Hamilton Learning Academy -- an alternative school in Little Rock -- is the focus of a state grant that the city received to fund prevention and intervention efforts targeting minors most at risk of a poor life outcome.
The $42,866 state Juvenile Accountability Block Grant -- to which city funds will be added to total about $100,000 -- is one step toward Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola's promise to tackle crime in the city.
Stodola announced in his State of the City address at the beginning of the year that he and other mayors had signed onto a national initiative called My Brother's Keeper that's meant to address the issue of increasing violence among young black boys and men. Stodola said he wanted to target children at risk of entering a life of crime or other negative behaviors earlier in their lives.
He said at the time that he would develop a crime task force. This month, he expanded that into three task forces to address crime and violence in the city as a whole. One of the committees -- the Juvenile Crime Enforcement Coalition -- has already been formed with the grant money, and members have begun meeting.
That group, led by the city's Program Coordinator Marq Golden, includes representatives from the juvenile court system, the school district, the Pulaski County sheriff's office and the Little Rock Police Department. A representative from the state Department of Human Services' Division of Youth Services will be added, as well as some nonprofit representatives.
"We want to systematically realign our systems and how we interact with youth who may be highly at risk," Golden said. "In terms of prevention programs, we want to catch them earlier. We are familiar with what communities in the city they are coming from. We can capture them early and provide diversion options for those youth."
Each entity -- the court system, law enforcement and mentors -- must work together to address a child's problems in a way that gives that child a better chance going forward, Golden said.
One goal of the state grant is to work with the Division of Youth Services to place minors coming from the division's Alexander unit -- where the most behaviorally troubled youth are sent -- into intervention and employment placement services.
Pulaski County has the highest number of juvenile commitments to youth centers in the state, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency. In 2013, 1,393 juvenile cases were filed in the county with 53 commitments to juvenile centers, primarily in Little Rock.
Stodola thinks Hamilton Learning Academy is a good place to start the city's efforts.
Students are transferred to Hamilton from their primary schools for a variety of reasons -- truancy, bad behavior, fighting, bringing weapons to school.
"I think if we can focus on those 200 kids, we can reduce the crime rate in Little Rock," Stodola said.
While some Hamilton students have committed crimes that landed them in juvenile court, the majority don't have a criminal record, according to Golden.
"Most of the kids, I'll be honest, most of the kids there are truants or kids who have had school fights. Or you curse out a teacher, you get sent to Hamilton," Golden said. "They are in positions that are not positive in terms of them progressing in a regular high school setting, but most of them do not have criminal records."
The goal of the Juvenile Crime Enforcement Coalition is to develop a referral center to address the needs of youth in transition that builds upon existing community programming.
"We are trying to not reinvent the wheel when the wheel has already been invented," Stodola said. "The role of the city, I think, is to be the umbrella and try to marshal our forces."
Students returning from Division of Youth Services custody and those who have had behavioral problems at school will receive academic support, community service experience and employment opportunities.
According to the Division of Youth Services, Pulaski County youths in the juvenile justice system are demonstrating an increase in recidivism.
"This is due to youth returning to their communities without support for directional change," Golden wrote in the city's application for the grant. "These supports entail life skill direction and employability and educational options. Many of the youth face a number of risk factors which include low literacy levels, poverty and opportunities for negative behaviors due to community peers."
The city's Department of Community Programs staff has been compiling a list of services in Little Rock provided by different groups. The city plans to roll out a smartphone application that lists all the services by category. For example, if someone is looking for educational services, they can use the app to quickly find the groups that offer those services. Other categories include employment, public health, poverty, youth and faith-based.
Stodola is working on creating two other task forces -- one that deals with mentoring and black male role models and another that can tackle crime from a policy standpoint.
"This is an evolving process," Stodola said. "There are so many different pieces. You've got courts, prosecution, arrest, rehabilitation and the prevention ends."
He said he's meeting with several pastors to get a list of mentors and role models and he hopes to do video testimonials with some strong black role models in the city. The policy task force will incorporate city, county, state and law enforcement officials to address the issue of overcrowded jails, parole monitoring and other issues, Stodola said.
"Out of that group will come, hopefully, an ability to focus our efforts on how we can deal with the recidivism issue," Stodola said. "It's easy to talk about this, pull your hair out and talk about how terrible it is, the disproportionate amount of violence with young men of color, but how are you going to attack it?"
Metro on 11/28/2014