Samuel+Y.

 

//**Delancey Street**// was an area where the average resident has been both a hard-core drug and alcohol addict. Many of them had been imprisoned with taking drugs; they were basically uneducated and unskilled people. With a dream to develop a new model to turn around the lives of people in poverty and a thousand dollar loan, //**Mimi Silbert**// and four other residents founded __//**Delancey Street Foundation**//__ in 1971. It has now become the country's leading residential self-help organization for former substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless and other who are thought to be on the bottom of society. //**Silbert**// has since built the immense organization grossing 20 million dollars a year with locations in New York, New Mexico, North Carolina and Los Angeles; she never received any financial support from the government. An prodigious growth of __//**Delancey Street Foundation**//__ proves the importance of a thousand dollar loan that the group started with.

__//**Delancey Street Foundation**//__ basically teaches drug addicts, criminals and the homeless the means to lead productive, crime-free lives. The process includes getting a high school equivalency degree (GED), being trained in 3 different marketable skills, and learning important values in society. The average resident stay in the organization for 4 years, however, the minimun stay is 2 years. There are several requirements while residents are at the organization. One of the most important and strong requirements is no act and threat of violence. Any act and threat of violence leads to an immediate removal from __//**Delancey Street Foundation**//__. Following these requirements shape them into people who are ready to be helpful part of society. The project of __//**Delancey Street Foundation**//__ has been called the most successful rehabilitation project in the United States.

**Delancey Street Foundation Website**
http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/index.php



**Visual: Delancey Street Foundation Cartoon (Mimi Silbert and the Bad Boys) & Short Youtube Video**
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 * Interview of Mimi Silbert**

**Real Life Example: Changes of //Gang Members//**
  According to Mimi Silbert, interstingly, former gang members who have commited crimes of killing each other, live and work together peacefully starting in dorm-rooms and moving up into their own apartments. The majority of the gang members were also drug and alchol addicts; however, they now all became people with the GED and marketbal skills that can be used in society. Of course, they all came out the gang group. Residents learn to work together promoting non-violence through a principle called “each-one-teach-one” where each new resident is responsible for helping guide the next arrival. Seeing these kinds of real-life changes, the dream of __**//Delancey Street Foundation//**__ and Mimi Silbert are getting achieved.

Questions
1) Has Delancey Street Foundation ever considered going further than teaching within their country and make their organization global? 2) What are some of the challenges in dealing and controlling with drug and alchol addicts? 3) Relating to the requirements of the organization, are there people who try to resist and go against those requirements? 4) Are there any economic factors that affected the Delancey Street Foundation recently since the global economic crisis is affecting every fields of society? 5) How does Delancey Street Foundation assure that the people done with the service or teaching become helpful parts of society?

Work Citation:
__Delancey Street Foundation__**.** 31 May 2009 . __The New Heroes__. 25 May 2009 . __@Grassroots: Group That Changes Communities__. 1 June 2009 . __California: Delancey Street Foundation__. 2 June 2009..