welcome to "beyond theyo headlines." i'm cheryl jennings. every weekje we focus on a different topic affecting thefe people living and working in the bayn area. a today we're going to talk about our at risk young people and we're going to share with you some valuable resources and programs that offer a helpingfe hand to these young offenders. i'll show you an example. a recent and deadly case in which two young men are facing trial. we filed this report in april. >> reporter: prosecutors say thesete two 18-year-old men spet friday sitting on an oakland street drinking rum, feeling angry about how their lives weren't going so well. they decided they wanted to punch someone.. the first people, police say, the two men met, were a father and son. o the elder father died from the attack. the motive doesn't surprise some community activists in oakland. >> this isf symptomatic of what we'rean seeing in oakland in the laste few years where young people have nothing to do, thert

aren't jobs available andbe they're becoming more hopeless and more angry. >> reporter: deborah snowe of oakland community organization says she shares the same goal as the yu family members who sat outside of court -- said what they hope will happen next. >> that true justice is no more violence to anyone, any family. >> reporter: prosecutors say th. two suspects, especially drummer, were frustrated with their lives. the two have criminal records dating back to april 2007 when they were both arrested for trying to rob a man in berkeley. charges were never filed. in august of last year, abc 7 news learned drummer was arrested for selling s drugs. then d prosecutors say in september 2009, drummer got in f fistfight at a store and suckeru punched a man whodr his and hitdr his ground. he was convicted of battery with

intent to cause bodily injury. two months ago on valentine's day, 4:00 o'clock in the morning, police showed up atpo this apartment where the mother of drummer's baby lived. according to investigators, he slapped her across the face because she had a new boyfriend. now he and davis are accused of killing yu. as they deal with their grief, the relatives are also thinkinga about the suspects. >> our hearts go to the families of these two young men because they're going to be -- it's going to be very difficult for their families as well. >> the yu family continues to grieve, drummer and davis both entered not guilty pleas last month and currently in jail waiting to go to trial. here to talk about the youth violence. is barry krisberg. he's a distinguished fellow and lecturer and residence. thank you for beingsi here withs today. >> thank you for having me. >> how bigin is the problem of youth violence? we hear about it inar the news,

but don't really have a handle on it. >> well, the bad news is that generally the united states has one of the highest rates of youth violence throughout the world. and california, among theca american states, has some of the highest rates of youth violence. the good news is that the trends have been downward for the last ten, 15 years. so we're seeing some mitigation of this problem. >> that's good news.s. but what are some of the problems that contribute to this? societal problem, the economy? there are a lot of factors. >> there certainly are a lot of fa i think that increasingly we'ree seeing that young people who get involved in violence have themselves been victims or witnesses ofti violence in their homes. to the extent we have serious and sustainedou problems of chid abuse and domestic violence, that feeds this problem. unemployment creates this as well. certainly gangs have a major

influence in terms of propellino young people towards violent behavior. >> so there are so many ways we have to approach this. you were appointed to a panel of investigating conditions in california's youth risen. to tell me about that. what did you find? >> actually originally attorney general asked me tott lead a pal to investigate and this was back in 2003. we found horrible conditions. we found young people who were being held in cages, not fit foo zoo animal, extensive use of isolation, medication being used willie nilly, tremendous amounts of violence within the institutions and lots and lots ofw force. the good news is once the report was issued, govern arnold schwarzenegger moved toward dissent decree. since 2004, they have been workingno to remedy these

situations. we're not 100% there yet. but certainly we moved from a terrible situation to one that's getting better. >> that also speaks to the point ofoi trying to rehabilitate thee kids because they're going to get out. they don't stay locked up forever. can they be helped with enough stuff thrown at them?ro >> i think that's very much the issue, which is all of them are coming home and they're going to come home in just a couple years. so we have a public safety interest in rehabilitation. in the late '90s, we started to think that being tough andan tough love was the answer.n we moved towards making our youth facilities more like prisons and it backfired. >> it doesn't work. before we run out of time, i want to ask, what can we do as a community to help stop violence in our own communities? >> well, the research is pretty

clear, that -- >> we have a chart to show people. >> get to go know youro neighbos is critical. and c participating in your own community. communities that have what's more civic engagement, more involvement and interaction,ac even if you control forro economics and other things, do much, much better. >> doctor, thank you so much. we've run out ofth time. those are great tips. we're going to post this on our web site. appreciate it very much. we do have to take a break. when we come back, we'll learn how a marin county program ist helping cut crime in a low income neighborhood. so stay with us. [ crowd cheering ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] 2-scoop sundae, water and a free mlb® mini helmet compliments of aquafina. baskin-robbins. more flavors. more fun.

