good morning and welcome to urban update. on the show this morning operation young professionals contributing to the positive aspects of living in lawrence. also on the practical, a look at youth connect, one of boston's most value habitual rain showers for at-risk youth, and don west and back on the show and i want to show his port rates of purpose. but furthest, young direct results are the most likely find their way into massachusetts prisons. they account for one fifth of

and nearly one quarter sent to houses of corrections. and young adults of color suffer disproportionately. in 2014, plaque and hispanic youth made up duet five percent of population segment yet they account for 40 percent of of prison commitments. a new massinc. study finds that changing approach to young offenders should be the focus to reduce recidivism. we invites steven tompkins and my new friend benjamin and your last name we think man. >> forman. >> benjamin. so thank you for coming by, you're wing of the research guys over there. >> yeah, we look at a lot of different inns but we've been

reform because we think it's one of the biggest issues facing or commonwealth. >> the sheriff wants to talk about it. , i want to give you the floor here, because this is something that's been a major part of your entire service. >> well, when you look at it. we have far too many people in our correctional facilities. for us to be the biggest dog on the block p we incarcerate more of our citizens than any other nation on the planet and something's going to to be done about that. and let me point this out. it cost $50,000 a year to incarcerate one individual, $15,000 for education and 20,000 for substance abuse or mental health attention. to what we have to do is get in front of the curve, not behind the curve. it's too costly, not only for taxpayers but when youic a male or female out of a hod you're breaking up the family unit.

what kind of impact does this on the normal person on the street . it's august about public safety. we want to quippish neighbored safe we got the treat the people with behavioral issues in a way that makes them less likely to come back, and to create new victims. when we look at the population in our prisons h 3-quarters of them have been there before. this age group is particularly important. 18 to 24, because as you started off the program they're the highest likelihood of reoffending. >> at the age ever 18, shouldn't you know the difference between right and wrong? and are these individuals treatable? can they be -- can their-paths billion changed? their path until going in the wrong correction. >> absolutely. 18 to 24-year-olds clearly know the difference between right and

looking taillight seriousness of the things they're coming in for. the issue is control. harebrains antirollly developed they're in situations that you are emotionally charged and they make mistakes. and also, on the way our society's change today, 18 to 24-year-olds don't have the high ties and the roots that they used in the past. they're not matter today. they don't is kid. they don't have steady years but they're out of the house and in these environments and situations where they often get themselves in trouble. so what do we do about is that. we want our response to make them less likely to come in on another crime. >> you're in charge of house these folks. >> it's been alluded to, that 18

still developing and there are a lot of things they don't know. you put that individual into an environment where you have 35, 30-year-old guys grass who have been around the block, i mean that's almost a are prescription, why you got an institution to teach criminality. so no you shouldn't mix those two groups. >> so what do you do? what are some suggestions? what is being done -- are there other places in the country that are taking a different approach. >> first thing you got to do is go across the pond and look at europe abuse they've been working on this problem very difficultly. they don't treat young adults like adults they treat them like juveniles. we went to germany and looked at how they're treating juveniles.

things differently and even many massachusetts there's pockets of really good work going on, including all that's happening in suffolk county. >> so what's happening in suffolk county? are you working with a lot of these? >> let me tell you you be a program that we're putting together, it's going to start in january, called family matters. wewe're going to take 30, 35 inmates and deal with that inmate and also their entire family. there's a lot of things that go on in the home front where folks at home may not know the social services out there. so if they want to get services and they don't know where to go, we're going to work with them to do that. you have kids at home. we're going to get them into athletic and educational programs. the homework of any vibrant community is how that society wraps its arms own around the most compromised and our youth

have to make sure they have afford habitual housing a good education and health care . we have information for folks who want more on massinc..org. but before i let you guys go, it's sunday i know you're supposed with your families. so i know suzanne in hyde park is waiting for you with a nice lunch. and yo go tarn and the kids watching in jp. >> happy new year, honey. >> here's got nothing to say. puck tell he's been married for a while. coming up next, byron barnett gives us an overview of a youth program with a great working relationship with the boston police department coming up on

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punishable resources is youth connect. their mission is to hem young people make positive life choices, youth connect also has a very close working relationship with the boston police department and places clinical social workers from neighborhood police stations. here's byron barnett with an overview of the program. here in the city of boston, police officers routinely deal with swayses involving at-risk youth. >> historically p parts of dorchester the violence has been insteadly decreasing, but it's still prevalent. >> the most vulnerable members of our society are young people and their families. that's where youth connect comes in. >> if you had told me 35 years ago i was coming on the job that civilian social workers were going to work hand-in-hand with the boston police to make this job safer, pipping we all say you're crazy.

