What is the long term strategy?

[try another castle]

We need a celebrity spokesperson. and some powerful people with money behind the cause.

considering the current economic climate i would postpone your hopes for the above for at least another 3 years.

i know some recent graduates of ASW and HLA who are potentially up and coming celebrities. if their fame lasts we have our spokespeople.  

for those of you in disbeleif, keep in mind that ASW and HLA were full of kids who belonged rich and/or famous families. there were a few very talented individuals in the mix too.

Oh god, I can just see Paris Hilton being a poster child for this. "Send your kid to CEDU, see what happens."

Or Joe Francis, of Girls Gone Wild. Now there's another winner for you.

Spend your teen years in a program and you are guaranteed D list status.

[Che Gookin]

Rosanne Barr can testify how much good RMA did her kid.

 :timeout:

[FemanonFatal2.0]

well maybe when we do have the funds to set up a fundraiser event we can invite some of the celebs that have done movies or shows that portray the program, for instance Mia Kunis did a movie called Boot Camp and Hayden Christensen did a show. I would also like to invite Ron Howard, I think he has some personal experience with the programs.

[Che Gookin]

:facepalms:

Fucking scary that the future of an entire movement has to be pinned on Hollywierd.

[Anonymous]

It's not all pinned on hollywood. but having hollywood/entertainment as a whole on your side helps quite a bit.

not many people gave a shit about giving aid to africa till bob geldof and bono came around.
a mention from oprah can mean the difference between being a bargain bin author and a bestseller.
look at the free tibet movement - the concerts propelled the issue from an obscure problem only hippies and Buddhists care about to a national college fad.
or look at susan sarandon. or brangelina. list goes on and on and on and on.

americans care more about tabloid celebrity news than important events. if you get the celebrities to bring the news to americans, they suddenly get interested. it's not just the news too...it's everything. eight out of every ten TV ads have a recognizable face, name or voice behind them. theres a reason for that. Pure information doesnt work on americans. it has to be infotainment one way or another.

i know it sucks that people have to rely on celebrities this way...it's horrible it's come to this. but remember the people we are dealing with (parents of "troubled teens") are the exact kind of people who lack the capacity for independent thought necessary to comprehend pure logical information and need it presented in a nice, easy to digest simple candy coated package.

america is a nation of hamburgers and french fries with coca cola, not filet minion or rack of lamb with french baked potatoes and wine. any information presented to the american masses must also be in hamburger form, not filet minion, if you want the majority of the people to eat it. It takes time and effort to cook and eat a filet minion, americans simply dont have the will to put in the time and effort to eat something like that regularly, hence the sucess of mcdonalds. it also takes a level of sophistication to appreciate the filet minon or wine, and understand the subtleties of it. Information is the same as food. we are sophisticated enough to understand the subtleties of the TTI, but most americans dont give a shit untill they are down to the 48 hours time they give to decide where to send their at risk about to do something stupid kids. they need their info in hamburger form. quick and easy. thats the edge that a celebrity spokesperson can give us.

[Che Gookin]

That and look at what good all the aid did Africa? Ethiopia, which did have 3 million people suffer in the famines of the 80's, still had 60 million that could adequately feed themselves through farming in the Ethiopian highlands.

Now they have a whole generation of dumbasses who don't know how to farm anymore because it is far easier to stagger to the nearest aid drop off to get a free bag of whatever. Entire shipments of clothing, building materials, books, and other crap sent by clueless dogooders are hawked at open air markets all Ethiopia.

So I wouldn't cite the success of Bono in this one. If anything Bono and chums did more long term harm to Africa than they did good.

The same spokesperson that gives us an edge can be used against us as well. We trot out our celeb and they trot our theirs. Given the number of nose candy sniffing retards traipsing around Hollywierd I'd say they have us pretty outnumbered in that category.

Consider the law of unintended consequences before inviting some Hollywierder or the likes of them into something like this long and hard before you do it.

[Anonymous]

That and look at what good all the aid did Africa? Ethiopia, which did have 3 million people suffer in the famines of the 80's, still had 60 million that could adequately feed themselves through farming in the Ethiopian highlands.

Now they have a whole generation of dumbasses who don't know how to farm anymore because it is far easier to stagger to the nearest aid drop off to get a free bag of whatever. Entire shipments of clothing, building materials, books, and other crap sent by clueless dogooders are hawked at open air markets all Ethiopia.

So I wouldn't cite the success of Bono in this one. If anything Bono and chums did more long term harm to Africa than they did good.

The same spokesperson that gives us an edge can be used against us as well. We trot out our celeb and they trot our theirs. Given the number of nose candy sniffing retards traipsing around Hollywierd I'd say they have us pretty outnumbered in that category.

