Many at-risk
children – boys, girls, male adolescent youths, and female adolescent youths – make
their journey from childhood to adulthood in communities that are immersed in
economic turpitude, crime, violence, and spiritual, emotional, and
psychological toxicity. The landscape of
these communities is dotted with abandoned houses and storefront buildings, “stop-and-go”
businesses, and vacant lots -- devoid of legitimate real-life options and many
of the essential resources, support services, and tools that young souls need
to mature into productive, successful, and well-adjusted adults. Upon their release, Juvenile Lifers and
incarcerated youths will pour into these communities. For the most part, they will return to these
communities in the same condition they left -- uneducated, unskilled,
unemployable, and in dire need of mental and physical health resources and
support services. These marginalized
souls need a “hand up” and a “way out”.
For these souls, the SCI Graterford, PA LIFERS Public Safety Initiative,
a component of OPERATION FRESH START ™ is the “hand up” and “way out”. Crafted by The Honorable James M. DeLeon, a highly respected and veteran
jurist in the Criminal Court Division of Philadelphia’s Municipal Court,
OPERATION FRESH START ™ is being heralded as a Global Model for eradicating
recidivism and creating pathways to reintegration and redemption for formerly
incarcerated souls.
The SCI Graterford, PA LIFERS Public
Safety Initiative has expanded its focus on at-risk boys, to include girls,
incarcerated youths, and Juvenile Lifers.
Mentoring
and changing the mindset, behavior, and decision making of at-risk boys, girls
and incarcerated youths is the objective of the SCI Graterford, PA LIFERS
Public Safety Initiative. It is an
objective that the Interfaith Community will help to accomplish through the
establishment and operation of Transformational Centers in churches and mosques
throughout the City of Philadelphia. Designed
by a brilliant group of Thought Leaders who crafted the SCI Graterford, PA
LIFERS Public Safety Initiative, the Transformational Centers will mentor
at-risk boys, girls, and incarcerated youths who lack access to positive adult
role models and legitimate real-life options – to move them to reflect on their
behavior, appreciate the community in which they reside, and to realize their
worthiness and the potential they possess and must explore. Yet, mentoring and changing the mindset,
behavior, and decision making of these souls is just one key “piece of the
puzzle” to helping them rise above the conditions of their environment, reach
their full potential, and access legitimate real-life-options.
Many incarcerated youths
and Juvenile Lifers, upon the completion of their sentences and release from
correctional facilities, are homeless; lack high school diplomas and vocational
training, household management and money management skills; and have very
limited, if any, access to mental and physical health resources and support
services. In other words, they lack the
very things that are essential to their successful reintegration into
society. Under the OPERATION FRESH
START™ -- SCI Graterford, PA LIFERS Public Safety Initiative banner, a “Plan Of
Action” will be crafted which will connect – with all deliberate speed -- Juvenile Lifers who have been released from
correctional facilities and youths currently involved in the juvenile justice and
adult correctional system with the necessary
resources, support services, and tools they will need to successfully
transition into society after years and even decades of
institutionalization. Providing these
souls with among other things, housing, household management skills, vocational
training, money management skills, and entrepreneurial skills is giving them a
“hand up” and a “way out”.
Imagine,
if you will, hundreds upon hundreds of incarcerated youths and Juvenile Lifers streaming
into our communities who have access to housing and mental and physical health
resources and support services . . . who have household management and money
management skills . . . who have vocational skills and entrepreneurial training . . . who are employable and employed .
. and who are creating their own
businesses and will be able to offer employment to members of their
communities. These souls who were once
marginalized are now empowered . . . hopeful . . . purpose-driven. They
are purchasing homes and properly maintaining households as a direct result of
being equipped with access to housing and household and money management
skills. They have jobs and
careers. For those newly empowered souls
who embarked upon an entrepreneurial career path, not only are these souls
creating a career and employment for themselves, they are also creating
legitimate real-life options in their communities. They are renovating abandoned storefront
buildings in their communities and transforming them into stores and business
offices. At the same time, we have
at-risk children – boys, girls, adolescent males, and adolescent females ---
who have undergone a mentoring process at the Transformational Centers established
in their communities. These young souls
– the Next Generation Of Leaders and “Emerging Keepers Of The Planet” -- now
know and understand their “worthiness”; how they are connected to their
communities; and how their behavior, decision making, and mindset impacts
everyone.
Let’s
take a step back and look at what is unfolding here. The
SCI Graterford, PA LIFERS Public Safety Initiative does more than give a “hand
up” and a “way out” to at-risk children, youths, Juvenile Lifers and
incarcerated juveniles. It gives entire
communities a “hand up” and a “way out” of an expansive and paralyzing cloud of
economic turpitude. It resuscitates communities that are dying a
slow death – a slow death brought on by the spiritual, emotional, and
psychological toxicity that economic turpitude, lack of legitimate real-life
options, and a vacuum in compassionate and solutions-based leadership creates.
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