Mentoring program for teens accused of crimes helps after hurricanes

A Tampa program that trains arrested teens is helping them focus on staying out of trouble after recent hurricanes disrupted their daily routines.

The Safe and Healthy Hillsborough Center provides evening programs that youth accused of crimes can attend as an alternative to juvenile detention.

Teens in the program are court-ordered to attend and receive anger management counseling, as well as support for education, employment and other needs.

Some have to go there every day, something that wasn’t possible when Hurricanes Milton and Helen forced schools and businesses to temporarily close and some residents to evacuate their communities.

Keeping in touch with teens when they can’t be together in person is important, said Thaddeus Wright, director of evening reporting at Safe and Sound Hillsborough.

He said case managers contacted the youths daily to meet their legal demands. Programming resumed Oct. 17, but Wright said some families affected by the storm still need help.

“One of the biggest things we’ve learned is that many of these kids are charged because they are food insecure, so they commit crimes because they’re hungry,” he said. “So when you add the stress of not having electricity and not having much food that they had at home, they lose that too, it’s stressful for them.”

Safe and Sound mentors received food from Feeding Tampa Bay and are delivering it to some families in need, Wright said.

Restaurants and community members have also donated food, which the group serves during evening programs, which are temporarily based at the Tampa CDC while the regular location is being renovated.

Another challenge for teens is maintaining a high level of education, Wright said.

Most of the children in the program had already missed a lot of school due to the arrests, so school closures due to the hurricane caused further disruption.

“We try to help them by letting them do their homework and work with them in every way possible to help them catch up, but it causes them a lot of stress,” Wright said.

The Safe and Sound movement’s priority is to continue working to help families meet basic needs by providing food and other services.

Taking hunger out of the equation helps teens focus on their education and mental health, Wright said.

If you are interested in donating food or supplies, you can find more information about Safe and Sound Hillsborough. on the organization’s website.