Consider the law of unintended consequences before inviting some Hollywierder or the likes of them into something like this long and hard before you do it.

well...duh.

bono and freinds just had a bad strategy. sure.

but your analogy doesnt work. we are not looking for donations. we would be looking to purely raise awareness. bono and freinds did that very well.

as a side note, the aid to africa going bad is not the people's fault, it's the governments and the warlords faults. they steal half the aid. in in the case of ethiopia, the people arnt lazy bums who cant do anything themselves. they are uneducated and their land has very little capacity for farming anything except cabbage and in a few tiny areas, rice. much of africa, the parts were aid has gone sour, are unable in most cases to fend to "start farming themselves". they usually die of disease or starvation before they hit their teen years, and half the people who make it past that point get killed in regional conflicts. sure, aid in many ways only makes things worse; but the problem is not with the aid itself, it's how it's distributed and used by the local goverments. the issue is much, much deeper than what you say. dont point your finger at issues you know nothing about.

[Che Gookin]

Whooo weee.. back up a second.

Your presumption that I know nothing based on what?

I've seen enough NGO corruption for myself to know how it generally works in the 3rd World.

As for Ethiopia their problems aren't with Warlords. It stems from the long civil war that occurred between Northern Ethiopia and Southern Ethiopia. Somalia is another deal, but their issues are even more complex and are being aggravated even more by idiotic NGO workers and dumbshit Hollywierders who seem to think its gravy to shovel tonnes of money and wheat at the problem.

Ethiopia has more than enough land to feed its population, 70 percent of Ethiopia is arable, while only 11 percent of that total is actually used. What cripples most of Ethiopia and other parts of Africa is not the ability to grow food. They are well versed in traditional African farming techniques enough as it is. What cripples their ability to cope with a drought or natural disaster is the storage off food.

Seriously, if the western world really wanted to help Africa they'd send in the Amish.

As for Boner, Paris Twaton, and the rest of the Hollywierd crowd it is a sword that cuts two ways. They can just as easily find someone to say, "OMG! Rehab saved my life! I LOOOVE REhab! YAY!" and so on and so forth.

I've never said it doesn't have the potential to raise awareness, but it also has the potential to cut both ways.

[FemanonFatal2.0]

let me just say i really don't think our long term strategy includes celebrities, fundraising is really only a small part of it, in fact only a stepping stone to allow us to be able to do the work that actually makes a difference. so lets talk about that.

Here is my idea:

At first stages we need to approach this issue with caution as to not tarnish our reputation with outrage and left over teenage rebellion... our goals will be mainly public awareness, fundraising, public demonstration, media outreach and solidifying our presence as youth advocates.

I know a lot of people here have a problem with regulation, but I think the second part of our long term strategy should be to encourage our government to completely outlaw the "tough love" program model. I agree that just regulating these schools gives them too much leeway to get clever with hiding their abuse, but the proof is always in the pudding, if more teens come out of these facilities with claims of abuse we can prove that the tough love model and specifically these people running these places cant be given the benefit of the doubt with regulation. That should help us segway into another bill, a bill that wont cost our government a long term budget, and will shut down all programs that don't already meet the youth care standards and bring criminal charges against any and all staff/owners named in cases of abuse, maltreatment and endangerment. INCLUDING some of the parents! I think that should send a clear enough message.

Then after that we help rebuild. Community centers that are specifically geared toward teenage issues and struggling families are KEY to helping kids stay out of the reach of these abusive programs. Mapping out the model and standards for such community centers and really pushing it on the state and county level can help our society to grow out of this whole reliance on residential treatment and start working on family problems at home.

I think we have a long road ahead of us before we can achieve these things, hence the fact that it is a long term strategy but I believe that we have to keep these things in mind in order to have hope and keep pushing forward. OF COURSE this isn't final draft and doesn't include every step and everyone's choice of strategy, but I think this is the direction I would like to go.

[BuzzKill]

WHEN THE RAPTURE COMES
CAN I HAVE YOUR FLAT SCREEN?

LOL - well sure - and help yourself to all the food hoarded away in the basement too

[Nihilanthic]

What is going to prevent the troubled teen industry from continuing to morph itself into various forms, and continue growing and gaining business into the future for decades? It seems like most anti program actions have been program specific, or they even just go after an individual. But no action has been taken against the industry as a system. What is the endgame in all of this, what exactly are you working toward?


I think the only long term solution is government regulation. They are the only people with the power to enforce a national ban on forced quakery. I notice some people here don't think that government is part of the solution, I wonder in their view what will end this industry. Or do they expect to battle it forever? Or do they hope, in vain, that parents will change for some reason?

The longer it takes the more dire and drastic the actions to be taken by those acting to stop this. I for one do not have infinite patience. Even if I did, eventually there comes a point when you have to look at yourself and think about what's more important. Being nice, or getting kid number umpteen-million out of the fucking torture camber, as well as every other boy and girl in all the other programs.

Protests can only be polite and patient for so long while this happens. Is this not the kind of event, on any scale, much less one so widespread, that would call for mobs with pitchforks and torches? If not, what the hell qualifies for that anymore?

The sociopathic or just apathetic behavior and feelings on the part of the average American is appalling, but I can bitch about that after I don't have to block out the fact that I can just look up the address of a modern day inquisition and go travel and see for myself if I had the time and money to go do so.

Why not just load up a bus and go to the house of Ken Kay and ask him ourselves? Get some posters and billboards and call up CNN, the BBC and Al-Jazeera while we're at it. Between the three of them at least one would present it without some bullshit spin.