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Posted: Thursday, 19 February 2009 9:38AM
Second Chance for A Crime-Free Life
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Milpitas (CBS 5) ― Long before she was a mother and a business owner, Julia Cuevas was a drug addict with no hope.
"I'd probably be like those before me in my family, like my mother, who gave birth to me in prison," she explains.
But at age sixteen, she was paired with a mentor while on probation for having methamphetamine.
"I felt like things were going to turn from that point one because somebody cares," she remembers.
So Julia graduated from high school, and now has her own cleaning business.
"It's huge for me because I'm successful!"
Julia credits her new life to Christa Gannon and Fresh Lifelines for Youth, or FLY. Christa launched the San Jose-based non-profit nine years ago to help at-risk or troubled young people.
As a law student, Christa worked with teens in juvenile hall facing years in prison.
She says, "Their faces and voices started to haunt me," she says. "They'd say, 'If only! If only I'd known better! If only someone had cared about me, I wouldn't be here!'"
So Christa did something unusual: she asked the young people themselves what they needed to stay crime-free. She remembers their answers clearly:
"They told me three things. They said give us role models, teach us about the law so we understand the consequences. And once we get in trouble, we're written off, help us learn not to be a delinquent. Help us learn to be part of the community so people see as the leaders we really are."
FLY took off with those three elements: one-on-one mentors, community service, and education about the law that includes mock trials at Stanford or Santa Clara Law School.
Many of FLY's graduates say the key to its success is the belief that the more you know about the law, the less likely you are to break it.
"It opened my eyes," says college student Mario Aguliar.
Mario came to FLY at age 14. He took the law class as part of his probation for burglary, and learned crime has consequences.
"It made me realize that, 'Oh wow, that's reality!' and it smacked me in the face!" he says with a smile.
Another reality: cost savings. Christa says FLY's most intensive program costs $7000 per teen per year, one-twelfth the cost of juvenile hall incarceration.
And nearly nine in ten of FLY's community service graduates don't return to crime.
"I look at hundreds and thousands of kids we've served over ten years, and it's beyond my wildest dreams," Christa says.
Christa started FLY for two dozen young people, but the organization now serves nearly three thousand a year from South San Francisco to Gilroy with a $2M budget and as many as one hundred trained volunteers.
Participants like Julia are grateful: "Thank you so much, thank you so much for what you do everyday."
For helping thousands of troubled teens fly into a healthy new life, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Christa Gannon.
By Sharon Chin
Related Link:
* Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY)
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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