Why From the Rough is great for faith-based and other social service organizations focused on at-risk youth
From the Rough tells the story of a woman forced by circumstances to recruit young people at the margins of their communities who are overlooked and undervalued as athletes or contributing members of those communities. She molds them into a winning team, but, more importantly, she changes their life paths to make them highly productive and well-adjusted adults. The film embodies a set of critical success factors in how to achieve this result.
Central theme
It not only does not matter about the adverse circumstances in someone’s life, but, properly used, this adversity can be a source of learning and pride to enable the individual to fulfill his or her full potential. The critical success factors are believing in the individual and getting him or her to internalize that self-confidence, treating him or her as a unique individual, making him or her unafraid of failure, and helping him/her build a support system.
Use of the Film
Every organization that has as all or parts of its mission the ability to turn around the lives of at-risk youth can benefit from having its decision makers and stakeholders understand the lessons of the film and how they can be applied to that organization’s mission. The critical success factors in addressing at-risk youth are:
- Getting young people to believe in themselves and the ability to understand and achieve their full potential;
- Treating them as unique individuals;
- Getting them to be unafraid of failure and to treat it as part of a learning and growth process;
- Not accepting any excuses for temporary setbacks; and
- Making sure that each young person understands that he or she is, and should not be, alone, but should build a support system.
