 |
|
|
|
|
Council Watch
At-risk kids get $125K in outreach funds from City Council
Program run by ex-gangsters geared to help youngsters turn lives around
By Jessica Lyons
In an attempt to get incarcerated youth back on the right track, the City Council recently authorized a $125,000 grant agreement with Breakout Prison Outreach for youth intervention services and counseling. The grant money will be spent on 150 youngsters who are in juvenile hall or in the custody of the California Youth Authority, or are on their way out.
"Whatever the lifestyle is that they're coming from, we're going to deal with that, whether it be drugs or gangs," says Richard Nichols, program manager for Breakout Prison Outreach. "Most of our staff are ex-gang members and ex-drug users but they were able to turn their lives around. We're a detour to give [at-risk youth] direction at just about any level to meet their needs."
Breakout Prison Outreach, a program of the California Youth Outreach Agency, works with Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services, and the mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force to provide counseling services, case workers and recreational activities for at-risk kids. Breakout Prison Outreach counselors work with the individual, the schools, teachers, family and workforce to smoothly transition young offenders from jail back into the community. For some, that means earning a GED, for others, job placement, and for still others, just learning how to interact in their family environment.
"The program meets with the kids while they are in jail, and does a lot of counseling and working with them so that when they are released, they are at a level where they realize that they need to change," says Neil Rufino, of San Jose B.E.S.T. "When these kids are released, they come back to a lot of the same neighborhoods where a lot of these same problems exist. We want to start them on the right track."
The program boasts a high success rate. "We say 100 percent because just to get a kid to show up is a success," Nichols says. About 80 percent make a complete turnaround, he adds.
"We do lose some because they haven't hit that rock bottom yet," he says. "But some don't have to hit bottom, they just have to get a little taste of being locked up. Any kid can turn his life around; we just have to convince him that he wants to."
|
|
|
|
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
