Mentoring program aims to help at-risk youth avoid crime
- pottstownmercury
- Mar 9, 2015
- 2 min read
By Evan Brandt
POTTSTOWN >> Sometimes, if you get there early enough, you can pull someone back from the brink of a life of crime.
That’s the idea behind the Back on Track program, run jointly by the Montgomery County Public Defender’s Office, Big Brothers-Big Sisters and the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office.
The program, about a year old, aims at matching mentors in the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program with at-risk youth who are just making contact with the criminal justice system.
“If we can get to some of these kids who have not really committed any serious crimes and match them with a mentor who can get them back on track, that’s good for everybody,” said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman.
“If you give a thug a hug, it doesn’t help,” said Ferman, “but if we can, we need to try to get to these kids who are in the middle of the criminal justice system before they’re lost to us.”
And right now, the program has about seven such youth from Pottstown waiting for a mentor to step up and volunteer, said Garfield Jackson, manager of partnership development and recruitment for Big Brothers-Big Sisters.
Both he and Ferman credited Montgomery County Public Defender Keir Bradford-Grey for getting the program up and running and it has already had some successes.
“They get referred to us by the Public Defender’s Office, kids who are in some sort of trouble, and that’s pretty easy to do these days with the zero tolerance policies they have in the schools,” said Jackson.
“There are things that you and I might have done back when we were in school that these days gets you referred to the school resource officer,” Jackson said. “That’s a tough thing when you’re 10 to be placed by a judge.”
The students referred range in age from 10 to 16, he said.
“We’ve had some kids who have already turned their lives around,” said Jackson. “We’ve had kids who were in trouble become students of the month.”
“They need someone who is a positive influence on them, who is not a parent, who can just be a good friend, and see them two to four times a month,” said Jackson.
“We just had a 70-year-old man from Pottstown volunteer,” he said, “but there are never enough.”
Volunteers go through a screening process which rejects anyone with a history or record of sexual abuse or child abuse.
“But a past does not mean you can’t be a mentor,” Jackson explained. “If you have an assault in your past from 10 years ago and no trouble since then, that doesn’t necessarily prevent you from being a Big Brother or Big Sister. Each case is considered individually.”
The program also has information sessions which outline options, ideas and responsibilities for Big Brothers or Big Sisters, said Jackson.
Visit the web site http://www.bbbssepa.org/ to learn more.
To volunteer, contact Jackson email him at gjackson@bbbssepa.org, or call him at 484-804-2457.
