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Ball shows kids in crisis are all class

By JENNIFER STEWART
Published June 10, 2006

SPRING HILL - The five "at-risk" kids could have easily been somewhere much less desirable.

But on June 3, they were in a Palace Grand ballroom for a fundraiser to benefit their current home, the Youth and Family Alternatives New Beginnings Shelter in Brooksville.

"These kids were at a function, well-mannered, and they all had a blast," said shelter residential supervisor Billy Simpson.

At the Boots and Pearls Ball, which raised about $20,000, the children were among more than 150 partygoers who donned cowboy hats, ate barbecue, listened to music by Wiley Fox and line-danced.

Outside the party, the kids are in the foster care system and truants court-ordered to the shelter, which serves Hernando, Citrus and Sumter counties.

It is very similar to YFA's New Port Richey Runaway Alternatives Project, or RAP, House. Both have 18 beds for kids ages 10 to 17 who are not violent or in the juvenile justice system.

YFA has another shelter in Mulberry in Polk County.

All three facilities also serve as a respite for parents who are in turmoil or just need a break. The children accepted at the shelters are runaways or are in some kind of crisis at home.

"When they come here," said New Beginnings director Glenn Parkinson, "what they own is what they carry."

The average stay is two weeks, he said.

The kids YFA targets are walking a fine line, and their situations can go either way. That's why YFA president and CEO George Magrill asks for tolerance instead of punishment for them. And tolerance appears to be working.

Ninety percent of the young people who were in the shelters are not in the justice system six months after they return home, Magrill said.

When they get home, YFA's family services offers family counseling on a sliding-scale basis.

"The kids we see are not bad kids," Magrill said. "They're good kids who come from difficult situations.''

The youth shelters receive about 75 percent of their financial support from state agencies, such as the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Department of Children and Families.

"It's still a very, very tight budget,'' Parkinson said.

Proceeds from Boots and Pearls will allow the kids at New Beginnings to go on more outings, such as to the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.

Hernando County health and human services director Jean Rags, who was on the ball's planning committee, came up with the idea to combine boots and pearls for the theme. "It kind of defined the dress for the evening,'' Rags said.

The five kids at the recent ball got to attend because of good behavior. While there, they gave the guests programs and goody bags and helped with the auction.

One of the kids was a 16-year-old girl who is in the foster care system, and the shelter, with her younger sister. She said to Parkinson of the turnout at the ball: "I can't believe they're here for me. For kids they've never even met.''

"Those are the kinds of kids who aren't going to be behind bars," Parkinson said.

For more information on Youth and Family Alternatives, visit www.yfainc.org or call (727) 835-4166.

[Last modified June 10, 2006, 08:35:27]