but over the years, 19 years i believe they've served over 11,000 peel. >> youth connect is a program of the boys and girls program. >> we are clinical social workers who sit inside boston police stations to work with kids that the police are concerned about. rochester, dorchester. the youth violence strike force, which is better known as the gang unit. our social workers sit inside the police stations with police officers and we're there to provide any sort of support to the officer regarding young people and families that are in crisis or that are struggling. >> a lot of these kids, when they take to the vetoes without youth connect they run the risk of being a victim. either being shot or getting kill on the street or ending up in jail. >> youth connect helps families deal with the aftermath of

>> it always troubles me when i go to a creme and i look around and i see the young kids and i it always bothers me that how do they ever get this out of mare mind, that someone was shot dead on the street, and they're going to live with that forever. >> two men in masks came in and sleep. then they grabbed my son, put him in the bathtub and the guy told him is that if he opens the door or cuts on the light they were going to kill him. >> theresa and i have been working for about two years now. i met her at the police station for the first time f. youth connect was able to place someone to work with kevin and i was able to work with theresa. ultimately, explore the betterment of her and her family whole as a whole. >> since kevin has gotten a lot

now focus on other things, like what's going on with me and how am i dealing with taking care of kevin. >> we take a family approach, so we might have the officer refer is a young person who's 17, but then we talk to the family, and we think about working with grandma and then they have ten-year-old brothers and sisters in the house. >> youth connect gives families the option to talk about different situations t p especially when it comes to their children and the problems that we face in the city. here. youth connect from my perspective is like the holy grail. i always say there's no such things a bad kid out there. there's kids in need of services, and that's what youth connect brings to the tabling. >> from all the young people that i work with, something that i've learned is that a lot of

had happened before, and something aye learned that they have all the potential in the world. >> how i got intertwined with youth connect, like, i was fresh out of dys in june, and delay put it in place that i would have a counselor, someone i can talk to and someone i can like relate to. it's made my future seem like more clear, and more obtainable. >> this is a proven commodity. this thing's working. look at the families that it's helped. >> the youth that are going down the wrong path, our families are are in need of services. >> the young people we're working with are multifaceteds and multitalented. >> for boston, youth connect is really truly only there for you. >> youth connect is a resource at the right place at the right item to help make boston

will strong. > all right. when we come back, we'll introduce you to an organization of young professionals working to i didn't to the mt. positive aspects of living in lawrence. all the details here on urban

. to attract, retain and engage young professionals in the greater laundry room area, this is the goal of the greater professal network. this were formed when a small group of graduates returned terror city and felt the need to 'em o pour the next generation of local professionals and also the take op of their community. to tell us more about the organization we've invited the president, the founder, pavel payano, currently the president of the organization, he is also an adjunct professor i. and we also got a late confirmation and the treasureer who writes the check, liz, treasurer. and what do you do for a living,

>> i work for the retail department at new for the bank . so guys i'm excited because there's a lot of people excited about this whole viva lawrence. you're getting up there in age so i wanted to talk about the younger generation coming up. >> i hit 30, so you're right. we started off about five years ago, quin and myself are the cofounders of the organization. we started started when i was 24, and we wanted the train and attract young professionals. we found there was a lot of us in the area, and we had a certain power, once we started connecting and talking to each other and, we saw the power that we have with each other and it's all about trying to move that forward. >> in the beginning, i remember and i heard both of you speak, you did a great presentation last year. that you guys didn't know that there was this many out there

how's that been going on? >> it's been great. that is very true. you just don't know. there's really no data out there that you can rely on to figure out how many young professionals reside in a certain area, but we found that as soon as we started organizing and doing events it have a sungergy that developed, where people start coming out of the woodwork and found out there was really something they could dos a young professional. so more and more, the more events we do, we see different face every month. so it's been growing insteadly. >> you do events a number of events during the year? >> absolutely. we do usually three different types of events, so either something charteddable: we try to get people to our network events,

being part of the business community. >> this was your christmas party. so this was very recent. somebody has an ugly sweater. and is there's some of the folks in there, right? you can give them a little bit of a shout out. and this is an event you did where and when? this is last year, i remember. >> this was the you are been leaders event. >> so you had a full house there as well. and as you can tell from the photos, a lot of young people networks, dressed up in suits and very kind of excited about being there, and these are the events you were talking about. >> absolutely and that's what we're trying to do. get people who are excited out there and get them together so they can collaborate. >> this is a group of supporters as well, right? >> absolutely we have or former secretary there in the front.

