The Awakening!

Imagine Jeff Yalden, at 6’1” tall and weighing 200 and-a-lot-of-pounds , walking into a known household of gang members with the local law authorities, community counselors, and police cars in the yard. Imagine Jeff as the first one to walk in and sit down at the table with these teens and say, “The reason we are here is to help you and not hurt you. We are here because we want to save you. The next time we come like this won’t be a pleasant experience.” Can you imagine this scene? Well, we’ve done it before and it is life changing and the kids we reach out to make incredible changes immediately. Why? Because teens at-risk need to know that someone cares. Years later, many of these teens call this one visit from Jeff the ‘Defining Moment’ they needed. The success rate is incredible. This program is a 3 to 5 day program in your community working with administration, counselors, school resource officers and local police or sheriff’s departments. Give Jeff a few days with counselors and school resource officers to determine what needs to be said, and how we will go about it. From there, Jeff will compile his notes and go to work with local Sheriff’s and/or local police. After school hours around dinner time, Jeff will make house visits with a counselor and school resource officers to the homes of teens to have a one-to-one conversation. He’ll encourage them to think about what is really important, to consider their future, and what they are creating for themselves. This is a visit from Jeff and counselors to let the teens know that “We Care!” It’s also a visit to let these at-risk teens know that if they don’t start thinking about their lives and their choices that the consequences will be very serious and that the next visit from the police won’t be a fun one. This visit also inspires the parents to get more involved with their teens.