Helping at-risk teens make hard changes

When young people get in trouble at school, at home, or with the law, we expect them to change their ways. But young people cannot change overnight. Indeed, some young people have a far harder time changing than others.

These young people, deeply disconnected from society and entrenched in their negative behaviors, don't stay in school and don't show up for work on a consistent basis. Many are raising themselves, some are young parents, and many have been in and out of jail.

The most challenging young people are the unhappiest -- those who act out their anger and pain through crime, drugs, and gangs; those who cannot stay in school; those who have children they cannot care for; and those who cannot, without help, overcome the hardships of their childhoods. Their problems challenge the tenacity and optimism of even the most patient among us.

Nevertheless, if we are to bring down the unacceptable rate of youth violence in our region and fulfill a moral imperative to protect our young people, we must do far more to engage and support the hardest of the hard cases.

What we have learned at Roca, a youth development center in Chelsea -- the city with the lowest per capita income in Massachusetts -- is that relentless outreach is a critical part of a comprehensive strategy. We seek out youth in crisis, draw them into a safe environment, and support them through whichever changes they need to make in their lives. Trained youth workers engage these troubled young people in relationships that last years and weather periods of anger, set back, and reconnection.

Consider Anita Rodriguez, who moved to Chelsea from her native Puerto Rico when she was a little girl. After repeated conflicts with her mother, Anita ran away from home at age 12 and began a life on the street. She joined a gang, had trouble in school, and before long was noticed by youth workers for Roca. Anita refused their help and avoided the visits and phone calls from Roca staff, who never stopped trying. One day on the street, she watched as her brother was shot and killed by a rival gang member. This was her moment of realization -- and our youth workers were there.

Anita enrolled in our programs and, with support and sponsorship, graduated from college with a bachelor's degree in communications. She became a youth worker at Roca and has helped many other young people get to the other side, including Rosaria, who lost her mother to drugs when she was 12. Rosaria was angry and ashamed and felt utterly alone until Anita helped her learn to believe in herself. With help from Anita and Roca, Rosaria eventually finished high school and took custody of her two young siblings. Anita continues to work at Roca and is engaged to be married.

Here in Greater Boston, we are fortunate that there are many excellent programs that help at-risk youth, but we are not doing enough to reach the young people among us who are having the hardest time.

No one should underestimate the difficulty of helping them. These are the young people for whom otherwise successful prevention programs do not work. According to a recent study, fewer than one-third of young high school dropouts in Massachusetts had any kind of job.

These are also the youth for whom suppression -- which is to say, incarceration -- creates only temporar y change. Any law enforcement officer will tell you that taking young repeat offenders off the street only works if they do not return to their old neighborhoods to resume their previous positions of authority. Sadly, this is one of the reasons we are seeing a reversal of the gains we made in combating urban violence in the early 1990s.

Very troubled youth are highly suspicious of adults who, for the most part, have let them down. Even so, we have to show up, relentlessly, for these young people. We have to create opportunities for them to change, and we have to understand that they will struggle to maintain the progress they make.

Sustainable change has many stages -- including failure and redemption. We must have the endurance to navigate these stages along with the young people we are supporting and then appreciate, with them, the hard-won and life long joy that very difficult transformation brings.

Molly Baldwin, executive director of Roca, a youth development agency based in Chelsea.
8 January 2007

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/01/08/helping_at_risk_teens_make_hard_changes/

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