Troubled Teens Resources

They park their gang colours at the door, handing over bandanas from the Crips and Bloods and Gators to teachers every morning to put in a drawer, then getting them back at the end of the day in case they need them for protection going home.

That is the opening paragraph of an encouraging story about a troubled teen program being conducted in Canada.

It reminded me of a friend who worked for a very small, experimental troubled teen boarding school. It was actually a micro study of teen behavioral therapies that resulted in substantial progress for the subject teenagers. The troubled teen population numbered only 40 and every one of the teens housed there came from gangs from several states away. All were far from home and any possible triggers. Outside those walls they were sworn enemies. Inside those walls, they became the teenagers that drugs and gang warfare had all but obliterated.

And so it is in this “last chance saloon for students.”

Members of three different gangs are enrolled in this class of 16; sitting together over breakfast cereal, learning Grade 9 math together, washing lunch dishes side by side and playing afternoon “ice-breaker” games that get them talking about feelings that sometimes boil over.

“When I’m out on the street, sure I’ll talk to someone from this class who’s in another gang,” says one student. “It’s all about respect.

“If I respect them here, why wouldn’t I respect them on the street?”

My friend normally observed these teens behind a one way glass in her part-time capacity as monitor and athletic trainer.I recall her being so profoundly moved by the transformations of these young men and women from hard, brazen punks to expectant young people with an interest in living, creating and excelling.

It is simply heartening to see the same results replicated in Canada.