Budget Cuts are Not Only Eliminating Jobs, They Are Leaving our Youth Hanging

Ever since youth counselor David Madrid lost his job as the City of San Jose slashed youth programs, he has worried most of all of the young people he knew who no longer have support systems, and the future they face without them.

Here in San Jose, the Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force took a big hit this new fiscal year, a budget cut of $4.7 to $2.5 million, meaning the loss of jobs and free services to the community suffered. I was directly hit by this budget cut, by not only losing my job as a youth counselor, but also watching my youth prevention program come to a complete end.

Despite being out of work, it’s the ultimate future and safety for our community that I’m concerned about. With the South Bay’s recent spike in violence, things can only get worse with the loss of such programs.

For the past few years I have been on the frontline with San Jose ’s at risk students, facilitating youth development groups for the Striving Towards Achievement with New Direction (STAND) program. A unique program that focused on elementary and junior high students throughout the city.

And with only one month into the new school year, the STAND programs absences is already being felt on school campuses. School staff and administrators are missing the needed student counseling and mediation support.

I have been out of work going on four months now and I still can’t stop thinking about all the kids that we left out there hanging, boys that were just trying to make sense out of there current life situations, needing a space to vent and to ask questions.

What made our program unique was that it was the only one that provided group developmental services to elementary aged youth. We were a safety net, assisting with school staff catching kids that would have other wise just slipped through the cracks.

In our program were 5th graders viewed as either unengaged or defiant were dealing with issues of abandonment, poverty and even parents drug addictions. There are issues that can go on for years not being addressed – damaging that young person’s future, and even those around them, The most powerful thing about working with this age group is that for a lot of them their wounds are still fresh. Some of them are still in a state of shock from experiences that will ultimately have an effect on the rest of their life. But it also offered the most powerful for a caring adult to intervene.

Giving them the time and tools to start their healing process is important, and making sure that they are referred to receive adequate mental health services is a must. I’m not going to lie, this work is not easy, and it takes a lot a time and patience dealing with a lot of these kids. But when there is a break through, man it makes it all worth it.

There is one group that I can remember where it opened up my eyes to the importance of this work, one of the class clowns finally let down his shield when answering the question, “Have you ever been let down by an adult in your life?” He voiced for the first time the hurt that he feels from being neglected from his mother and the absences of his father in his life. You could see the pain but also the weight being lifted as he spoke. That’s when the group dynamic kicked in, the boys received strength from one another by opening up and sharing their similar stories and hurts.

And that’s what it is all about; when a kid realizes that he is not at fault and that he is not alone. That is the beginning of the individual’s healing process. I really do believe that early prevention is the key. To prevent crime and violence on the streets of tomorrow we need to focus on the playgrounds of today. Chances are a hurt broken boy is going to grow up and be an angry violent man.

As a former city employee that lives in a community that is being directly hit by street violence, I say now is the time for us to come together as families and neighbors, we can not solely rely on outside services for help. We need to take personal responsibility of our homes and make sure that we are going through the healing process ourselves in order to help our children and to keep our streets safe.