`NEW DIRECTIONS' PROJECT PUTS YOUTHS ON RIGHT TRACK.Byline: Stacy Finz Daily News Staff Writer Art Meza was only 12 when he stole his first car. And by the time Timothy Prince was 16, he was serving time for armed robbery. Now 17, the youths say they have mended their ways. They have severed sev·er v. sev·ered, sev·er·ing, sev·ers v.tr. 1. To set or keep apart; divide or separate. 2. To cut off (a part) from a whole. 3. their gang ties, are getting good grades and plan to go to college someday some·day adv. At an indefinite time in the future. Usage Note: The adverbs someday and sometime express future time indefinitely: We'll succeed someday. Come sometime. . They credit their new lives to New Directions for Youth Inc. ``I had 15 months to realize that the life I was living wasn't right,'' Prince said of his jail sentence jail sentence jail n → peine f de prison on the robbery conviction Noun 1. robbery conviction - conviction for robbery judgment of conviction, sentence, conviction, condemnation - (criminal law) a final judgment of guilty in a criminal case and the punishment that is imposed; "the conviction came as no surprise" . ``I had it set in my mind that I was going to change, but people here encouraged me to stay on the right road.'' New Directions, a nonprofit organization Nonprofit Organization An association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well. Notes: Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools. which is funded through federal grants and private donations, has been serving the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. for 21 years. It provides programs and services to 4,000 people a year, with the goals of reducing juvenile delinquency juvenile delinquency, legal term for behavior of children and adolescents that in adults would be judged criminal under law. In the United States, definitions and age limits of juveniles vary, the maximum age being set at 14 years in some states and as high as 21 , crime, gang affiliation, unemployment, family dysfunction dysfunction /dys·func·tion/ (dis-funk´shun) disturbance, impairment, or abnormality of functioning of an organ.dysfunc´tional erectile dysfunction impotence (2). and child abuse. In addition, New Directions offers an alternative high school for teens who are unsuccessful in traditional schools. Meza and Prince spend most of their weekday mornings attending classes and counseling sessions in the organization's Pacoima building on Van Nuys Boulevard. ``I'm going to school every day and have brought my grades up from straight F's to straight A's,'' said Meza, who was expelled from Bowman High in Canyon Country, for excessive truancy. ``Now I'm thinking about going into the U.S. Marine Corps, and then to college.'' Both teens were referred to New Directions by their probation officers probation officer n. 1. An official usually attached to a juvenile court and charged with the care of juvenile delinquents. 2. An official charged with supervising convicts at large on suspended sentence or probation. . And for many youths, it's their last chance to shape up, said counselor Terrance Johnson. ``A lot of people won't give these people a second chance,'' he said. ``But we do. And sometimes that's all they need.'' New Directions for Youth is among 15 agencies being profiled this year in the Daily News' seventh annual Season of Sharing Project, which has raised nearly $200,000 over the years for local charities. Readers can use the attached clip-out coupon to donate money directly to the agency or sign up as a volunteer. The Daily News receives none of the money. Charles Avelar, an outreach Outreach is an effort by an organization or group to connect its ideas or practices to the efforts of other organizations, groups, specific audiences or the general public. counselor with the agency for five years, said many of his referrals come from schools or police. In addition to working with individual children, Avelar said he works with families and elementary students to head off gang affiliation and drug use at an early age. ``This type of agency is vital to a healthier community,'' he said. ``Without these type of services these families would be in much worse shape than they are now.'' In April, Avelar was asked to help a 16-year-old who was blinded in a shooting with a gang-member suspect and was having trouble adjusting to his disability. ``He's now trying to get an education and has learned how to read in Braille,'' Avelar said. Carla Glasbrener, vice president of New Directions, said the organization's main focus is on the mid- and northeast San Fernando Valley, where income levels are low and the crime rate high. She said that 80 percent of the teen-agers they serve do not go back into the juvenile justice system. Part of the work they do involves taking at-risk children out of their regular environments. For instance, Avelar took six youngsters - ages 10 to 12 - to the Olympics Games in Atlanta this summer. ``It was an experience of a lifetime for these kids,'' he said. ``For some of them it was their first time on an airplane airplane, aeroplane, or aircraft, heavier-than-air vehicle, mechanically driven and fitted with fixed wings that support it in flight through the dynamic action of the air. or away from their community.'' Glasbrener said it would be nice to have more money for field trips and similar types of activities for the children. ``We have a great need for unrestricted dollars,'' she said. ``With government funding being cut, it's an increasing struggle to keep things running.'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Art Meza, 17, left, rejected a life of crime with the aid of New Directions for Youth Inc. counselors like Terrance Johnson. Phil McCarten/Daily News |
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