Community service is a cornerstone of the Kanawha County Youth Reporting Center programs; but the stigmas at-risk teens face in the juvenile justice system are often exacerbated by the public's perception of them.
"We have a hard time finding community service because a lot of people don't want to work with this population," Program Director John James said.
A new program at the center called Produce Pedalers will provide an alternative outlet for them - with a community-wide impact.
With technical assistance from the West Virginia State University Extension Office, teens at the Kanawha Youth Reporting Center will build and maintain raised-bed community gardens in a vacant lot next to the center, along Central Avenue on the city's West Side.
This summer, the students will harvest and deliver bags of produce through CSAs - community-supported agriculture shares - to neighbors and local businesses on the West Side on bikes. Best of all, they'll get paid to harvest and deliver.
It sounds like a lofty goal, but a similar pilot project is already under way at the Cabell County Youth Reporting Center, which the WVSU Extension is also helping facilitate.
Its proponents say the benefits are countless; teaching disenfranchised and often socially challenged youths practical skills such as growing food not only gives them a sense of value, but facilitates engagement with their neighborhood than improves the community.
While the Kanawha Reporting Center youths sometimes serve meals at local shelters or volunteer at Covenant House in Charleston, a lack of community service opportunities often leaves students feeling that their work is meaningless, its counselors say.
"Sometimes, it's basically free labor," said Dom Avena, a correctional counselor at the center. "I can see where our kids would think, 'You're just putting me to work. It doesn't mean anything [or] go any farther than that.'"
WVSU Extension Agents Jenny Totten, Nikki Erwin and Valerie Bandell are providing the technical assistance for the program. It's being funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition.
"One goal we had when we initiated this was to not be financially burdensome on the Division of Juvenile Services," Erwin said, who previously worked as a therapist for the division through Psi Med Inc. "The only thing we ask for is their time, their space and their kids."
The agents began teaching agriculture classes at the Cabell County Reporting Center last fall. That group is preparing to plant seeds in the raised beds they've built. Huntington was a good place to start, Totten said, because the SCRATCH program, an existing urban agriculture initiative, already exists there.
The Kanawha County students' education won't just revolve around agriculture education. They'll also participate in a bicycle safety course with the Charleston Police Department and hone their customer service skills by marketing the CSAs to West Side residents in hopes of finding subscribers.
"That's gonna be the biggest challenge," Totten said. "They've never had to sell themselves before because they don't think what they do is worth anything."
From truancy and substance abuse to breaking and entering and felonies, the Reporting Center youths are there for a slew of reasons; some are court-ordered to go through the program, while others are referred through the Division of Health and Human Resources or other agencies.
"Most of the kids we get, this is probably their last chance before they either go to a placement in or out of state, or to a detention center," James said.
While the Huntington youths have attended weeks of agriculture-based classes led by the extension agents, those at the Charleston reporting center will receive that education and put it into action simultaneously.
Totten, Erwin and Bandell led an introductory session for the center's morning and afternoon groups last week. "I think these are way more excited than the kids in Cabell were," Totten said.
The youths called out different fruits and vegetables they'd like to grow. One student said they wanted to grow pickles.
"You have to pickle them - they don't just come out as pickles," another replied.
Other community groups are partnering with the reporting center and extension agents to help make Produce Pedalers a success, such as the nonprofit Keep Your Faith Corporation, headed by Dural Miller. The group is no stranger to urban gardening - it's in the process of establishing a gardening and learning support center at a house on Grant Street. The group installed raised beds on the property last year, and plans to coordinate its gardening efforts with the reporting center group.
Miller, who grew up on the West Side, is also reaching out to local businesses who might be interested in subscribing to the Produce Pedalers CSA. As part of the program's funding, the CSA will also accept SNAP benefits.
Totten and the other agents believe Produce Pedalers will help decrease the likelihood that its participants will end up back in the system.
"It's letting them see the world isn't against them," Totten said. "This is about these kids finally having a chance to produce something they're proud of."
Reach Elaina Sauber at elaina.sauber@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-3051 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.