Warner Robins to launch new initiative for at-risk youths

WARNER ROBINS — The city is preparing to launch a new program aimed at promoting positive behavior and reducing crime for high-risk youths in Houston County.

The program "will encourage some life skills in them," said Chevonnia Jones, executive director of Kids' Journey, a state-funded initiative that organizes the services of various nonprofits in Houston County to address challenges facing children and families. "What I mean by life skills is teaching them about conflict resolution, teaching them about anger management and ... about social media image and things like that so they can understand those things."

Roughly 25 to 30 students at the Houston County Crossroads Center will participate in a pilot of the new program, which likely will be a weekly breakfast club before school or an after-school program that involves basketball. "The children at the alternative school cannot play sports," Jones said. "That will also teach them team building skills as well." The initiative does not yet have a name.

The Crossroads Center serves the needs of middle and high school students who were unsuccessful in a traditional school environment. Jones said the school was chosen for the program on the recommendation of Houston County Juvenile Judge Deborah Edwards, who sees many students enrolled at the center.

The new program involves multiple organizations and will include an educational component for parents because "parents often have a hard time relating to the child," Jones said.

Kids' Journey had long been under the oversight of Houston County schools, but the Warner Robins City Council agreed to oversee it in July.

Beth McLaughlin, spokeswoman for Houston County schools, said the change was made by the Kids' Journey board of trustees.

Jones, who was hired last fall for her state-funded position, moved her office from the Houston County Board of Education offices to City Hall this summer.

"Under the school board, (Kids' Journey) had been lost. The vision had been lost," Jones said. "The reason for the transition into the city is the visibility. There's so many agencies we can partner with and so many things that we can do in a bigger scope."

City Councilwoman Carolyn Robbins said she and City Councilman Tim Thomas became interested in taking on the program after Gov. Nathan Deal led a reform of the juvenile justice system in 2013. A new law created focuses on providing more alternative resources and programs to keep high-risk juveniles out of detention centers and prisons.

"The first thing I did was go down to (Georgia Municipal Association) and said I didn't like the way it was working," Robbins said of the state's reform regarding juveniles. "We were basically having children that were getting arrested, and then they were out the same day. The people that turned them in were calling us saying, 'Why is this child back out?'"

Thomas, who's on the Kids' Journey board of trustees, said the state law "kind of tied (the city's) hands to where we couldn't do anything with (the juveniles)."

"Kids' Journey was a way for us to try to set up a program to take these juveniles and get them to a situation to where they don't get rearrested," Thomas said. "There are a lot of small groups that are trying to do the same thing we are, so we're trying to bring all the groups together."

Jones, whose job is to find money and work out logistics for the program, said funding and transportation for after-school programs are hurdles to getting it started, but "we should be rocking and rolling real soon."

Initiatives of Kids' Journey change from year-to-year based on needs of the community. In the past, Jones said Kids' Journey worked with the Houston County Rainbow House, a nonprofit children's resource center, to reduce teen pregnancy rates and tobacco use.

Jones said she would like to see the latest initiative become a permanent program.

"I do think that this will be a continual program and something that Kids' Journey will hold on to," Jones said.

To contact writer Laura Corley, call 744-4334 or follow her on Twitter @Lauraecor.

This story was originally published October 16, 2015 at 9:23 PM with the headline "Warner Robins to launch new initiative for at-risk youths ."