Too often, on the streets of Providence, young people take a wrong turn and end up joining a violent gang to take the place of role models they don't get at home.
Many of these young people carry guns, and get caught up in the violent, inner-city street life that has put one too many teenagers in a grave.
But there is hope.
The Youth Transition Center is a unique collaboration between Tides Family Services, Inc., and the Juvenile Probation/Parole. The Providence Police Department, Department of Children, Youth and Families, and the Institute for the Practice of Non-Violence, are part of the group too.
The street workers, social workers, police officers and other professionals at the Transition Center, begin counseling troubled youth when they are nearing completion of a sentence at the State Training School.
These professionals and volunteers team up and make sure a youth who wants a second chance, gets one.
Ray Min was sentenced to the state training school when he was 16. He said, however, as soon as he got there, he was visited by the Providence police officer who arrested him.
"He said he wanted to help me. He said he could get me involved in a program that would help me straighten out my life," Min said.
Now 19, after spending three years with the professionals at the Youth Transition Center, Min is in his second year at the Community College of Rhode Island. He's a business major, looking forward to transferring to Bryant University.
In a clear and confident voice, he addressed the collaborative, which included U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.
He told the group of care he received from those who helped him "go straight," and in blunt terms, summed up the Transition Center's success.
"Basically," Min said, looking directly at Whitehouse, "I'm on a path where I can see myself with a future, not dead in a casket."
The Youth Transition Center also announced receiving a $1.2 million grant, which will allow for even more resources to be devoted to transitioning troubled youth from the state training school, to a better path in life.
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