$5,000 awarded to help area youth
Program offers troubled students opportunities to continue education Rachel E. Sheeley Staff writer Statewide recognition and a $5,000 award are being given today to a Wayne County program that helped more than 300 suspended or expelled students in 2004. This morning the Indiana Youth Institute planned to honor the Positive Alternatives program, administered by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wayne County, with the Indiana Youth Investment Award. The award includes $5,000 and other benefits. Indiana Youth Institute president and CEO Bill Stanczykiewicz expected to make the presentation at the Richard E. Jeffers Boys & Girls Club in Richmond. Bruce Daggy, Wayne County Boys & Girls Clubs executive director, said the money and statewide recognition are good for the program, which served 319 students in 2004. Among those students, 90 percent were not suspended or expelled again after returning to school. The Positive Alternatives program offers students who have been suspended or expelled from school an opportunity within a structured environment to keep up with their school assignments and to learn how to change the behaviors that led to their suspension. The program includes coping skill development offered through the Conflict Resolution Center and community service work. The program is offered at the Jeffers Boys & Girls Club site in Richmond and the Golay Community Center in Cambridge City. Brad Marshall, the Boys & Girls Clubs' building and community services director, coordinates the program with staff members Mary Wright in Richmond and Al Glover in Cambridge City. The program started in Richmond in 2003 with a two-year grant from the Indiana Department of Education. When the money ran out, a county collaboration secured the 4 Community grant through the Lily Endowment and the Indiana Association of United Ways. The money allowed the program to continue in Richmond and expand to the Golay Center. The Positive Alternatives program's award is one of 10 Indiana Youth Investment Awards given. The Indiana Youth Investment Awards are funded in part through a grant from the Pacers Foundation. Winners will be recognized at the Nov. 20 Indiana Pacers basketball game and will receive free admission for two people to the Indiana Youth Institute's Kids Count in Indiana Conference on Nov. 17-18. Reporter Rachel E. Sheeley: (765) 973-4458 or rsheeley@pal-item.com Information • To learn more about the Positive Alternatives program, contact Brad Marshall at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wayne County, (765) 962-6922.Copyright (c) Palladium-Item. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.