Teen Challenge

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Teen Challenge is an evangelical Christian recovery program and a network of Christian social and evangelizing work centers. It is a 12-18 month program that serves drug addicts, alcoholics, gang members, prostitutes and people with life-controlling problems.

1 History
2 Studies of Teen Challenge Effectiveness
- 2.1 Comparative studies
- 2.2 Teen Challenge Chattanooga report
3 Public policy effects
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Teen Challenge was established in 1958 by Pastor David Wilkerson, who worked among teenagers and socially-marginalized people in New York City. Teen Challenge was launched from a small office on Staten Island. In 1960, the Teen Challenge headquarters relocated to a large historical house in Brooklyn, New York. Currently Teen Challenge USA is headquartered in Springfield, MO [1] and Global Teen Challenge is headquartered in Columbus, GA [2].

By 2004, Teen Challenge had grown to include 173 residential programs and numerous evangelical outreach centers in the United States, as well as 241 centers in 77 other countries. Teen Challenge centers are either organized as a network of cooperating centers with one central governing board or as stand alone autonomous centers.

Teen Challenge USA functions as a division of the U.S. Missions department of the Assemblies of God [3], but maintains a governing board separate from the denomination. Local Teen Challenge centers have an affiliation agreement with Teen Challenge USA, which serves as a US accrediting organization.

Global Teen Challenge maintains its own board and has no official relationship with the World Missions Department of the Assemblies of God, but serves as the accrediting organization for centers located outside of the United States. Some U.S. and foreign Teen Challenge missionaries are recognized by the General Council of the Assemblies of God.

[edit] Studies of Teen Challenge Effectiveness

[edit] Comparative studies

In 1973, Archie Johnston compared results of Teen Challenge with that of a transactional analysis approach at a Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution therapeutic community, and with a third group who received no treatment. While the numbers of subjects was small (17 in each group), he found evidence to support his recommendation that, while Teen Challenge was an "effective" treatment (with a drug recidivism rate after 29 months of 32%), Transactional Analysis was a "very effective" treatment (with a comparable 16% rate), suggesting that perhaps the lower recidivism rates were a result of TA changing the addiction concept of the self-image more thoroughly and at a slower pace. He hoped that Teen Challenge would incorporate some psychotherapy into their treatment model.^[1]

Aaron Bicknese tracked down 59 former Teen Challenge students in 1995, in order to compare them with a similar group of addicts who had spent one or two months in a hospital rehabilitation program. His results, part of his PhD dissertation, were published in "The Teen Challenge Drug Treatment Program in Comparative Perspective" ^[2] Bicknese found that, while Teen Challenge graduates reported returning to drug use less often than the hospital program graduates, they were no less likely than those hospital program graduates who continued attending Alcoholics Anonymous support groups (which some also consider to be religious because of their reference to a "higher power").

His results also showed that Teen Challenge graduates were far more likely to be employed, with 18 of the 59 working at Teen Challenge itself, which relies on former clients to run the program.

Much of these results were to Teen Challenge's benefit, and the high success rates (up to 86%) he found have been quoted in numerous Teen Challenge and Christian Counseling websites.[4] [5] [6]

According to a 2001 New York Times item [7], social scientists state the 86 percent success rate of Teen Challenge is misleading, as it does not count the people who dropped out during the program, and that, like many voluntary NGO's, Teen Challenge picks its clients. The item quotes the Rev. John D. Castellani, president of Teen Challenge International U.S.A., as saying that most of the addicts have already been through detoxification programs, before they are admitted. In the program's first four-month phase, Mr. Castellani said, 25 to 30 percent drop out, and in the next eight months, 10 percent more leave.

[edit] Teen Challenge Chattanooga report

According to a study conducted by the University of Tennessee in cooperation with Teen Challenge of Chattanooga, Inc.:

"Data shows indicates that once the person has completed the program, a dramatic life-style is apparent and long lasting.... The main focus of Teen Challenge of Chattanooga is that of being a spiritual growth center where biblical principles are taught. 80% of the respondents credited developing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as a major influence in helping them to stay off drugs. As a result of this survey, indicators of success include: stabilized life-style due to their personal commitment to Jesus Christ, employment with some level of stability, financial independence, an absence of trouble with the police, an ability to enjoy freedom without condition or supervision and little need for additional drug treatment once completing the Teen Challenge program."^[3]

[edit] Public policy effects

Teen Challenge has been cited in US public policy debates as an example of why such programs merit the federal funding of faith-based organizations. Its documented success rates played a role in the establishment of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2001.

Conversely, such funding has come under attack through comments by John Castellani, the former President of Teen Challenge USA, during a House Government Reform subcommittee, examining the efficacy of religious social service providers. During the hearing, Castellani said Teen Challenge does not hire non-Christians as employees and, when asked if the group takes non-Christians as clients, he said yes, and boasted that some Jews who finish his Teen Challenge program become "completed Jews." Critics of faith-based funding cite this as an example of how religious intolerance could be publicly funded. (The "completed Jews" phrase is often used by Christians and Messianic Jews to refer to Jewish people who become believers in Yeshua (Jesus). The phrase is considered offensive to many Jewish groups because it suggests Jews are "incomplete" unless they believe in the divinity of Jesus.) ^[4]