Starting Anew

At the beginning of a new year, many people make resolutions to better themselves.  Whether it is to get fit, quit smoking, or find a new hobby, the significance of creating resolutions is vital in allowing us to reflect on the changes we want and need to improve our lives.

Youth in the juvenile justice and foster care systems are faced with a different reality and often make resolutions more regularly than the adults in their lives.  They constantly want to change and improve however, these changes can prove difficult.  Harmful habits and behavior, like skipping classes or stealing are often intertwined with issues of peer pressure, poverty, and supervision. Many want to break out of the system but are unclear how to get from here to there.

City Youth Now supports youth in the San Francisco juvenile justice and foster care systems by providing funds for services and programs that help improve their lives.

Individual Grants for youth play a significant role in those involved in the system.  City Youth Now makes these individual grants in recognition of the importance of individual needs, big or small. From textbooks to summer camp or martial arts classes, City Youth Now tries to provide opportunities where they are lacking thereby providing the support and resources youth need to stabilize their life.  

Learning something new is a resolution that City Youth Now supports for youth in the system.  Many have never had the opportunity to do so before City Youth Now. Youth take recreational classes, such as singing, dancing, art, and karate because of City Youth Now. These programs are funded because it helps promote positive youth development through skills building and other healthy behaviors, which can be very effective when it comes to decision making as an adult.

Helping others is another resolution that is in the top ten. It is popular because it involved selflessness and giving back to the community. City Youth Now is a nonprofit organization that relies heavily on volunteers and donations to support the services and programs they provide. For more information, please visit http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/volunteer-today. Or if you would like to make a donation, please visit http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/donate-now. Please know that your help is necessary to changing and improving the lives of young people in San Francisco.

The value of education

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of receiving a good education.  For many, a college education forms the foundation of their future careers.  For others, it’s where they made the connections that got them their dream job.  Still for others it’s where they made the best friend they’ll ever have or where they met their significant other.  For everyone, it is a process that opens up possibilities.  If you have received a college education, take a moment to think about what your life would have been like had you dropped out of college early or never even began.  Now imagine that you never even graduated from high school.

Youth in the foster care and juvenile justice systems can have an extremely difficult time finishing high school, much less moving on to college.  And it has long been understood that there is a correlation between education and crime.  This means that education can be critical in helping these youth move onward and upward.  Studies have shown that as an individual’s level of education increases, their likelihood of being incarcerated decreases.  One study demonstrated that if you increased the level of education of every person in the state of New Mexico, incarceration rates would drop by sixty percent.  At the same time, receiving a higher level education is becoming more expensive each year and school loans can be an extremely difficult burden to overcome.  None of this changes the fact that receiving a good education is just as important now as it ever has been.

City Youth Now helps youth in crisis get their lives on track and to get educated, so that they too can be exposed to the possibilities that an education can offer.  Our educational support spans a wide range of help including GED tutoring, regular tutoring in all subjects, college tours to expose youth to what is available to them beyond their secondary education, financial assistance in purchasing textbooks, assistance with college registration, and scholarships.  For youth in detention or in the foster care system, programs like ours are often the only place these kids have to turn.

Youth in the foster care system often face the additional challenge of having to switch schools each time their foster care placement changes.  Every time one of these children is forced to switch to another school, they can fall as much as six months behind the rest of their classmates.  This is a tremendous burden to overcome, especially for a child who is struggling to adapt to a new home situation.  The services we provide are essential in ensuring that they do not fall behind the rest of their classmates, leaving them at risk of dropping out and never even finishing high school, much less trying to move on to college.

If you have benefitted from an education, whether high school, trade school, college, or beyond, consider giving back so that someone else can receive the same kinds of benefits that you did.  CIty Youth Now relies heavily upon volunteers and donations.  To find out more information about volunteering as a tutor or in some other capacity, click here: http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/volunteer-today.  To make a quick and easy monetary donation in any amount, click here: http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/donate-now.  Know that your help is a critical part of our organization bridging the gap for San Francisco youth in crisis.  Your assistance will make a real difference in the lives of the children who will benefit from it.

Help Make the Holidays Happy For Another

Do you know someone who already seems to have everything they need?  Or someone who enjoys giving of their time and effort more than receiving things?  Making a donation in their name so you can help them help someone else is the perfect gift!  This holiday season, consider giving the gift of a donation to City Youth Now in the name of a friend, co-worker, or loved one and bring joy to their life and the life of the child or children that your gift will help.

City Youth Now relies on donations to support its many wonderful programs, which assist San Francisco youth in crisis in both the Juvenile Justice System and Foster Care system.  Our programs are uniquely flexible in that we are able to tailor them to the needs of individual children-regardless of what that need might be.  For one of the outstanding youth we helped last year, that need was placement and support in a foster home.