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we've been talking about a very important topic, at risk youth. one neighborhood in marin county has seenme rate d crime rate dry nearly 50% thanks to a program called the phoenix project. i recently had the opportunity to visit marin city and see that success firsthand. >> let's get this set up to make sure it will close. my family was used to seeing me go down the wrong road for many years. >> reporter: 24-year-old matthew is being trained in carpentry by ryan lynch. >> young men like this were provided opportunities that everybody isn't. they're really good people and sometimes they get sidetracked. >> it's one of many partners in a new crime fighting effort in marin city called the phoenix project. founded by felicia gaston. >> it opened up doors for me. >> reporter: matthew is just one of her success stories. he's come a long way from his

time in san quentin prison and a struggle in life. >> i grew up with five kids, me and my brothers and my sister, a single mother. >> reporter: matthew wants to be a good father to his own kids. >> i have two children, i have a three-year-old son and one-year-old daughter. >> bunch of violations, sales of narcotics, trying to get fast money. not realizing the consequences. not realizing there is opportunities out there. >> reporter: chris served time in san quentin. he's 24 and now has a future thanks to the phoenix project. he was connected with earl, owner of the on location mobile detailing company. chris and matthew are among dozens of young men in the phoenix project of marin. it's been so successful that a preliminary report shows crime statistics decreased 42% here in the first six months after the program started. the sheriff department is hoping that kind of progress will result in crime reduction over

the long-term. >> every time i picked up the newspaper, i would read about robberies at the bus stop, robberies in the community, vandalism, gun shots. >> reporter: the founder of the phoenix project had already been working in the community for nearly 30 years with her nonprofit performing stars of marin. it helps young low income children, but she couldn't get any money for programs for teens or young men and crime was escalating. >> what really sparked it was when the sheriff's deputy was sitting in his vehicle and he was shot at and it was like oh, no, that was my call to action. >> reporter: her call to action quickly resulted in the creation of this community connection center, right in the middle of the housing project. >> do you have your driver's license, social security card, birth certificate? all the necessary documents that you need order to proceed in life. >> reporter: outreach workers help young men 13 to 25 sign up for services, including

mentoring, counseling, computer training, college courses, support navigating through the court system, and most importantly, jobs and housing. >> we were surprised to learn 25% of these 30 to 40 kids we're working with are truly homeless. >> reporter: dan is the executive director of the marin housing authority. >> dan provided the space, the actual facility, the resources, staff, whatever we needed to make sure that we were addressing these young men. >> reporter: a dozen strategic partners were invited to work with the phoenix project, including law enforcement. >> we said, let's have partners who already kind of have to face these kids face-to-face, which, unfortunately, is a lot of law enforcement-related entities. but the partners are really excited and dedicated and hands on. >> we're used to arresting the bad guys. >> reporter: lieutenant fisher with the marin county sheriff's department, says the safety of the community comes first, but

that the department is working closely with the phoenix project. >> we identify people when we referred at maybe benefit from this program in hopes that it might change their life. if it just changes the life of one, then it's been successful. >> we come to the meetings at times and they introduce us, they say, this is the person you don't want to meet. >> this is a district attorney. >> we got prosecution prevention and protection. what we really are trying to emphasize is the prevention part of that. we can get people hooked into the job site education side, i don't have to worry about what's going to be coming my direction. >> reporter: the marin board of supervisors helped get the phoenix project rolling with some discretionary money. >> a very targeted group of young people in your community in the marin citybeing given ree being given really a second chance. >> marin community foundation donated $50,000.

