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By Alyssa Jung 12/22/09
If Saratoga County’s Youth
Court program can’t come up with the $70,000 it takes to run the
peer-to-peer alternative sentencing program, it will be forced
to drastically reduce its services or cease to exist entirely.
It takes $70,000 to fund the program and pay its two full-time
staff members, according to Clinical Director at the Saratoga
County Prevention Council Patty Kilgore, who oversees Youth
Court. She said that about 75 percent of this money was
previously provided by a member item from Senator Joe Bruno’s
office. This government funding is no longer available so the
Youth Court has reached out to the public for help.
“We want to sustain this program because it works, it’s an
extremely successful program and we don’t want to change it.
We’ve trimmed the budget as much as we can, we’re down to pretty
bare bones,” said Kilgore. “Youth Court impacts at least 300
youth a year throughout Saratoga County, so it’s a broad program
and provides incredible peer leadership opportunities, for the
officers as well as a viable alternative sentencing program for
first time offenders.”
Youth Court is a peer-to-peer alternative sentencing program for
young people arrested for first-time offenses. After being
referred to the peer-run court by a municipal court judge or the
probation department, offenders participate in a trial and
receive a sentence, consisting of community service and other
sanctions, according to information from Ekman. Participating in
Youth Court makes offenders much less likely to commit another
crime, Kilgore said, and over the past 10 years, Youth Court has
saved Saratoga County thousands of dollars by preventing more
than a thousand young people from re-entering the criminal
justice system.
“Officers have the opportunity to learn a lot about the
profession of law. Some come from the BOCES criminal justice
program, some go to the Saratoga County schools and many are
home schooled,” said Kilgore. “Many officers have gone on to law
school and really credit the Youth Court with where it all
began.”
Kilgore said that she has made several requests to various
foundations for grants and been denied by all. She is unsure of
the reasoning for this and said it is slightly unusual.
“We don’t know why they say ‘no;’ two places we were very
hopeful for turned us down without any reason and we’re not sure
if it’s because we don’t meet the criteria, if there are too
many requests or if the ability to fund is down,” said Kilgore.
“The problem we run into on a regular basis when trying to apply
for grants is that it’s very hard to find someone willing to
fund an existing program. Most are interested in funding new
programs.”
Youth Court officials are urging community members to give what
they can and to reach out to elected officials at the county and
state level. Donations can be made to Judy Ekman of the
Prevention Council or put into a PayPal account on the agency’s
Web site, www.preventioncouncil.org.
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