Jockuela’s mother was unable to care for Jockuela from a very young age, due to the mother’s chronic substance abuse.  Things that every child takes for granted were simply not there for Jockuela.  Thankfully, Jockuela’s great-grandmother stepped in to help out Jockuela and her younger brother.  However, Jockuela’s great-grandmother soon became ill and was unable to continue providing what Jockuela and her brother needed.  Jockuela began missing school so that she could help at home with the needs of her great-grandmother and younger brother.  Jockuela needed a foster home.

Youth who enter the foster care system often receive whatever was lacking in their lives once placed in a new home.  However, youth “age out” of the foster care system when they turn eighteen and are unable to continue receiving its benefits.  The phrase “boomerang kids” has been coined to describe the growing number of young adults who move back in with their parents or continue to rely on them for support.  Many of the youth who age out of the system do not have that luxury.  Perhaps that is why foster youth are more likely than the general public to end up in prison or to receive some form of public assistance.  Or why less than three percent of foster youth go on to graduate college.  City Youth Now provides support for those who cannot simply “boomerang” back to the safety of their parents’ homes.  A donation of $75 will help provide a youth aging out of the system with assistance preparing for their first interview, setting up their first apartment, or preparing to start college or job training.

With assistance from City Youth Now, Jockuela was placed with her cheerleading coach where she truly thrived.  In her new home, she began to excel in school and was soon researching colleges – a dream that just a few years earlier seemed impossible.  Jockuela went on to attend Johnson C. Smith University and is on track to be the first person in her family to complete college.

City Youth now thrives on helping outstanding young people like Jockuela who just need a little help or support.  You can help with a donation in any amount and feel good about giving a gift that will be worth exponentially more than you could ever imagine to the life of a child like Jockuela.  Giving a gift in the name of another not only accomplishes that same goal – it also lets the person you are giving it to know that you recognize they would rather help another than enrich herself.  Whether it comes directly from you or through someone else in whose name you give, your donation will have a direct and positive impact on the life of a child like Jockuela.

You can click here (http://www.cityyouthnow.org/success-stories) to read about other outstanding youth like Jockuela.  Click here (http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/donate-now) to make a quick and easy donation in any amount and help bring joy to the life of a San Francisco child in crisis this holiday season.

Hard Work and Opportunity

It has been said that luck is where hard work meets opportunity.  Thus, according to the saying, neither hard work nor opportunity alone is enough to produce positive results.  For youth in the juvenile justice and foster care systems that do not mind putting in some hard work, we provide the opportunity.  In doing so, we help to ensure that their hard work does not go un-rewarded but rather helps lead to positive change.

 

Last year, Sharnice became involved in the juvenile justice system after losing not only her grandmother, the backbone of her family, but also her father and then her stepfather to violence.  At the age of sixteen, her life could easily have spiraled out of control in the
face of such a tremendous loss.  But Sharnice took advantage of the opportunities available to her and worked hard to change her life.

City Youth Now provided her with one of those opportunities.  Through our internship program, she was employed by Precita Center, where she helped younger children.  Sharnice went on to graduate from high school with an astounding 3.9 GPA at the end of her senior year in high school and plans to pursue a college in Criminal Justice.

 

There are plenty of San Francisco youth like Sharnice, who are in the juvenile justice system or the foster care system and are willing to work hard to change their lives.  Many work hard and continue to struggle because, despite their hard work, opportunities remain elusive.  It is where their hard work comes together with positive opportunities that good things happen.

 

City Youth Now strives to provide these kinds of opportunities for every San Francisco child in crisis, but when the budgets of everyagency in the state are already stretched thin, these kinds of programs are often the first to suffer.  Some see them as unnecessary, or as handouts to those who do not deserve them.  The truth is that they are opportunities, and they are provided to those who need them the most, smart kids who are willing to work hard for them.

 

In order for us to keep providing these kinds of opportunities, we need your help.  For a donation in the amount of $75, you could provide the opportunity for a child to get their GED.  For someone who never had the chance to finish high school, but wants to work hard and go on to college, this is a tremendous opportunity.  For about $50, you can provide the opportunity for a child to register for the SAT, an opportunity that a bright, hardworking child might not otherwise ever receive.  A donation of $40 could help provide a student with the school supplies they need to learn, helping to ensure the opportunities that come with education remain available to them.  Click here to make a quick and easy donation in any amount: http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/donate-now

 

For youth willing to work hard with a little support and direction, what many people take for granted are can actually serve as a huge opportunity.  And without opportunities like these, all the hard work someone is willing to put in may leave them without any “luck,” if there is no opportunity to meet it.  Donate today and help us continue providing these opportunities so that their hard work does not go un-rewarded, but rather comes together with opportunity to make good things happen for San Francisco youth in crisis.