it really depends on what month, which side comes in. i think every event there's always new faces so it's always growing and it's one of those things to get in life, to arrive in your job, it's all about who you know. >> i want to presentsomething to you guys because this was talked about a lot. do you think lawrence gets a bad rap? there is an issue with it will image, and it's come a long way over the last two years, i would have to say with the new mayor. but you guys living in lawrence, born and raised laundry room, has that been changing a little bit? >> so i think that it's a very appropriate question for us, because that's actually one of our goals is to try to improve the image of the community by showing there are a lot of people that have energy, who want to get engaged who carry about the improvement of the community. and i do agree, we've been able the capitalize on that, with bringing in

it's not just us, there's a lot of things happening across the board. a lot of different agencies and groups of people who are working to -- we're all working with the same goals, trying to bring the city of lawrence the potential that it can be. so we definitely see. >> i think when we started this was a negativity. because folks were saying there are online young professionals in lawrence. and once we showed that was not true, there was a know ball effect and i think what workbooked for huhs is there were other things that were in line with what we were doing, trying the change the perception of the area, and what helps is that it's not at the lawrence professionals it's the greater lawrence professals so it's t connecting with professionals from outside of lawrence so they

be. >> we want folks to contact you, so we have the website, the facebook, your e-mail. i know you have events coming up in the next year, so i think that's the best way for people to stay in contact with you, and you guys are actively recruiting. so if you're a young professional like ourself -- what is it p 20 to 40. >> 20 to 40, so we we are involved with everybody throughout the city. >> all right. guys, good luck. keep it up. viva lawrence, and keep it up . all right. when we come back the historical collection of images put together by photojournalist don west.

now, for those of you who don't know don west began his career as a news photographer here in boston over 40 years ago h. many of his subtles were entrepreneurs, artists, actors and patriots, all of them were committed to a better boston and many to a better world. a selection of these dedicated is ins is represented in don's port rates of purpose. a book of paragraphs that offer unique understanding of many people in boston that made a difference. he launched the book over a year ago. and today we have an update on the effects the book has had on boston. i want to be clear, because this is a photo journal itself and there's a lot of photos but you have profiles and

and the forword is by charles junior. he's been here, and kent has been here too. so this was kind of a -- let's aa work that was 35 years in the make? >> you want say that. it began in anyone seven actually, 1997 as an exhibit at the museum of african-american history on beacon hill. and it grew, the exhibit, over the years, and about a year or a book. we were talking with eastern bank, who was very excited about the exhibit. and we needed a great writer to do the profiles and that's how ken cooper came on board, and we have the book. >> the photos are awful and then little pieces that accompany them. so this is -- in many way an incredible educational tool. >> as a matter of fact that's

to go in is the educational community in high schools andcommunity colleges as part of the curriculum. as part of black studies. >> i an advocated of this book being in the classroom. because it kind of takes a look at so many important people that recognition. >> usually, in history books you have kind of a broad brush approach to the history of a given area. documenting many different things, but this is focusing on the individuals. very up close and personal in terms of what they did to make change in boston. this is a book about those who were change agents over the past 30 years in the urban part of boston, very personal. maybe you can show one picture out of the book. >> we're going to look photos but i want the camera to focus

hard cover. so it is hard and it's nice -- and will look at the quality of the -- >> the size of the pictures is very intimate and very up close. so many different individuals, from many different disciplines, and backgrounds. >> and we actually have a few photos that we could put up to give people an idea. there's a very well known family here. >> the arroyos. >> yes h we have felix, the father who was the first hispanic city councilor and his son who followed him. and the other son is a musician and a writer of hip-hop and a familiar. >> that's a great photo. i love the fact you used black and white.

>> he's had a show on wbur for the last 40 years. sonja, whose really a social justice advocate and is working hard in the flat, and she's if first la tina to be a senator in massachusetts. free at a gores ya, who is from the dominican republic and started a group p went ton urban -- united settlements and she administered social prays there. >> but you've also got people >> yes. >> nelson mandela. >> nina simone. >> and this guy who was here this other day. he was with the urban nutcracker. so it's a potpourri of different individuals from communities of color.

people you haven't heard of. >> you know what i want to do. i want to promote this book. let's buy this book. pit would have been great for christmas. it can still be great for three kings day. >> for three kings day, and black history month is coming up as well. we say give a gift of purpose, a gift of purpose is year around. >> and it's portraits of purpose.u.s. when you go to the website that's what you see that beautiful logo. portraits of purpose.u.s. buy your book today. all right that's it for this edition of urban update. but before we sign off. this is the last show of the 2015. as in the past i would like to thank the many great people who work behind the scenes here. so as we roll credit, for byron barnett, or director larry, or boss, joan, and every one else

happy new year, we look forward