I completed their one-year program in 2002-03 at the Shafter and Riverside locations. It was so off the wall there that I put together a tell-all web site (it was a somewhat therapeutic task) to let others know what it is really like. One woman saw my site, and everything that she read was exactly what her son had told her was going on there. She hired a lawyer and got him a program transfer, but not before his first-phase instructor promised to "send him back to prison."
If Teen Challenge grads don't sign up for the Teen Challenge Ministry Institute (TCMI is their own version of a seminary), then to show their appreciation for what Teen Challenge "had done for them," they are to sign over their very first paychecks to Teen Challenge. Students are told that once they enter Teen Challenge, they should not even consider leaving early, because seven times the demons of addiction would come back and get them, and after they do their prison time - if they live - God will call them back to Teen Challenge. They are told that one "can never run from Teen Challenge."
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www.teenchallengeexposed.com]