
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 13, 1994                   TAG: 9401220013
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DON'T KILL OFFICE ON YOUTH

AMONG THE targets of the austerity budget that Gov. Douglas Wilder has proposed as his term expires are Offices on Youth that have been set up in some communities around the state, including Roanoke.

These are, of course, tough times in Virginia budgetwise, and sound fiscal management demands tough choices. Not every worthwhile program can be saved if the state can't afford every worthwhile program it has.

But this particular program is one the state can ill afford to lose.

Gov.-elect George Allen found a theme that resonated with voters during his campaign when he proposed eliminating parole. Lawmakers statewide and nationwide heard a clear message from voters in November: They're worried about crime. And no wonder. Whatever the statistics say about the actual incidence of crime, its wantonness and level of violence have been escalating as criminals get younger and younger.

Keeping hardened criminals imprisoned longer is one way to protect society from the career thief or hopeless sociopath. But the epidemic of violence won't be stemmed without keeping youngsters away from the contagion. The cost-effectiveness of diverting just one youth from a life of criminality is, or should be, obvious.

The purpose of Roanoke's Office on Youth isn't to prevent crime as such, but that is an effect. Run by a staff of 11/2 and lots of volunteers, the office plans special activities for youth, surveys city youths to assess their needs, acts as a referral agency to connect teen-agers to the right services or agency when crises arise, writes grant proposals for its own activities and helps other youth-service groups write theirs.

All of which sounds very bureaucratic, but in reality, the office turns a little money into a lot of grass-roots programs that involve at-risk kids in productive activities. Just one example is a youth employment program for children as young as 12. Participants were too young to work, but not too young to learn some of the social skills and attitudes needed to be successful at work. Their job was to learn how to get and hold a job.

The office works with other agencies seeking grants to help young people. One result is a court services program aimed at turning around the lives of first-time drug offenders by offering them the opportunity to wipe the slate clean in exchange for intense counseling and supervision.

And it coordinates the disparate efforts and resources of an array of public and private groups working to put children on a path leading to productive lives. It's now working - or, more accurately, its director, Marion Crenshaw, and her lone, part-time assistant are working - to develop a volunteer program in which city employees would spend time in the schools as mentors or tutors and, most important, role models.

The Wilder budget plan is just that, a plan. Virginia's new governor will have his own ideas about how to spend the state's money, and the General Assembly will write the budget bill. There will be be many changes. One should be restored funding for the sparsely staffed, highly energetic Office on Youth. Certainly, its loss would be no savings for Roanoke.

by CNB