August 5, 2013
State Representative Jason Rojas anticipates approval by the East Hartford Town Council of accepting a state grant for local youth services prevention. Rep. Rojas helped secure the placement and approval of this state grant on July's State Bond Commission Agenda. The East Hartford Town Council meets Tuesday, August 6th in Town Hall and is expected to accept the funds by adopting a resolution.
"During the debate on gun safety this past spring there was much discussion about the need to be proactive in addressing gun violence with an emphasis on urban areas and youth violence prevention. Working with legislative leadership members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus were able to allocate resources for locally led prevention and intervention programs to reduce youth violence and divert individuals for the juvenile justice system," said Rep. Rojas. "Through this effort I was able to secure grants for both East Hartford and Manchester Youth Service Departments. Our Youth Service Professionals are the front line for reaching out at-risk youth and the sooner that we can engage our young people the better outcomes we will have for them, we will be better off as communities and ultimately we will have better outcomes for the dollars we spend trying to reduce youth violence and delinquency."
The Manchester YSB will use $85,240.75 to complement what we already provide successfully to youth and families in this community. The opportunity to expand and enhance what currently works will allow for increased services to youth and families who are most in need. Additionally, the ability to look at new ways of providing services will allow us to measure success over the next two years in hopes of continuing these new initiatives after the funding cycle is complete. Using Results Based Accountability, we will measure how much, how well and if the participants are better off, the most important measure. Using this data, we hope to be positioned to request new funding to continue providing these services and programs.
In East Hartford the $85,000 funds will be used to fund a Police/Youth Adventure Programs as well as provide resources to the Youth At-Risk Task Force, to increase programming to identify, intervene and provide guidance to at-risk youth in an effort to mitigate youth violence, delinquency and improve school attendance," said Mayor Marcia LeClerc. "Proposed programs include a Synergy High School Leadership Program, a Community Mediation program as well as expanding opportunities for community service as an alternative to incarceration."
"We have learned a lot over the past few years in our work with youth and have found that prevention and intervention that focuses on reducing these risk factors are key," said Cephus Nolen, East Hartford Youth Services Director. "We want to thank Representative Rojas and the legislature for their confidence and support in helping us to address these issues in our community."
The Manchester Youth Service Bureau is pleased to have the opportunity to expand and enhance services and programs with the Youth Prevention funds," said Erica Bromley-Director, Manchester Youth Service Bureau. "In Manchester the focus of the $85,000 will be on diversionary interventions and prevention/early intervention for at-risk youth. Enhancement and expansion will happen for 3 programs. The first is the Diversion program, a program similar to a Juvenile Review Board, where juveniles who have been arrested on a first time felony offense are able to complete the Diversion process instead of going to Juvenile Court. These funds will allow for additional case management services, increased home visits, post completion follow-ups, support to families for additional referrals and more. The second will be for the Community Service program. The YSB is the hub for Community Service for a variety of youth being referred from Diversion, form Court, from school for disciplinary reasons, and more. Community based placements are few and far between and often require YSB staff supervision. The funds will be used to create a larger array of community based service options as well as to assign staff to supervise off site service opportunities. And finally, the third will be for the SAFE program (Student and Family Engagement). This program works with high risk youth who have been referred by the school through an extensive process based on behavior and attendance issues. These funds will allow for work with additional students, increased amount of follow-up and case management, and more. New programming will include Ropes Course programs and possibly the use of "Youth Court". Manchester is home to a wonderful Ropes Course and these funds will give us an opportunity to bring high risk youth to the course in conjunction with Police Officers and School staff in order to create new and trusting relationships with youth who may be struggling. Additionally, Manchester will research the option of using a "Youth Court" for an additional method of diversion. A "Youth Court" would be used for younger youth who have been arrested as an alternative to the Diversion process that already exists.