The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program (ChalleNGe) is fundamentally an intervention program designed to provide opportunities for those youth who are deemed to be most at-risk and who demonstrate a desire to improve their potential for successful and productive lives. Authorized and funded through DoD, NGB is responsible for management and oversight of the 30 ChalleNGe programs that graduated more than 70,000 Corpsmembers to date.

The ChalleNGe program continues to be fiscally competitive with other Federal as well as private programs with a mission to help disadvantaged youth. Empirical evidence shows the ChalleNGe program to be the most cost-effective intervention reviewed for achievement in addressing the
needs of at-risk youth.

Consider this:

It costs $27 per capita, per day for cadets to attend the ChalleNGe program as compared to other youth programs:

$50 for High School

$87 for Job Corps

$117 for Juvenile Corrections

$162 for Adult Corrections

$178 for Private

Our nation is in danger of losing a generation of kids to crime and delinquency. Nearly 33 million young Americans do not have a high school degree. Each year, a million more drop out of school and slip between the cracks. The majority will end up incarcerated, unemployed, underemployed, or on federal assistance.

Today, 30% of high school dropouts are unemployed and 24% are on welfare. Over their lifetime, they could lose an estimated $900,000 in wages. An astonishing 68% of the prison population is made up of high school dropouts. As a nation, we must address this crisis.

In 1993, the National Guard founded the Youth ChalleNGe Program to give troubled youth the opportunity to turn their lives around. A voluntary, preventive program, the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program (NGYCP) helps young people improve their life skills, education levels and employment potential. Sixteen- to 18-year-old male and female high school dropouts are eligible to apply for the 17-month program, which includes a five-month residential phase followed by a 12-month mentoring phase.

Led by professionals who emphasize discipline, education and life skills, the Youth ChalleNGe Program provides high school dropouts the chance to become productive and accomplished in their chosen field.

Although millions of dollars each year are spent on programs to reduce juvenile crime and delinquency, little has been done to offer educational opportunities that will PREVENT youth from entering a life of crime in the first place. NGYCP is preventive rather than remedial, focusing on educating at-risk youth and becoming involved with them before crime becomes a lifestyle.