the county supervisors donated 50. we're kind of piecemealing in some hud funding. it costs us 100 to $200,000 a year, which is kind of a shoe string budget. >> reporter: compare that to the cost of a teen in juvenile hall at $80,000 a year. or a young man in state prison at nearly $50,000 a year. lots of people in the community pitched in to renovate this unit in marin city to create the center of change and hope for young men here. the phoenix project launched in october of 2009 with a big neighborhood party and visitors from state and local government. that investment means that young men like matthew and his brother, joshua, can learn a trade and finish school. >> we work here for a full day, usually eight hours, and then they go back to the center and take two hours of courses coursd work towards achieving their high school diploma or in matthew's case, college work. >> reporter: the phoenix project outingsgo on like this, here they met

michelle obama's brother at a book signing. they had to trade in their baggy wants and t-shirt for a polished professional look. the phoenix project changed things dramatically. >> at night before it used to be really noisy. now through the nighttime, it's more quiet. i appreciate felicia so much for what she's d ae's doing a great >> the >> the gun shots ceased. the loud activity has gone down in this area. the more people we get out to work, then the less we have hanging out. >> it means young men, young black men will have a chance to get out in the world and be successful. that's why i'm really willing to help. >> we've done well on a shoe string budget, but we have more work to do and we are researching and advocating and writing grants and going on the circuit. >> i feel like the phoenix

project has opened up a lot of doors and i just need -- i feel like if i can do this kind of work, then maybe i can influence other individuals who hang around here can come and participate. >> they're helping me with housing, they're helping me stay focused on taking care of business. i want to own my own shop. >> i like it. >> right next door. >> he said he might be some competition for you one day. >> i better make him sign a release today that he won't steal any of my customers then. >> reporter: that's a lot of progress. joining me now in the studio are felicia gaston, dan ackerman, congratulations to both of you. such a community effort, unbelievable. >> thank you. >> felicia, how are chris and matthew? >> chris is now in his two months of working and as a

matter of fact, yesterday he told me he is supervising a young teen-ager as a summer employee on locd he's feeling ro be a mentor. he's super excited about that. >> okay. that's excellent. and dan, you must be thrilled with the temporary progress. >> we're definitely thrilled. this is a very pragmatic, nonbureaucrattic, face-to-face program and we're seeing some lives changed one at a time. so we're really just thrilled with the results. it changed a little during -- become more of an employment program, but it's a prevention program. >> we want

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welcome back to "beyond then headlines." at risken talking about youth. with me in theut studio again ae felicia gaston of the phoenix project of marin, and dan with m marin county housing authority. you started c to talk about the boys we saw in the story who are doing well.s we talked about chris. how about matthew? >> matthew has completed his program at the conservation corps. he completed hisio ged and high school diploma and now he'll bed seeking work in another area, hopefully doing the same type of work that he's learned great skills. >> that's fantastic. you also, i heard you have aou couple of kids who are going to have jobs. >> this is most exciting. since this segment aired before, we have two young men who have

beenho placed in the local labor union, 291. they are receiving some apprenticeship training in san ha i don't know for three weeks and when they finish thish friday, they start work next week. >> that's exciting. dan, i'm thinking about all partners that you have in this. it's amazing. when you really have brought a communityhow hardun was that? >> well, it was difficult at first. felicia's reputation helped. she had 20 yearsfe in a nonproft in that spot, in kind of the hot spot. we have pretty progressive county supervisors.nd society and leaders are looking for ways to solve crime.im so people came to the table pretty fast when they realized thised was a very hands on and very prevention oriented versus suppression. >> i know the v first statistics we saw, they're preliminary, 'cause i i talked to sheriff doe about this, but 42% crime reduction ine six months. >> yes. dramatic changes in

things like vandalism and in things related to younger people, too.. >> so it's really making a difference. felicia, how do youa, get thesee businesses to trust these kidsus who have just gotten out of prison? >> we specifically match our young menr with a business that we know these business owners are conscientious and want to help. so they realize up front what they are facing with and they realize that some of these young men haven't worked in a while. they're willing to take a chance on them. we coach the young men along the way and we counsel with them and when i say we, our outreach workers, which are magnificent. it's very intensive, hands onds care. it's staying in touch with them on a regular basis. each one of our members have a a specific outreach worker that stays in contactea with them. they stay in contact with the employer. >> that might be the onlywi contact they have with somebody who cares is this program.