Imagining Possibilities

Many San Francisco youth in the juvenile justice and foster care systems have spent their entire lives missing out on some of the great things San Francisco has to offer.  Imagine growing up in San Francisco, yet never spending a day at the beach or visiting the zoo.  Or never seeing a live musical performance.  Imagine never experiencing any of the vast array of cultural activities San Francisco has to offer.  Imagine growing  up in a San Francisco where your knowledge of street names is based on claims of gang territory, so that you know what streets to avoid.  Imagine growing up in a San Francisco where everyone around you has lived their life that same way – never able to take advantage of many of the great things San Francisco has to offer.  Not only would you be missing out on one of the greatest cities in the world, you would not even know what you were missing out on.

This is the experience of many youth entering the juvenile justice system and foster care systems in San Francisco.  Kids that are able to experience these things have something that others do not.  They see possibilities.  They can imagine themselves one day participating in these activities.  It can give them something to look forward to, something to strive towards, something to aspire to be.  Something more than avoiding that intersection two blocks away where the local street dealers peddle their poison.  Something more than imagining that you will inevitably end up working for that same sad crew, just like your cousin or your brother did.

Because not every child grows up fortunate enough to bring themselves out of troubled neighborhoods and into seeing other possibilities, we bring the possibilities to them.  Last year, San Francisco Zoo Mobile paid a series of visits to several of the Juvenile Hall units.  The youth that enjoyed these visits learned about biodiversity, interacted with live animals, and learned about the illegal trade in endangered species.  This year’s programs have included a series of visits from Buzzy “Guitar Man” Martin.  While the “Guitar Man” played music for the youth, he also talked to them about following their dreams and demonstrating to society that they have as much potential as anyone else, just as he himself had done.  Just today, Shakespeare on Tour performed “MacBeth” for the boys from Log Cabin Ranch as well as for several of the units within Juvenile Hall.  Visits like these inspire youth.  They give them something to look forward to oustide of what they see in their everyday life.  They help them to imagine other possibilities.

City Youth Now has partnerships with a number of other organizations that help bring possibilities to life inside the walls of Juvenile Hall.  We also provide opportunities to youth that are on probation or in the Foster Care system, including gym memberships, martial arts classes, art classes, and singing and dancing classes.  You can read more about our programs and partnerships here: http://www.cityyouthnow.org/programs/programs-at-juvenile-hall.

Youth that are not physically in juvenile hall can be just as isolated from opportunity as those who are.  Whether the result of a lack of resources, a lack of knowledge, or something else altogether, City Youth Now works to remove those obstacles and replace them with possibilities.  A six to eight week course of singing or dance classes costs around $200.  For about $50 a month, we can provide a gym membership or martial arts classes.  These costs are not great considering the priceless impact that such a simple gift can have on the life of a child.

In order to continue providing these opportunities for San Francisco youth in crisis, we need your help.  A donation in any amount will help us to bring possibilities to those who may otherwise be unable to even imagine them.  Click here to make a fast and easy donation in any amount: http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/donate-now.  Help us provide these opportunities so that no child in San Francisco feels hopelessly or helplessly locked in a prison of unfortunate circumstance or lack of opportunity.  This should never happen when all it takes to prevent it is to help them imagine what is possible.

Something To Be Thankful For

Take a moment to sit back, close your eyes, and ask yourself this
simple question: What am I thankful for? There are many things that
could come to mind. Maybe you are thankful that you have never gone
without a roof over your head or food on your plate. Perhaps you are
thankful to be in good health. Or maybe you are thankful for that
person in your life that cared about you when you were going through
some hard times and it seemed like nobody ever would. Or for that
organization that stepped in to advocate for you and support you when
you needed it the most.

Now ask yourself this: What if you couldn’t think of anything to be
thankful for? Some people will ask themselves that question and will
not be able to find an answer. Maybe you are one of them. Whether
you are or not, there are things that you can do to help make sure
that no child in San Francisco ever asks herself that question and
cannot come up with an answer. City Youth Now can make much progress
toward that goal, but not without your help.

