The Trenton Times published the following article on October 21, 2013. To read the full article, click here.
Revamped Youthstat program aims to help at-risk Trenton youth
By Alex Zdan/The Times
on October 21, 2013 at 10:34 PM, updated October 21, 2013 at 10:35 PMTRENTON — If there’s one barrier Lois Krause wants torn down, it was summed up by a big traffic-style sign projected full-screen at Mercer County Community College today.
In black type were the words, “Our Agency Doesn’t Do That.” Around and through those words was a big red circle with a slash mark, like drivers can see on No Parking signs.
Krause, the newly re-installed Youthstat coordinator, is saying that when it comes to helping at-risk youth make better lives for themselves, she doesn’t want to hear any excuses.
“We want to change that,” she told the packed house of law enforcement, social workers, community members and educators. “Not to have too many of those ‘We don’t do …’ things.”
The compartmentalization is a wall Krause has run up against far too often, she said. Now, for her second stint at the head of the program funded by a federal grant, her goal is nothing less than obliterating the barriers that keep kids from getting the help they need.
“That’s why we’re looking to do something bigger,” Krause said today following the kickoff event at the college. “The beautiful thing would be somewhere down the way actually making all those changes.”
First implemented in 2005 and erroneously billed as an exclusively anti-gang program, Youthstat is far more comprehensive, Krause explained. “The idea is certainly to steer kids who are high-risk from going to gangs because they have no other options,” she said. “The huge, overwhelming goal is to turn kids around who are red-flagged.”