by Mel Showers
Published: Thu, September 10, 2009 - 9:54 pm CST
Last Updated: Thu, September 10, 2009 - 10:00 pm CST
Mobile, Alabama - For Most of this year, Mobile County Juvenile Court Judge Edmond Naman has been preparing to start a new program called Youth Advocate Program or Y-A-P. He told reporters paid advocates and mentors will be assigned to keep a close watch on 40 high risk youngsters who are already on probation. The mentors will be committed adults who live in this high risk neighborhoods. The pilot program will begin in police precinct one and along Dauphin Island Parkway. Judge Naman told reporters, "If you can get good strong people in the lives of these kids early,you gonna reduce the violence in this community."
The program has worked in other cities in the south. Dorienne Silva lives in Savannah, Georgia. She says the y-a-p program can be found now in 17 states. She told News 5, "...There are no throw away kids all of our kids are important to us...even though many people say, oh 13, 14, 15 there's nothing you can do. It's not true at all. And our experience speaks to that. We can absolutely make a difference and we have."
If the program is successful in precinct 1 and along Dauphin Island Parkway, it will expand to other communities.
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