City Youth Now has a number of volunteer opportunities for anyone
interested in giving every San Francisco child in crisis something to
be thankful for. San Francisco youth that have been removed from
their homes and placed in the foster care system or who get into
trouble with the Juvenile Justice System can experience major
disruptions in the normal flow of their education. You can give these
children a chance to be thankful for having someone to help get them
back on track by volunteering as a tutor in the Woodside Learning Center (within the Juvenile Justice Center) or the Early Morning Study Academy (for youth on probation). There are also opportunities to tutor individual youth who need help in particular subject areas or who are studying to take the GED.

You could also volunteer some of your time at the “Corner Store” in
order to help keep it running. Families who come to the Juvenile Justice Center to attend court proceedings or who are visiting detained youth
appreciate the convenience of being able to purchase a small snack, a gift for a loved one, or perhaps a thank you card for someone they appreciate.

Our office needs help too. We would love to have you help with data
entry and light office work or assist with some of our direct
mailings. This kind of help allows us to keep our costs down and
ensures that we can devote as much of our resources as possible to the
youth that need it. Yet another way you can get involved is to
coordinate a toy drive. It takes little more than sending out an email to your co-workers and can warm the hearts of many children who might not otherwise receive any gifts over the holidays.

Our volunteers are a critical asset in helping ensure that ever child
in our community receives support and services that generate a sense
of self worth and dignity. Click here
(http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/volunteer-today) for more
information about how you can help support San Francisco youth through
our programs. If you are unable to donate your time, you can also
click here (http://www.cityyouthnow.org/get-involved/donate-now) to
make a quick and easy financial contribution. Either way, your help
can ensure that all children in San Francisco have something to be
thankful for.

KEEP-ing Kids Warm, Safe, and Secure

Child abuse and child neglect remain serious problems in San Francisco. When incidents of child abuse and neglect are reported to authorities, quick action must be taken to protect the children involved. Oftentimes this requires removing a child from her home. Sometimes children are removed as a result of criminal activity in the home. Regardless of the circumstance that leads to a child being removed from her home, it often happens with very little notice. While it is for their own protection, it can be a harrowing experience for a child, who may enter the foster care system with little more than the clothes on her back.

In San Francisco, over one hundred children are rescued by the foster care system each month. A recent study showed that San Francisco places more children in foster care than almost any other county in California. Yet the budgets of the involved government agencies and service providers in San Francisco are in just as much trouble as those throughout the state.

In 1994, City Youth Now found a way to help. For the last seventeen years, Project K.E.E.P. has provided a Kids Emergency Essentials Pack to each child removed from her San Francisco home. These kits contain essential items to provide immediate care and support to the children who receive them. Currently, the kits include a toiletries kit, including toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, and soap; a fleece blanket; colored pencils or crayons; a notebook,
drawing paper, pencils and pens; and, most important, a stuffed animal for comfort.

Of course, there are additional items that an ideal kit would contain but these basics ensure that all children who are taken into protective custody will be able to brush their teeth, entertain themselves by drawing or writing while they wait for a placement, and curl up with a blanket and a stuffed animal during this frightening and lonely time. Winter is coming, and we need to be prepared to meet the most basic needs of all children entering the system. The good news is there are things you can do to help. The cost of assembling one of these backpacks is approximately $25 – consider a donation to City Youth Now in this amount and know that you have provided comfort and security to one child during this vulnerable time OR make it a recurring donation and help one child per month. You can also help by volunteering to pack the backpacks, or make in-kind donations to the program (we are always in need and accepting donations of pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, notebooks, drawing pads, crayon sets, stuffed animals and blankets). Please contact our offices at info@cityyouthnow.org to find out how you can help KEEP San Francisco’s kids warm, safe, and secure.

Leaving No Child Overlooked

Being a kid is not always easy. Youth within the criminal justice system face a whole new set of challenges on top of the ones that all kids struggle with. As they transition out of that system, they can face many more. Some need to deal with having spent significant amounts of time away from loved ones. Some may face more difficulty finding summer jobs or may struggle with their own sense of self worth. Others may have difficulty adjusting to changes in lifestyle, which can result in reduced performance in school and other difficulties. Still others struggle with the stigma that can be associated with them having been involved in the juvenile justice system. Even family and friends may begin to treat them differently. And this is all on top of the normal everyday struggles of being a kid. No child should ever have to face these added challenges.

Sometimes, “the system” cannot meet all the needs of these children, especially the ones that are transitioning out of it. In both the Foster care and Juvenile Justice systems, budget cuts and jurisdictional issues can leave youth without any support. This is a crucial time for children who may not otherwise be receiving the support and services they need from their families and communities. Without a network of support for them to rely on, youth that are supposed to be transitioning out of the juvenile system can find themselves going directly into the adult criminal system.

