Youth board gets sheriff-elect involved

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 21, 2011

By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

RESERVE – Various St. John the Baptist Parish community leaders and government officials gathered in Reserve Monday in an effort to reignite the parish’s Judicial District Court Youth Services Planning Board.

The board works in conjunction with the court’s Juvenile Probation Office to reach out to children and young teens who may be on the verge of delving into serious criminal activity in the community.

“Our goal has always been to reach out to the youth before it is too late,” said Board Chairman Raffeal J. Neal. “We can no longer afford to react to a tragedy. It is time to be proactive in developing programs and outlets to keep youth occupied before they have a chance to stray.”

The meeting Monday was held at the newly renovated 40th Judicial District Youth Services Building in Reserve. Neal said the court system assumed control of the building in an effort to remove youth services from the courtroom setting.

“Our efforts are not about punishment, which is the feeling families get when they go to the courthouse,” Neal said. “We are working to create an environment in the parish that will give every child the opportunity to grow and become a productive citizen regardless of the circumstances.”

Monday’s agenda included remarks from newly elected Sheriff Mike Tregre, who discussed the value of a planning board in combating criminal activity among youth in the parish in an effort to move the parish’s reputation forward.

“I’m not going to do this alone. I know I will have the support of the community,” Tregre said. “I have some ideas, but I don’t have all the answers. I am a ‘round table discussion’ kind of person. If you have some ideas, lets hear them.”

Tregre addressed the importance of keeping young children and teens occupied so they don’t fall in with the wrong crowd or get into trouble. He expressed the need for a strict curfew and proposed starting activity programs to get children involved civically.

“We have a beautiful gymnasium about to open up in Reserve,” Tregre said. “This could be a goldmine for the parish. I want to organize leagues, get midnight basketball programs going, anything to keep the youth occupied.”

Neal said the board has been working on a strategic plan for 2012, which includes bringing the community back to the table. He said the board had executed similar efforts in the past, but the efforts lost momentum.

“We organized a breakfast with a large group of community leaders, which was great, but we had a hard time keeping it going,” Neal said. “We also used to hold our meetings in the evening, which made it hard for people to get to them. We now have them scheduled in the middle of the day so that they can serve as lunch time meetings to make it easier for more to attend.”

Neal said he wants to organize a teen summit with students and representatives from the high schools and elementary schools to get an idea of what the youth themselves think about what is going on in the community and what can be done to help.

“They are the ones who know what is going on, and they are more prone to listen to their own ideas rather than listen to some adult tell them what needs to be done,” Neal said. “We want to know where we are lacking.”