Aim is to catch teens before they fall too far

Youth Recovery Services is setting up to assist troubled teens in changing their lives.

By ERIN SULLIVAN, Times Staff Writer
Published October 25, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - A program to save troubled teens is gaining momentum, said James Yant, a board member of Youth Recovery Services Inc.

The organization started in late September and is the idea of Yant and Michael Ransaw, a former school principal who is now the program's executive director.

The idea is this: Once teens get into trouble and enter the prison system, it becomes a revolving door. Most of the teens are in and out for the rest of their lives, costing taxpayers money, as well as fizzling any potential they might have had.

Yant and Ransaw want to stop that cycle by working with teens who have made some mistakes but not yet heinous ones.

They want to show these teens that someone cares about them and to give them self confidence and hope: the skills to go to college, to have a successful career and to be financially sound. They want to show them that drugs and fighting get them nowhere. They want to show them that being smart isn't something to hide.

"We can't save all of them, but we've got to try. We have to show them someone cares," said Yant, a former high school and college teacher who now runs the J.C. Yant Insurance Agency in Spring Hill and is a candidate for the Hernando County School Board.

The teens are referred to Youth Recovery Services through the juvenile court system and similar agencies.

Yant said they expected to begin with about 25 teens. They have 50 signed up - and they haven't even started yet, which Yant says shows the huge need for a program like this in Hernando County.

The group is screening volunteers, applying for grants and making sure everything is set up for when the program begins in the coming weeks.

There is no official start date yet, but Yant said the program will be open after school till about 6:30 p.m. at 875 Kennedy Blvd. in a building Yant owns, has renovated and donated to the organization.

Because there are so many teens already signed up for the program, Hernando County is allowing Youth Recovery Services to use the Kennedy Park Recreation Building rent free. It is next door to Yant's building.

Tuesday, Ransaw gave the County Commission certificates of appreciation, for allowing them access to the building.

The program will not only be for teenagers. Yant said there are plans to include parents and grandparents, teaching courses on finances, GEDs and other subjects.

"I see the potential," Yant said. "I think this can be a model program - not just for the state of Florida, but the whole United States."

For more information about the program, visit www.youthrecoveryservices.com or call 352 799-6111.

Erin Sullivan can be reached at esullivan@sptimes.com or (813) 909-4609.

[Last modified October 24, 2007, 19:46:47]