When that happens, it’s not that the child failed her community, but that the community failed the child. San Francisco’s youth deserve better. No child should find themselves in the juvenile system because their community failed them – because we failed them. If we cannot say that we tried to provide support and services to help, then we did fail. In order to make it through these troubling times, youth on probation or in foster care need all the support they can get. And the sooner it can start, the better.

City Youth Now has programs to help youth whether they are just entering the Juvenile Justice System or are transitioning out of it. Through our author visit program (http://www.cityyouthnow.org/programs/author-visits), we sponsor authors to come and share inspiring stories with the youth detained at the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Center. These visits help to remind them that no matter what struggles they are facing, there is always something better to look forward to. Through our individual grant program (http://www.cityyouthnow.org/programs/individual-grants), we have the ability to tailor our services to the needs of any individual child (in foster care or on probation), no matter what it might be. Oftentimes, we are the only place that youth can turn to for help because our individual grants have the unique flexibility required to meet their needs. City Youth Now will even arrange for internships (http://www.cityyouthnow.org/programs/internship) that provide a positive work experience and help youth develop the skills to succeed in the workplace.

The overarching goal of these programs is to support stability and personal growth, whether through our author visit program, our individual grants, our internships, or one of our many other programs. They help to ensure that no children fall through the cracks, whether they are entering the juvenile system for the first time, or they are ready to transition out of it and begin moving forward with their lives. These programs and services fill the gaps in help and support that contributed to them ending up in the juvenile systems to begin with, thereby leaving no child overlooked.

It is never too late…

It is never too late…

For many youth, contact with the criminal justice system comes much sooner than you might expect. All too often, a child’s first contact with the system is due to actions taken by their parents, guardians, siblings or other family members. Abuse, neglect, drug addiction, and incarceration of the adults in their lives all have a way of influencing the decisions that young people make. There is little doubt that social class, poverty, race, gender and disability affect outcomes for every individual in society but the effect these factors have on children is striking. Imagine being 10 years old and already having witnessed brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, and parents have some contact with the criminal justice system. Imagine having witnessed violent crimes, had your home broken into, or otherwise been victimized in your community. Imagine that gang presence is felt on every street corner and that drug and turf wars erupt regularly. While it is always difficult to isolate the one reason a youth becomes a delinquent, there is no doubt that these youth need intervention in order to get themselves on a track.

When a young person is coming close to contact with the Juvenile Justice System, the sooner that person can receive support and services the better. When that does not happen, and a young person ends up on probation or in detention, they need support and services more than ever. This is where City Youth Now comes in. Through programs that provide individual grants for medical assistance, clothing, and other emergency support, internship programs, and programs that promote dignity and expose youth to new opportunities and worlds they have never known, City Youth Now gives these youth the support they need. You can read more about our programs here: http://www.cityyouthnow.org/programs.

The support we provide comes at a critical time in the lives of these children. It comes when a child can easily feel that it is too late, and it shows them that it isn’t. By providing these kinds of support to San Francisco youth on probation or in detention, we are helping to remedy some of the injustices that may have contributed to these youth ending up in contact with the Juvenile Justice System in the first place. There is much that can be done to reduce the impact that a child’s upbringing will have in the future and to alleviate some of the harms it has already inflicted. And it is never too late.

For a variety of reasons, kids who have access to more resources will do better…better in school, in their jobs, in their relationships. Early interventions through counseling or other means can make a difference; they can even protect a child from a contact with the Juvenile Justice System that might otherwise be inevitable. City Youth Now works hard to make sure that resources are available to ALL kids in San Francisco.

Restorative Justice

Restorative justice is a collaborative process that seeks to repair the harm caused by criminal activity. This includes trying to make the victim whole, getting the offender to understand the harm caused to the victim, and helping the offender reintegrate into society. Restorative justice programs have become increasingly popular in recent years, as more and more people recognize their efficacy. Many argue that restorative justice programs are more effective than the traditional criminal justice system in preventing and thereby reducing crime, because they focus on reform and rehabilitation rather than punishment.

There is no doubt that when a young offender is brought back to being a whole, contributing member of society, everybody wins. City Youth Now has long recognized the importance of programs that support incarcerated youth in one way or another, such as restorative justice programs. After all, the whole purpose of the juvenile justice system is not to punish, but to rehabilitate. That is why City Youth Now has worked to support incarcerated and probation youth for over sixty years.

One of the ways we help is by giving children in the Juvenile Justice System the support and tools necessary to reintegrate into society. Of course, City Youth Now helps in many other ways as well. Some of our success stories can be viewed here: http://www.cityyouthnow.org/success-stories. Your continued support of City Youth Now will allow us to keep providing services to bridge the gap between incarceration and community for San Francisco youth in crisis.