Youthful impulse is often what puts kids in treatment centers. But it’s also what turns their lives back around.
Sprinkled across Utah’s eye-catching mountains, peaceful valleys and sweeping plateaus are a series of inpatient wilderness therapy programs and residential treatment centers for adolescents and young adults. Their high success rate is attributed to many factors: the quality of the staff, the beauty and isolation of the surroundings and the local legislation that enables these centers to help so many. But, in my humble opinion, the biggest reason for their success isn’t the centers or the staff.
It’s the clients — the youth themselves.
As director of Project H.E.A.R.T. (Hebrew Education for At Risk Teens) for 27 years now, I visit many young people whose impulsive, poor choices brought them here. Oftentimes, they hadn’t realized the potential negative consequences of the choices they made. Their perception of risk and reward hasn’t yet matured; they leap before they look. In an instant, they can derail their lives.
But the capacity to swiftly change their lives is also what drives these same kids to recovery. Their capacity to swiftly and decisively alter their lives is what enables them to get back on track. The very traits that brought them here are the ones that take them back home, where they belong.
An older individual with similar problematic behavior might take years to make a full recovery, with relapse possible at any unguarded moment. But young people are different. Time and again I’ve watched troubled youth completely turn their lives around in a matter of months. Their learned poor behavior can be re-channeled towards the good if they only find out how.
My mentor, The Rebbe — Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory — often spoke about the power of youth to effect change. In the 1960s, when America was in the throes of the counterculture movement, the Rebbe saw beyond the externals and recognized that the young people’s desire for change was fueled by a longing for authenticity. In the ideals of their elders they saw artifice and they were repulsed by it. And they were the ones who could effect real change. They wouldn’t be bogged down in a 9-5 routine, resigned to the status quo. They are like a gem in the rough, prior to it being polished thus allowing it radiate its fullest shine.
A rebellious young man once visited one of the Rebbe’s predecessors and his namesake, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (1789-1866). Enamored with his recently purchased racehorse, the young man extolled its qualities and how its speed shortened the traveling time between villages.
“But if you make a wrong turn, you’ll get lost that much quicker,” the Rebbe pointed out.
“True,” replied the young man, “but when I turn around, I’ll get back on the right path all the sooner.”
The teens I visit in Utah’s treatment centers are like that fast horse. They’re quick; impulsive. Had they been more deliberate, they likely wouldn’t have ended up where they were. But that same impulsiveness is their ticket home. They can get on the right path all the sooner.
The Rebbe’s 25th Yahrtzeit — anniversary of passing — will be marked July 6 by Jewish communities around the world. Fifty thousand people will visit the Ohel, the Rebbe’s resting place in Queens, (a place I was privileged to visit with our former governor, Jon M. Huntsman, now U.S. ambassador to Russia) and reflect upon his vision for a better world, as relevant now as ever. And here in Utah, we’ll reflect on the potential the Rebbe saw in even the most troubled of youth to be the catalyst for positive change. Please visit www.JewishUtah.com/3Tammuz
Rabbi Benny Zippel
Rabbi Benny Zippel is the co-director of Chabad Lubavitch of Utah, a local Jewish organization, as well as the founder of Project H.E.A.R.T. (Hebrew Education for At-Risk Teens), which is dedicated to outreach to young people at risk. For more information, visit www.JewishUtah.com.