>> for what's happening, family members are really proud of their family, all of them, because now they're like, oh, he's making a change in his life and so we need to give more support. so it brings more peoplepl involved. >> i love that. dan, the money -- we've got 45 seconds. you havingare problems y getting this re-fund? >> yes, we are.xp marin community foundation and theit county supervisors themselves helped fund it. we have a little hud funding but we're looking for more. we want to expand the program to include especially younger kids. again, i mentioned it's a prevention. and there is a web site -- >> we can put that on our web site. >> yeah. funding.king for more we'd like to really keep this positive thing going. it's innovative and it will bep copied, i'm sure. >> yeah. it's tooea's good. thank you for what you're. doing

in the community. appreciate it. all right. we do>> have to take another break. when weno come back, we're going to meetoi a former probation officer f who was so inspired to make a difference, that she started a supper club for at risk youth run out of her veryn own home. we'll be right back. @ú@ú@ú@ú t t tgx

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♪ we're the kids in america ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ we're the kids in... welcome back to "beyond the headlines." i'm cheryl jennings. we've been talking about youth crime prevention. mentoring programs throughout the bay area are reaching out to troubled teens ino an effort to divert them from a life in prison. jo the st is teresa goines from a san francisco outreach program from the oldskool cafe. ie was so impressed with the kids. they're amazing. so tell people at home what you do, what the program is. >> sure. oldskool cafe is a youth supper club. imagine a 19u 40s cotton club in harlem, all run by youth. normally wouldn't be given the

opportunity. they're the chef,is waiters ands entertainment. >> oh, mynd goodness. where do these kids come from? >> their background is, we target specifically youth that have been incarcerated, in foster care, that have come from general at risk issues of living in a place where there is lots of violence in the neighborhood, low income. i >> your history has been working with young people in trouble. right? you were with the probation department? >> yes n we have a picture weto want to show. how muchop did this influence y? >> this set my whole life onth this journey, to make a difference with youth that are incarcerated and youth that feel a sense ofha hopelessness for their life. totally changed my outlook. >> and we were talking earlier about people saying, i want to lock them up and that will do it. but you have to teach them something before they come homet so they can have something to do.. >> absolutely. i actually saw some young people come in for a petty crime thatt became harder criminals when theyim left because they're taut by other t inmates how to be a betterbe criminal. if we're not focusing on givingf

them something for when they get out and helping them think about a future, we're making the situation worse.n >> you did this right out ofut your home and here are some of the kids involved. you were teaching them cooking,u to get a chef to come in? >> yes. we're all volunteer run. we haveru amazing chefs and restaurant managers and people that come to really work with the kids and teach them those >> the kids >> the kids look great. the costumes that they wore, they were costumes. let's show people that.ho as they're serving, they're dressed in these. right? p let's show some of those pictures. we can look at the kids who ares doing this work. think we have those pictures. maybe not. who of this?hi >> for the entertainers, thoses, that would like to be entertainers, it's 22 on down, we do auditions, open to anyone. those interested inne the progrm cooking and serving and the aspect of running a restaurant, we trya really give those slots to at risk youth that have come

out of theat incarceration, fosr care, generally difficult situation. >> i know you're trying to get some property so you have a permanent home so you don't have to have antav floating business. >> correct. yes. we're really looking forward to beingoo in a permanent location. it's been kindt of fun doing it underground, taking over different restaurants, but we're looking at a place to open in the fall thatt will be permanen. you can come for f dinner showse any night of the week. >> it's very exciting. final thoughts before we leave? ten seconds left? >> yes. we welcome people that want to get involved, that want to support financially because it's making a difference in a lot of youth. we have coffee, we'll be selling house coffee. this isou for you. >> thank you very much. i appreciate it. with that we have to go. thank you very much.. and that is it for this editiond of "beyond the headlines."" if you a looking for resources,u community resources in your neighborhood, just dial 211 for help. and we havelp information about all of the people featured on today's show on our web site,

abc7news.com, click on the community page. i'm cheryla jennings. thank you for joining us. we'll see you next time. have a great week. bye-bye. g