YES Program graduates proudly display their diplomas. below Savannah Ayala built her skills and confidence through the program.
Monrovia’s YES Program Opens Doors for
At-Risk Teens Luis Gil, 18, was failing school. He received 23 Fs in a row on his report cards by the time he was a high-school sophomore. Gil was cutting class and getting into trouble; he had given his future little thought. David Castillo, 18, couldn’t sit in class very long without getting into some kind of trouble. He had a penchant for fighting, which eventually led to his arrest. Although he excelled in physical education and earned a C in math, he lacked the motivation to apply himself in any other class because he was counting on the military to accept him if he graduated from high school. Savannah Ayala, 16, was a shy girl barely getting by in school with a 2.0 grade point average. She was looking for some responsibility, structure and a way to develop professional skills.
The issues that put these teens at risk made them ideal candidates for the City of Monrovia’s Youth Employment Service (YES) Program, which provides mentoring and intervention geared toward high-school students who have failing grades, an unstable home life, a police record or just a bad attitude. Now in its eighth year, the YES Program has successfully graduated over 145 at-risk kids.
Implementing an Effective Approach Located in Los Angeles County, the City of Monrovia has a population of just under 40,000. In 2007 Monrovia was grappling with gang violence in some of its neighborhoods. As city leaders examined potential strategies to address the problem, they found studies indicating
effectively combating gang activity required dedicating 70 percent of resources to prevention and intervention and 30 percent to suppression. In Monrovia at that time, this formula was reversed: 80 percent was being spent on suppression, while only 20 percent was being spent on prevention and intervention. In addition, fewer youth employment opportunities existed in the city. Funding for internship programs had dwindled, and employers seemed less willing to hire high-school students. continued on page 40
The City of Monrovia won the Ruth Vreeland Award for Engaging Youth in City Government in the 2013 Helen Putnam Award for Excellence program. For more about the award program, visit www.helenputnam.org.
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League of California Cities
www.cacities.org