National Guard ChalleNGe Project

The National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program (Youth ChalleNGe), established in 1993, is administered by the Department of Defense and implemented the National Guard Bureau. The program aims to serve young people who experience difficulty in a traditional high school setting, with a mission to produce "program graduates with the values, life skills, education, and self-discipline necessary to succeed as productive citizens."

Cadets at the New Mexico Youth Challenge Academy lined up for a graduation ceremony

Cadets at the New Mexico Youth Challenge Academy lined up for a graduation ceremony

Photo by the New Mexico Army National Guard

Youth ChalleNGe has two phases. First is a 5.5-month, quasi-military, residential program where cadets focus on the program’s eight core components: leadership and followership, responsible citizenship, service to community, life-coping skills, physical fitness, health and hygiene, job skills, and academic excellence. Second is a twelve-month post-residential phase during which program graduates receive support from trained mentors. The program has graduated over 189,000 participants as of 2020.

Youth ChalleNGe is a well-established program and operates 40 program sites in 28 states plus Puerto Rico. Given the relatively short duration of the residential phase of Youth ChalleNGe, the program provides limited career and technical training. In recent years, National Guard Job ChalleNGe programs (Job ChalleNGe) have been established in six states, five of which are funded by the US Department of Defense and one by the US Department of Labor.

Job ChalleNGe builds on the ChalleNGe model by providing additional training to Youth ChalleNGe graduates. Job ChalleNGe is also a 5.5-month residential program that focuses on developing career and technical skills in program participants. Job ChalleNGe program sites partner with community colleges, to provide training in areas such as Welding, Nursing, Communications, and more.

RAND has conducted ongoing analyses of the Youth ChalleNGe program since 2016 and began a new study of the Job ChalleNGe program in 2019.

National Guard Youth Challenge Program Sites

A map of the Continental United States plus Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico shows the location of National Guard Youth ChalleNGe programs, each marked with a star.

There are Youth ChalleNGE programs in Alaska, Arkansas, California (there are 2), the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia (there are 2), Hawaii (there are 2), Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky (there are 2), Louisiana (there are 3), Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

A map of the continental United States plus Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico that shows stars over the locations of sites with National Guard ChalleNGe program sites

Youth ChalleNGe is an established program, and operates 40 programs in 28 states plus Puerto Rico

Photo by the RAND Corporation

Objectives of RAND's Study

RAND's study of the ChalleNGe programs is focused on three primary objectives:

  • Gather and analyze existing data from each ChalleNGe site on an annual basis to support the program's yearly report to Congress, including program participation and completion rates, number and type of credentials awarded; standardized test scores; participation in community service; post-ChalleNGe placement, as well as site level funding and staffing information.
  • Identify longer-term metrics for overall effectiveness of the ChalleNGe program, including ones that will help determine how site-level differences influence program effectiveness.
  • Provide implementation and outcomes analyses for Job ChalleNGe to support the long-term success of the program, including whether the program is implemented according to its design, and designing and collecting appropriate measures of participant outcomes.

Featured Publications

RAND has undertaken a number of special studies to provide insights and recommendations for leaders and decisionmakers on topics related to various aspects of the ChalleNGe program, including goal setting for adolescents, promising career and technical education models, and understanding the skills needed for youth to obtain good jobs, among several others.

See all publications

ChalleNGe Annual Reports

RAND collects information from each ChalleNGe program site each year, including the number of participants and graduates, and individual level information on participant demographics and standardized test scores for an annual report to Congress on ChalleNGe program progress. These reports also include chapters on analyses carried out by the RAND team on key aspects of the ChalleNGe program.

RAND's analyses of the ChalleNGe program are done at the request of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness within the United States Department of Defense.