Program detours kids from trouble.

Byline: RANDI BJORNSTAD The Register-Guard

At 14, the age when many girls just begin baby-sitting for their relatives and friends, Mindy Ford not only has little contact with her own family, but also has a 7-month-old daughter of her own.

The state Child Welfare Program has removed Samantha from Ford's custody, but the agency hopes to find a foster home in the Cottage Grove area where the young mother can live with her baby, learning how to be a parent while growing up herself.

Despite Ford's rough beginnings, her life now holds a measure of hope she didn't have just a few months ago, thanks to a new program begun by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County.

Yellow Brick Road, taken from the "Wizard of Oz," provides intensive assistance, basic education, job training and counseling to low-income, at-risk youths in rural communities.

In the Cottage Grove program, about 20 participants share space with students in the South Lane School District's alternative high school program. The school district donates office space and utilities to the program.

"When we started in November, we had 20 referrals the first week - there's so much need - and we already have a waiting list of kids who want to be in the program," said Lezlee Craven, case manager for the Yellow Brick Road program in southern Lane County.

"We work with every aspect of these kids' lives - education, family, job - because it all has to work together for them to succeed."

Unlike most education-based programs, where the better the performance, the more likely the admission, getting into Yellow Brick Road requires a degree of deficiency no one would wish on a kid.

To get into this special school, they must exhibit at least one major barrier to "normal" success: be below high-school level in reading, writing or math or one year or more below their age-appropriate grade level; have a juvenile offense record; be homeless or a runaway; have a child or be pregnant; live in foster care; have dropped out of school; or lack self-supporting job skills.

Ford, who qualified for the program on several of those counts, said her life has improved greatly since she entered Yellow Brick Road.

"I couldn't live at home with my mother, so I've been staying with a friend," Ford said. "After I had my baby, I got kicked out of high school because at first Sammy was sick a lot and I couldn't go to school enough, so they dropped me. But now I'm doing pretty good because Lezlee's helping me a lot - she helps with everything I need."

She's not the only Yellow Brick Road participant to invoke Craven's name with an affection bordering on awe. "Lezlee helps me a lot - a lot of things I wouldn't have right now if it wasn't for her," said Chris Evans, 18. "My mom kicked me out, I didn't have a place to stay or food to eat, but Lezlee helped me with everything, and she helps everyone with everything. She gets attached to kids, and she treats us the way she would treat her own kids - you don't find that from a lot of people."

Evans admits he's finding the growing-up process more of a struggle than he expected, but with the support of Yellow Brick Road - and his employer, Bob Gonzales, who owns B&A Automotive and has taken him on as a mechanic trainee - he hopes to turn his life around.

On probation pretty much nonstop since age 10 for a variety of infractions in Douglas County, Evans said moving to Cottage Grove also has given him a boost.

"I was well-known in Douglas County, so even if I wanted to change my life, I could not set the image for myself," he said. "When I came here, I could dress differently and have a better attitude and hope people would have a better outlook on me - and it's worked."

But it's the attention and support of people such as Gonzales and Craven - and the services offered by Yellow Brick Road - that will see him through to his goal of a productive adulthood, Evans said.

"Because of them, I have food, a job, school, my own apartment - lots of things I have in my own life probably wouldn't have happened without them. They're helping me turn from the troublemaker I used to be to a more responsible adult."

YELLOW BRICK ROAD

WHERE: Cottage Grove, Creswell, Lowell, Marcola, Noti, Veneta, Elmira, Triangle Lake, Mapleton, Florence.

SERVICES: Education, job training, housing, transportation, job skills, counseling, child care, emergency services for youths ages 14 to 21.

INFORMATION: 607-0439

CAPTION(S):

A new St. Vincent de Paul program called Yellow Brick Road provides educational and emotional support to youths such as Mindy Ford, 14, and her 7-month- old daughter, Samantha. Ford credits case manager Lezlee Craven with giving her new hope: "After I had my baby, I got kicked out of high school because at first Sammy was sick a lot and I couldn't go to school enough ... But now I'm doing pretty good because Lezlee's helping me a lot - she helps with everything I need." NICOLE DeVITO / The Register-Guard NICOLE DeVITO / The Register-Guard Chris Evans, 18, an auto mechanic, says the program is helping him become a responsible adult.