This Week's News: Youth in Transition

Education   

Fighting High School Dropout Rates
WBNG News, Binghamton, NY – December 15, 2012
Binghamton High School students got a little extra motivation to make sure they graduate.  Students put on the "American Graduate" event to raise awareness on student dropout rates.

Districts start earlier to identify, help students who may drop out
Hattiesburg American, Sumrall, MS – December 15, 2012
Eighteen-year-old Alyx Colson will graduate from Sumrall High School on Dec. 21, but that almost didn’t happen.  That’s when Lamar County School District dropout prevention coordinator Jarrod Bohannon stepped in to help.  “I found out what his real issues were, why he dropped out of school and set up a plan to get him back in school,” he said.  Bohannon and dropout prevention coordinators at school districts around the Pine Belt are working with at-risk students to keep them in school.

UNC Launch Pad startup STENCIL tackles high school dropout rate
WRAL, Chapel Hill, NC – December 11, 2012
Julian Wooten holds degrees in biology and chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill, and nanomedicine from UNC Chapel Hill’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and recently decided to pursue an MBA.  But it was prestigious teaching internships at Philips Exeter Academy and Johns Hopkins University that led him to become an entrepreneur and launch a company called Students and Teachers Employing New Criteria in Learning, or STENCIL.  The company develops software that allows teachers and school administrators to manage data on student attendance, behavior and course performance.

Juvenile Justice

Lucas County awarded $1.3M to aid youths
Toledo Blade, Toledo, OH – December 17, 2012
County officials and treatment providers are hoping a new federal grant, awarded to only three communities across the country, will break the cycle of drugs, alcohol, and crime among juveniles in Toledo.  The four-year grant awarded to the Lucas County juvenile court, provides $1.32 million to provide training to implement a new model of treatment, called Reclaiming Futures, for juveniles who go through the court system.

Foster Care

Orlando Sentinel Family Fund: Faine House to provide hope, opportunity for foster kids
Orlando Sentinel, Florida – December 13, 2012
DeVante Bynoe remembers coming here in 2004. He was only 11 then and had just taken his first steps as a wayward child of the state.  Bynoe, now 19, hopes to live in the Faine House, a project etched in the kindness of a man who understands how fortunate he was not to get caught up in that dysfunctional wave of neglect.

Angel House provides new opportunities for women
The Marietta Daily Journal, Canton, OH – December 16, 2012
Kids in a Candy Store is filling orders for its first holiday season in business.  The business started in February at the Angel House of North Georgia. Through Kids in a Candy Store, young women living in the independent living program at Angel House make candy bouquets for weddings, businesses and gifts.  “They’re aging out of foster care, or community kids who need life skills to get a good start,” Worsley said. The independent living program teaches skills including budgeting and household management while residents work to save money to start life on their own.

Teen Pregnancy

Governor holds summit to ‘Stomp Out Teenage Pregnancy’
The Mississippi Link, Mississippi – December 13, 2012
Gov. Phil Bryant told approximately 350 attendees last week that he has a goal to try and decrease teen pregnancy by 15 percent by 2017. The Governor was the keynote speaker at his Healthy Teens for a Better Mississippi first Teens Pregnancy Prevention Summit, Dec. 6, at the Jackson Convention Complex.