Tucson Program to Help Youth Reenter the Community

For many youth, leaving a correctional facility and reentering their communities can be a bumpy road -- especially if they are struggling with a substance abuse addiction. Now, a new program developed by the Tucson, Ariz.-based Pima Prevention Partnership will provide youth with the treatment and support they need to make a successful transition.

The new day treatment support program will offer youth from local correctional institutions drug-treatment and environmental support, during times when they are most likely to get into trouble -- after school and weekends. Research indicates that the peak hours of juvenile crime are from 3 to 6 p.m., and violent juvenile crime soars in the first hour after school gets out. These after-school hours are also the peak hours for youth to experiment with dangerous drugs.

"This program will give youth the environmental support they need and offer them a place to go after school so they do not go back out on the streets," explained Ken Walker, Director of Youth and Family Services for the Pima Prevention Partnership, a coalition of substance abuse professionals and community leaders.

The program was developed to help fill a gap in the city's treatment programs for incarcerated youth who are reentering the community. Through their work in the community, the Pima Prevention Partnership found that youth in Pima County were leaving correctional facilities -- where they were monitored 24 hours a day -- with little support to get them back on their feet and remain drug-free. "As a result, many of these youth have trouble getting back into schools and succeeding," Walker said. "Our program will give young people about 25 hours of face-to-face services a week."

One of the requirements of the program, which will kick off January 2005 with 25 students, will be that students receive some type of schooling. Each of students in the program will receive at least four months of therapeutic sessions, socialization and creative arts activities, evidence-based life-skills seminars and tutoring and homework assistance. Participants will also eat dinner at the center.

Harry Kressler, Executive Director of the Pima Prevention Partnership Prevention, said the program will compliment the coalition's other initiatives geared toward youth with a history of disciplinary or substance abuse problems. The group also runs the Pima Partnership High School, which provides learning in a small personalized setting that focuses on workforce preparation; and the Pima County Teen Court, which allows delinquent teens to be tried by their peers. "We found that many young people were returning as second, third and fourth-time offenders because there wasn't anything else to help them," Kressler said. "Now they'll be in a community setting where they can get support, get out of the system and thrive."

The new program will be funded through a new $2 million four-year grant awarded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The grant was one of 12 awarded by SAMHSA this month to provide substance abuse treatment to juveniles and young offenders up to age 24 as they enter into the community from prison.

Visit www.thepartnership.us for more information on the Pima Prevention Partnership.

Reprinted by permission from Coalitions Online, a publication of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America.

(11/12/2004)