Wake County outlines plans to curb juvenile crime

Local officials outlined the ways that the county plans to mitigate instances of crime among area youths in a presentation before the county public safety committee on Monday night.
Darryl Blevins, who heads up the Eastern Regional Center, spoke on how the county’s Juvenile Crime Prevention Council plans to implement new state legislate mandates.
He says the county has an obligation to review the needs of juveniles who are art risk of delinquency, as well as those who are associated with gangs.
But for those already acquainted with the criminal justice system, there are a number of programs that Wake County sponsors that offer a different path.
According to Blevins, the needs of those juveniles largely start with stable, well-funded, and sufficiently staffed youth programs that genuinely interest kids.
“We are really trying to get things that intrigue the kids, particularly some of our older kids,” he said. ”We have had a lot of programs for some time that are geared toward some of our younger kids, which is a great thing, but we are starting to get more older kids, and for us that’s a win when we can get older and younger kids involved.“
He highlighted a few programs that the county offers that cater to previously underserved bases of interest.
Among them is the ARISE program, which is a performing arts program put on by KRE8ivU. The program aims to empower at-risk youth by granting them access to audio production and film making education.
It first found success in Mecklenburg County, and officials in Wake County are confident it will find a foothold here too.
“It’s a different sort of program than what we currently offer, and I think a lot of kids will find it very interesting and applicable to what they like and what they want to do,” Blevins said.
The presentation also included a breakdown of last fiscal year’s goals, and a discussion on if and how they were, or were not, met.
The statistics showed that the county was largely successful last year when it came to retaining interest and engaging kids.
“These goals are set by the state, and most of our programs exceed those metrics that we want to see out of us,” he said.

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