An Ounce of Prevention…..

Posted on 03/09/2011 @ 08:44 AM

On Tuesday, I met with the Circuit 12 Juvenile Justice Board. Committee members from Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto Counties gathered at the Sarasota County School Board Offices for their quarterly meeting, with Caroline Zucker, School Board Vice Chair from Sarasota County and Chair of the Juvenile Justice Board, presiding.

During their business meeting, the group, consisting of representatives of the court system, school districts, the State Attorney’s Office, the Sarasota County Public Defender’s office, and non-profit counseling services, talked about the challenges they are facing with juveniles who are currently in the justice system. Is there enough money to deal with the current problems? How do you motivate a kid who’s now a year or more behind in school to go back and try to catch up, instead of dropping out? How do we keep this from continuing to happen?

Over and over again, the members of the board talked about how to prevent the problems from continuing to be the same, year after year.

And it all comes back to starting early in life, teaching parents to be effective, and helping kids be prepared for school and beyond.

Becky Newell
State Coordinator West Florida
The Children's Movement of Florida
becky.newell@childrensmovementflorida.org