Martial Arts Training is Changing the Lives and Futures of At-Risk Youth
By Rebecca H. Martin, M.Ed.
Can Martial Arts instruction turn a life around?
For the first three years of her life, Annie was raised in a tent in the woods by her mentally ill mother. When Human Services finally removed her from this environment and placed her in foster care, she had never seen a roll of toilet paper or a piece of chocolate. Suffering from a variety of Mental Health issues, emotional abuse, and extreme neglect, Annie was placed in the care of foster parent, Renee’, in suburban Montgomery County. Annie had absolutely no social skills, could not play simple games which required directions, had unpredictable screaming fits, and could not accompany her foster mother along on ordinary daily routines, such as a trip to the supermarket. Renee’, a Second-Degree Black Belt in Karate, asked herself, “How can I give this child the ability to become a ‘normal’ kid?” Shortly after, Renee enrolled Annie in a Martial Arts program at the Tang Soo Do School. The changes in Annie were amazing and immediate. In this structured, safe, nurturing, and family-style environment, Annie flourished. Within two months after starting her training, Annie had acquired some socialization skills and a new sense of reality; this was accomplished not through fear, but through clear expectations and mutual respect. She developed social skills, discipline, self-esteem, and a true value of self-worth. By Annie’s sixth birthday, Renee’ completed the legal process of adoption. Today, Annie is ten-years-old, and a red belt in Karate, 1-1/2 years from achieving her Black Belt. She is a “normal”, high-achieving student, and also has the confidence to assist her instructors at her Karate school.
Jake was born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and was placed in foster care at nine months of age due to extreme neglect and malnourishment. Jake never learned how to cry, for his first cries drew no response. At an early age, he still had absolutely no self-awareness, short term memory and task problems, Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder, and was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome. After starting a Martial Arts program (“Little Dragons”--for the very young), he can stand still, has more self-control and awareness, can remember his phone number and can complete a complicated series of detailed instructions.
Tom was placed into child services at an early age and was diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome, Anxiety Disorder, and a significant problem with aggression towards peers. After six months of Martial Arts training, Tom is motivated for self-advancement, can better handle his frustrations in emotional situations, has more self-control, no longer exhibits aggression or bullies other children, has markedly less anxiety, and has much fewer behavioral problems in school.
Carey-Anne was not a product of abuse or neglect. She came from a loving family; however, Carey-Anne was extremely shy. She identified peers and teachers by their shoes. After a year of Marital Arts instruction, she has taken it upon herself to go alone to Florida to participate in a Martial Arts competition, is outgoing, and assists others in Martial Arts classes.*
One morning, Jason Richman, a Third Degree Black Belt and owner of the Universal Karate Team Martial Arts School, was watching the news. There was a featured story on NBC 10 about a new program called “City Sail”, which took at-risk youth and inner-city youth on summer sailing courses. He thought that this was a wonderful idea, but assumed that the effects of this program are unlikely long-term or life-changing and are likely short-lived, regardless of the positive experience which was indeed a temporary one. At that moment, something clicked. What about sponsoring these at-risk kids to become involved in the Martial Arts? Karate is, by definition, a way of life, not a hobby or short-term endeavor, and can be achieved. Mr. Richman himself comes from a colorful background. As a teenager, he had realized that he was headed in the wrong direction with the wrong crowd. Fortunately, he had conscious insight into his own situation; he decided that he needed to redirect his life. He had self-esteem issues and no real goal-oriented plans for his life. He wanted to associate himself with people who were interested in personal growth (and not just interested in “hanging out”) and self-advancement; he enrolled in a Martial Arts school. Jason found a solution to his problems, and a new life direction. At an early stage, once aware of the change in himself and the benefit of his training, he began to dedicate his time to opening up the world of Martial Arts to everyone, and recently, the at-risk youth population in particular. In 1995, Jason started his own Karate School, the Universal Karate Team, in Northeast Philadelphia. When asked about the name, “Team”, he explains that “Team” is actually an acronym for “Together Everyone Achieves More”.
Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishment allows common people to attain an uncommon result.
“I always considered a lot of things in my life. I take everything very personally, everything I say and do,” explains Richman. “Martial Arts did so much for me personally and gave me an avenue of understanding myself emotionally and physically. I became very interested in helping people in the early stages, to support others and let them understand that they can do it because I was able to do it. Consequently, I realized, being a young man without responsibility of a wife and children of my own, that it would be better for me to pursue what I truly enjoy now versus doing it when I’m burned-out and 40-some-years-old and putting my family at risk of changing a career late in life. I am now able to dedicate my time to this cause that I entirely believe in.”
