The Trenton Times published the following article on May 6, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton officials trying to ramp up formerly active YouthStat program, focus on education

By Erin Duffy/The Times of Trenton 
on May 06, 2013 at 7:00 AM, updated May 06, 2013 at 7:04 AM

TRENTON — Its staff is depleted and a large chunk of its funding is still untouched.
The city’s YouthStat program has seen better days.

But city officials have vowed they’re trying to ramp up the program again, one year after it petered out once the contract for its sole staffer expired.

Funded by federal Department of Justice grants awarded to the city beginning in 2005, the program targets at-risk youths as young as 9 or 10 years old, kids who have already had brushes with the law or are clearly headed in that direction.

“I’m all for more police,” former YouthStat coordinator Lois Krause said. “But we can arrest everybody in this city over 18 even thinking about a crime and take them off the streets, but we’re not solving crime. These little ones behind them, they have nothing going on in their life, they’re failing school and they’re going to be next. There’s no end to it if we don’t do something.”

Using a collaborative approach, Phase 1 of the program identified and tracked juvenile delinquents and other troubled teens with the assistance of the Trenton school district, churches, the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency and local nonprofits.

“These are the people we know are in trouble and today’s juvenile is tomorrow’s young adult,” Krause said. “Today’s 16-year-old we know is obviously in trouble is tomorrow’s 20-year-old who does a horrible, hideous crime.”

The roundtable, which included Trenton police, school therapists, child psychologists, case workers and representatives from nonprofits like Anchor House, met weekly and then figured out which services and interventions those kids needed, be it a mentor, a school tutor or even a place to live.

“It’s extremely hard work,” Krause said. “There’s no magic. YouthStat is not going to solve everything. But we started chipping away to try and put a solid plan in place and monitor it.”

In spite of some staff turnover and a lawsuit filed by former YouthStat coordinator Barry Colicelli, once hailed as the city’s “gang czar,” the program was still regarded by many as a smart concept, a way to intervene early and get kids back on track before they wound up in jail or a gang, kicked out of school or a victim or perpetrator involved in one of the city’s frequent shootings.

“We were trying to catch kids at the youngest age they’re getting in trouble so organizations like ours can mentor them,” said Jason Rogers, chairman of Fathers and Men United for a Better Trenton. The nonprofit was one of several that participated in weekly YouthStat meetings.

“You try to help them on the first level (instead of) waiting till the situation is out of hand,” he said. “If we don’t nip this in the bud right now it grows into another thing.”

But despite the praise, the program has languished since March 2012, when Krause’s contract as YouthStat coordinator ran out. She actually worked six months without being paid and only received the remaining $38,000 balance for the contract in October. City officials couldn’t explain why she, the only YouthStat staff member, wasn’t being paid for months at a time and business administrator Sam Hutchinson said the grant-funded program needed to be managed better.

No other coordinator was hired for the job, and the program has been largely inactive since.

At a town hall meeting last month, city grant coordinator Marc Leckington admitted the lack of staff had put the program on hold, but said the city was ready to hire two part-time coordinators and get the program up and running into Phases 2 and 3, which provide funding for more programming and intervention services.

“The program itself doesn’t have a coordinator and it’s really difficult and inhibits the ability to proceed now,” Leckington said.

The city helped coordinate a pilot mentoring program with local nonprofits A Better Way and Fathers and Men United over the fall and winter and was hiring two part-time coordinators at its job fair last month.

Leckington said with staff on board, YouthStat should get back on its feet.

“We’re about to launch Phase 2, which is much more education oriented,” he said at the town hall meeting. “We’re going to try to touch more kids, work with the kids most at risk of gang violence and crime.”

Leckington did not provide information on the remaining YouthStat funding despite several requests. In July 2009, the city received $905,000 from the Department of Justice for one grant, and $310,000 later in December. The DOJ gave $460,589 for YouthStat programming in 2008.

Krause said she thought at least $800,000 in grant money was still unspent.
“How long do the feds allow this to go on before they say, ‘we’re taking the money?’” she said.

Rogers of Fathers and Men United said he hoped YouthStat could be revived, especially as the city faces what some fear could be another summer filled with gang shootings and retaliations.

“We’re trying to build leaders, not followers,” he said. “This town right now has a bunch of followers, that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in now.”

Contact Erin Duffy at (609) 989-5723 or eduffy@njtimes.com