GUARD: Program not as portrayed

Regarding the April 2 story, "Senate to tackle boot camp bill" by Tom Hasslinger:

My husband and I recently retired from the National Guard and worked for a number of years for the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program in another state. There were some inaccuracies in Mr. Hasslinger's article and I also had some concerns with establishing a program in Idaho.

The NGYCP does not consider their program a "boot camp," nor is it a "Fourteen week crash course." Briefly, it is a voluntary three-phase program.

Phase One (Pre-ChalleNGe) is two weeks to allow students to decide if this is where they want to be to catch up on their credits and introduce them to a strictly scheduled educational environment.

Phase Two (ChalleNGe) is 22 weeks of classes, community service, extra-curricular activities and establishment of incremental life goals to be put into place upon completing the residential phase of the program.

Phase three (post residential) is one year of follow-up with monthly contact with the cadet and his or her mentor. The cadet must be either employed full time, in school full time or part-time school and job. Verification is required for credit.

My primary concern is the training of the cadre and staff. I read where, if approved by the Senate, the program is projected to begin in July. That is not enough time to thoroughly train personnel to work with these children. There are so many facets to the job that cadre must have extensive training to go with it. There should be classes on how to work with troubled youths and crisis intervention. Since cadre work daily with the cadets, they need to know how to recognize signs of drug, sexual and physical abuse and the process of reporting.

My secondary concern is funding. With the state of the economy, it's difficult to see more funds being used by the Defense Department and Idaho. Furthermore, there is no guarantee on how long the program will continue. Granted, the program is beneficial for our children, but there are that many at-risk students in Idaho to warrant the expense of the program?

Currently, Idaho's students can attend the programs in Wyoming, Montana, Washington and Oregon. The only supportive reasons I have for starting a ChalleNGe program is the awareness that it is a financial drain for the other states' programs and oftentimes does not allow their own residents to attend in order to accommodate students from Idaho. It's also a far distance for a mentor, which is mandatory, to go attend trainings and visit their cadet.

Without a doubt, the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program is fantastic. The success rate of cadets who have gone through other academies is a compliment to the training and dedication of the mentors, cadre and staff. Anyone can check out the programs in other states by going online to www.ngycp.org.

REBECCA PERRY

Post Falls