“The key of Martial Arts is not only self-defense. It is the structured environment and the discipline that teaches self-awareness, emotionally and physically. Out of this self-awareness, comes self-esteem and self-respect and self-control and a greater understanding of oneself. This translates into wisdom and tolerance, and more reflective, thoughtful, and tolerant human beings, competent and productive citizens.” “Just imagine taking a child who has been abused and/or neglected, who has no control over themselves and their situation, who has had no direction, no discipline, who has never accomplished anything on their own, and giving them that opportunity,” elaborates Richman. “This is what my mission is--to give this opportunity to kids that may never have had, or even imagined or considered it. My program not only focuses on children in the foster care system, but also any children in need--children who have the desire but no financial resources to get started.”
The above documented case studies of the therapeutic benefits of Martial Arts training, when combined with typical psychiatric interventions and medications (i.e. antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, etc.) is like the “perfect marriage of East and West”. Even with the best of treatment plans and numerous clinical treatment options that clients are exposed to, measurable or life-long results remain idiosyncratic and difficult to define. Unlike the Eastern Holistic approach to health, which focuses on the physical and spiritual well-being of a person, Western medicine’spsychopharmacological methods depends upon healing to take place in the darkness of the molecular level; therefore, asking very little of the client other than to “take the medication as prescribed and we’ll see what happens.” If healing does indeed take place, children have very little, if any, awareness of what is taking place; therefore, in truth they have no sense of ownership or control of the results. When successfully combined or replaced with Martial Arts therapy, children are able to approach this healing and the subsequent self-awareness as meaningful, therefore reinforcing control over themselves and their treatment itself. The Martial Arts provide a foundation for motivation to sustain their new found internal and external awareness of their own behaviors. Could this become a new paradigm for clinicians and doctors alike which can truly be said to usher in “Holistic Health” as opposed to a one-dimensional bandage which so many in the health profession are aware of while hoping to find an alternative method? But let’s face it: Martial Arts classes are indeed very expensive--at an average of $600 to $1200 a year per student. Many middle to upper class families are able to budget this kind of expense; but what about those kids who are low-income, or worse yet--in the foster care system?
Jason Richman has started the first charity-based fundraising program of its kind to provide cost-free or subsidized Martial Arts instruction for at-risk and low-income children in the Philadelphia area--The Pennsylvania Kick-Start Program. On Sunday, May 19th, the 2nd Annual Pennsylvania Kick Start KICK-A-THON was held at the Northeast Racquet and Fitness Center in Northeast Philadelphia. The goal of the KICK-A-THON was to make Martial Arts training available to at-risk and low-income youth who would otherwise not have access to it. Led by Jason and his Universal Karate Team, this event was a team effort of more than a dozen local Martial Arts Schools (including Focus Karate of Bucks County and AmKor Karate Studios) and other local Martial Artists whose students competed in this “Kick-A-Thon”, sponsored on the public level (similar to a “walk-a-thon”), to raise money to fund at-risk children and subsidize low-income children at area Karate schools. Last year, the Kick-A-Thon raised over $4000 to pay for Martial Arts programs for these children at such schools as Best Karate in Germantown, American Tang Soo Do Academy in Roslyn, and AmKor Karate in Berwyn. Once children are placed in this program, they are evaluated quarterly on their training progress, academic progress (reported by their schools), and social/behavioral development (reported by parents, foster care agencies, and human service agencies and case workers), to make sure that this program is indeed making a positive difference. Children who make marked progress in these areas will continue to receive this funding every year as needed. As proven from the initial case studies described above, this program can work wonders for many children, and can mean the difference between life success and failure. Even though this event is now past, tax-deductible donations to the Kick Start Program are still being accepted.
One of the human services agencies directly benefiting from the Kick Start Program is the MENTOR Network, a national therapeutic foster care agency which licenses and trains individuals to provide community residential rehabilitation services for children with mental health issues. The local chapter of MENTOR is located in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and currently serves over 100 at-risk youth in the Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, Chester, and Philadelphia Counties, and provides them with loving, stable, and therapeutic homes, psychiatric services and counseling, and educational support. Unlike typical foster care agencies, MENTOR tries to match MENTOR kids with MENTOR homes based on a variety of criteria, including family integration and detailed client- “parent” compatibility profiles. MENTOR kids also are provided with 24-hour emergency support and weekly in-home therapy visits by qualified mental health professionals who can assess their progress in such programs as KICK START.
For more information about Pennsylvania KICK START, call Jason Richman at the Universal Karate Team, (215) 464-5151. Information about the MENTOR Network can be obtained online at www.thementornetwork.com, or by calling
1-800-788-0380.
“We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we make.”
*The above case studies are true and documented. The
children’s names have been altered to preserve privacy. --RHM
Rebecca H. Martin, a career teacher who has taught elementary school within the Lower Merion, Philadelphia, and Lansing, Michigan School Districts, is now a Recruiter for the Children’s Mental Health Program of the MENTOR Network, a national human services and therapeutic foster care agency. Mrs. Martin lives with her husband and three children in Bala Cynwyd, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She is currently creating a research and tracking system to help at-risk youth achieve through the Martial Arts.
Home
About us
.png)
