State grant to help Probation, DSS departments keep local youth out of criminal justice system
NORWICH – A recent round of state grants will allow the Chenango County Probation Department and Department of Social Services to continue a series of proactive programming geared toward keeping youth out of the criminal justice system.
Director of Probation Karen Osborn met with county officials on the Safety and Rules Committee last week, asking permission to accept the grant which will help administer two different programs designed to help at-risk youth and their families.
Those two programs, called the “Parent Project” and “Why Try?,” aim to prevent PINS (Persons In Need of Supervision) or delinquency petitions from being filed against a youth while also giving parents useful resources to help keep their kids on the right track.
Osborn said the two programs provide a valuable service that could keep troubled kids from making harmful decisions that lead to long-term consequences. They may also provide a cost savings to the county as it costs far more for reactive-type services for PINS than proactive programs, she added.
With the stipulation that Chenango County uses grant funds to steer preventative programs, the NY State Office of Family Services has allocated more than $55,700 to Chenango County that expires in March of 2016. The county may tap into those funds as long as it agrees to kick-in 38 percent of the cost to facilitate programming.
In June, the probation department and DSS sought $10,000 from county government in hopes of using those funds to train two Parent Project facilitators (at approximately $4,000), as well as purchase training and curriculum for 10 Why Try? facilitators and 50 youth books (at a cost of $3,500); and provide 50 Parent Project books for approximately three classes (at a cost of $1,000).
Left over money would be used to front any unforseen expenses.
There are also possible overtime expenses the county would need to pay for program facilitators, which are estimated to reach nearly $8,100 over the course of the programs, thus bringing total costs to $18,100. But since the state Office of Family Services is paying 62 percent of all those costs, only $6,878 would fall on the shoulders of local taxpayers.
DSS and Probation have devised a strategy to help offset the local share, though. Probation plans to take $4,000 from its equipment and training budgets, leaving the county to foot a grand total of $2,878 in additional expenses.
The Parent Project (and its counterpart, “Loving Solutions,” which is a similar curriculum tailored for younger children) is nothing new to the county. Since 2013, Osborn has volunteered her time to teach six instalments of the Parent Project and two instalments of Loving Solutions, leading to a total 36 parents who have graduated from the programs.
To date, only one parent’s child has been entered back into the juvenile system after the program, she said.
Why Try? is new to Chenango. Whereas the Parent Project is geared toward parents of strong-willed children, Why Try? addresses youth.
“The Why Try? program is a program designed to answer that question: Why should I try?” Osborne explained to committee members back in June. “Maybe they come from families that their parents are alcoholics, or they're failing in school, or they're parents are committing crimes and the kids are asking why they should do anything different … We have generational problems here in Chenango County and these kinds of programs are trying to break that generational trend.”
The request to accept newly awarded state funds must go before members of the county’s finance committee next week before appearing as a resolution at the full Board of Supervisors monthly meeting in September.
Director of Probation Karen Osborn met with county officials on the Safety and Rules Committee last week, asking permission to accept the grant which will help administer two different programs designed to help at-risk youth and their families.
Those two programs, called the “Parent Project” and “Why Try?,” aim to prevent PINS (Persons In Need of Supervision) or delinquency petitions from being filed against a youth while also giving parents useful resources to help keep their kids on the right track.
Osborn said the two programs provide a valuable service that could keep troubled kids from making harmful decisions that lead to long-term consequences. They may also provide a cost savings to the county as it costs far more for reactive-type services for PINS than proactive programs, she added.
With the stipulation that Chenango County uses grant funds to steer preventative programs, the NY State Office of Family Services has allocated more than $55,700 to Chenango County that expires in March of 2016. The county may tap into those funds as long as it agrees to kick-in 38 percent of the cost to facilitate programming.
In June, the probation department and DSS sought $10,000 from county government in hopes of using those funds to train two Parent Project facilitators (at approximately $4,000), as well as purchase training and curriculum for 10 Why Try? facilitators and 50 youth books (at a cost of $3,500); and provide 50 Parent Project books for approximately three classes (at a cost of $1,000).
Left over money would be used to front any unforseen expenses.
There are also possible overtime expenses the county would need to pay for program facilitators, which are estimated to reach nearly $8,100 over the course of the programs, thus bringing total costs to $18,100. But since the state Office of Family Services is paying 62 percent of all those costs, only $6,878 would fall on the shoulders of local taxpayers.
DSS and Probation have devised a strategy to help offset the local share, though. Probation plans to take $4,000 from its equipment and training budgets, leaving the county to foot a grand total of $2,878 in additional expenses.
The Parent Project (and its counterpart, “Loving Solutions,” which is a similar curriculum tailored for younger children) is nothing new to the county. Since 2013, Osborn has volunteered her time to teach six instalments of the Parent Project and two instalments of Loving Solutions, leading to a total 36 parents who have graduated from the programs.
To date, only one parent’s child has been entered back into the juvenile system after the program, she said.
Why Try? is new to Chenango. Whereas the Parent Project is geared toward parents of strong-willed children, Why Try? addresses youth.
“The Why Try? program is a program designed to answer that question: Why should I try?” Osborne explained to committee members back in June. “Maybe they come from families that their parents are alcoholics, or they're failing in school, or they're parents are committing crimes and the kids are asking why they should do anything different … We have generational problems here in Chenango County and these kinds of programs are trying to break that generational trend.”
The request to accept newly awarded state funds must go before members of the county’s finance committee next week before appearing as a resolution at the full Board of Supervisors monthly meeting in September.
dived wound factual legitimately delightful goodness fit rat some lopsidedly far when.
Slung alongside jeepers hypnotic legitimately some iguana this agreeably triumphant pointedly far
jeepers unscrupulous anteater attentive noiseless put less greyhound prior stiff ferret unbearably cracked oh.
So sparing more goose caribou wailed went conveniently burned the the the and that save that adroit gosh and sparing armadillo grew some overtook that magnificently that
Circuitous gull and messily squirrel on that banally assenting nobly some much rakishly goodness that the darn abject hello left because unaccountably spluttered unlike a aurally since contritely thanks