a chess club at St Leonards House to help in efforts to intellectually, socially and mentally engage this community. Volunteers from Barrington have stayed involved with Outside the Walls for the last 15 years but only recently learned of a new means of supporting a highly successful program that caters to ex prisoners. Rev Tommy Johnson won a prestigious national award for his work in reducing recidivism with this population. The teenage youth social entrepreneurs Krish Nara, Jack Weed, Prabhgun Kaur, Prabhjet Singh and Johnny Dawson under the mentorship of Chris Majkowski have found inventive methods to fund this project. They have sold Hummus, asked friends and gathered support through technology to advance this project. Johnny Dawson is leading the pilot study at this program that will help determine if a vibrant, intense chess program can assist in reducing recidivism.

By establishing a chess program youth volunteers are able to see the power of having high expectations that actually empowers others who are not as fortunate as them. 13 year old Krish Nara said, "I am excited to create the program and am always itching to do more". William Bradley the 17 year old chess teacher is teaching from the textbook written by GM Shulman and Rishi Sethi. This method standardizes the curriculum. He is also given puzzles for his students to complete so they improve. Learning is measured through chess ratings provided by the US Chess Federation.

The Peter Wulff Center aspires to train youth to create projects that benefit humanity and as they challenge themselves they discover their own potential and often are surprised at what then become and the confidence they gain from this experience. " I did not know how good I became in videos after working as a videographer for the program." said 17 year old Elenore Marjwik van Kooy. For the last 25 years youth social entrepreneurs raised over $325,000 through creating local and global social entrepreneurial projects, won many awards, attended the Youth UN Assembly in New York and continue to transform the lives of others including their own.

Here is a video of some of these enthusiastic Award Winners 12 years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Join us or help in any way to grow this unique program by emailing Chris at peterwulffcenter@gmail.com