BOSS programme seeks to rescue Jamaica's youth

BY INGRID BROWN Sunday Observer senior reporter This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Sunday, October 18, 2009

A programme commended for saving many young American Blacks and Hispanics from ending up in gangs in some gritty California streets, has been brought to Jamaica in a bid to motivate young people here to transform their lives.

Founders of the Building on Spiritual Substance (BOSS) programme Al and Hattie Hollingsworth, who are also owners of the multimillion dollar Aldelano Packaging Corporation - a chain of contract packaging companies in five states across the US - have invested their time and finances to establish the 23-year-old BOSS movement youth success training curriculum and the Vertical Leap Seminar.

The Hollingsworths, whose business services major companies like American Airlines, Proctor & Gamble, Toyota, General Mills, Red Bull, and Verizon, are also operators of the Alhattie Christian Resort, a four-star vacation and retreat facility in California, situated on the former filming grounds for the Ponderosa of the Bonanza TV series.

The couple, who has been married for 39 years, told the Sunday Observer that they have been blessed enough to use their own money to support the programme over the years.

"The BOSS programme is 'our' plane and our yacht'," said a smiling Hattie.

The training programme is said to help young people to operate in "their God-given birthrights of confidence and courage", and helps to strengthen self-esteem, motivation, poise, leadership and speaking skills.

The Hollingsworths emphasised that BOSS was not a church, but rather a non-denominational movement that is merging ministry into the marketplace by teaching youth how to prosper both spiritually and economically.

The couple, who was recently in Jamaica training adults to take the programme to youth, explained that the concept was born when they discovered that young people were showing up at their business place in "hair rollers" and " house slippers" as they did not know how to present themselves.

Al, who was a Commissioner for Economic Development then, said they were concerned about what the human capital would be in the future.

"We began to recognise what our state was going through because drugs was entering, gangs were being formed and, if we did not do something, we were going to lose the generation of urban young Blacks and Hispanics," he said.

"The young people did not know how to stand, how to dress, how to look, and failure was not just because of colour but was self-imposed because of not knowing how the economic game of the world operates," he explained.

He said they needed to know how to compete for job opportunities and, as such, the programme began with teaching the basics, like how to present themselves if they were to be a participant in the game of economical survival.

So necessary was the programme, Al said, the California school district facilitated it by opening up the school board auditorium to accommodate youth from some 13 school districts.

Due to its success, Al said, the programme was given the green light by schools, despite laws to separate church from state.

"At first, the school superintendent was concerned how it would work with so many young people coming from varied neighbourhoods that were warring with each other, but the kids became one big family," explained Hattie.

Transformation, the couple said, could be seen within three weeks of the 20-week programme.

They said the programme expanded rapidly after children began making radical changes, and parents wanted to know what was happening and began requesting a programme for adults.

"In the 80s, we began to write a curriculum and we were able to train trainers and leave them to run the programme, and that is how we now have programmes in Indonesia, the Philippines and throughout Africa," Al said.

BOSS is said to have been embraced throughout the US and around the world in countries such as Japan, Kenya, South Africa, the Philippines, Indonesia, Switzerland, and Ghana where it has trained thousands to accomplish their dreams and turn visions and ideas into reality.

Regional directors for BOSS Jamaica, American-born Fred McClurkin, a retired pilot, and his Jamaican-born wife Regna, a retired flight attendant, said they brought the programme to Jamaica because of the passion they have to see the lives of Jamaican youth transformed.

"We have cried for the youths of this nation and God has given us a vision and mandate to bring about transformation," he said.

Regna said she had to bring the programme here after noticing that schoolgirls would change out of their uniforms to go on the cruise pier in Ocho Rios to solicit visitors.

She said they are currently partnering with Youth With A Mission, Inter-school Christian Fellowships, as well as churches across the nation to reach more young people, and are also seeking permission from the Ministry of Education to allow the programme into some schools.

"I really see this programme in the schools," she said, adding, "a part of the programme teaches there are three types of people: 87 per cent are followers and are lukewarm, 10 per cent are cold and are destroyers and only three per cent are hot and they are leaders. And it is amazing to see these children try to see where they fit in," she said.

"We are at Windsor Girls Home and it is amazing to see the transformation in ten weeks," she said, adding that "some of our girls will graduate and once they go through the process, they can be certified to go with us to teach in other homes across Jamaica."

Meanwhile, Fred said the curriculum was a solid one, as BOSS Business Network (BBN) - another component of the programme - would allow children from as young as four to start operating their own businesses and teach them how to source, package, market, and distribute products.

The BBN is a centre of commerce allowing access to markets in Jamaica and around the world. It includes a directory and allows the free marketing of goods, services and information to promote businesses or church ministries.