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Kiwanis donates $1,000 to troubled youth program

Cheboygan Daily Tribune - 11/17/2017

Nov. 15--CHEBOYGAN- The Cheboygan Chapter of Kiwanis presented Charles Brown of the Cheboygan County Probate Court's program From Decisions to Actions with $1,000 to help purchase supplies needed for the class.

Brown gave a brief presentation to the Kiwanis Club Monday night about his program.

Last year, Brown did his 38th, 39th and 40th classes with students in 2016 and 2017. He had a total of 48 participants enrolled in the program, with three of the youth and parents having to drop out of the program due to various reasons.

"17 of the youth successfully completed the program, 100 percent graduated," said Brown. "Twenty-three parents, same thing, 100 percent graduation."

The From Decisions to Actions program is evaluated on state criteria, which has been used in the past to determine the effectiveness of the program. The criteria include the number of youth who avoided out of home placement, the number of youth who showed improved communication and less conflict with their parents and the number of youth who displayed a reduction in behavioral problems, including reoffending, if they were in for a criminal offense.

"I'm happy to report that on number one, out of home placements, we only had one kid," said Brown. "That's 96 percent that avoided out of home placement. Why is that important? It's important to you as a taxpayer because if the County of Cheboygan puts one juvenile into secure detention, they charge over $300 a day to put a kid in detention."

The goal of the program is to keep children out of the detention facilities and in their home. If they succeed, they feel they are doing their job.

The program also had a 96 percent success rate in improving communication and decreasing conflict with parents. This is determined in two ways, by talking with the juvenile authorities and by doing a survey of the parents at the end of the 10 week class. This gets the personal input from the parents as to how they are getting along with their children.

The class saw an 88 percent reduction in the behavioral problems in the students, meaning they had a 12 percent rate of the students reoffending.

"I'd like to see a state penitentiary that could have only 12 percent recidivism," said Brown. "In other words, people who go through the program go back out and don't get into any more trouble. So, we're kind of proud of that."

Since the juvenile court in Cheboygan took over the program, there have been 133 youths and parents participate in the program. Since the beginning of the program, when they were with North Country Community Mental Health, there has been a total of 357 youth and their parents go through the program.

Brown is very happy with the statistics of his program.

One of the things they ask the students to do in the program is write an essay about their goals and their life when they get older. They ask the kids to think about where they are going to be in 10 years, what they are going to be doing, where they want to live, what kind of job they want to have and what kind of job they may want.

Brown shared one of the essays with the Kiwanis Club, outlining the wishes of a 15-year-old student in the class who had a very positive outlook on how he wants to be living in 10 years, including having a job to provide for his family and living comfortably.

There are three ways that a youth can be referred to the From Decisions to Actions program. Normally, the students are 12-17 years old, but in special cases, younger children can be placed in the program. The children can be court ordered by the Cheboygan County Probate Court, referrals from the schools and the Department of Health and Human Services and Child Protective Services. The only stipulation is that the child needs to live in the county.

Brown thanked the Kiwanis Club for their generous donation, telling them their money has been well spent in the past. Last time they made a donation, Brown was able to purchase the textbooks for the students.

"I can assure you that any donations that come along to this program are going to the kids, these families, these parents that need them," said Brown.

Another thing Brown was thinking was starting to bring back the meal that was provided at the program for the families halfway through the course.

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(c)2017 Cheboygan Daily Tribune, Mich.

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