A source of hope for at-risk youth. A hospital's community outreach efforts provide an alternative for troubled teens.

In 1990 St. Bernardine Medical Center, San Bernardino, CA, initiated a mission project to reach out to youth and families in the hospital's service area. Increased unemployment, escalating crime, and a failing social structure had left many San Bernardino residents with few resources for breaking out of a cycle of crime and poverty fostered by their environment. Responding to the results of a community needs assessment, St. Bernardine mission project planners decided the project's first program should target at-risk youth. Collaborating with the San Bernardino County Probation Department, St. Bernardine began offering a variety of services to youth in the probation department's Regional Youth Educational Facility, which houses boys between the ages of 16 and 18, and the Kuiper Youth Center, which houses girls between 11 and 18 years old. Realizing that a truly effective program would have to maintain contact with youth after they left these facilities, St. Bernardine expanded its outreach efforts to include at-risk families as well. The mission project's 12-week Parenting Re-entry Program builds parenting skills by addressing a variety of topics, including values clarification, communication skills, and positive reentry into the community. In addition to the Parenting Re-entry Program, St. Bernardine, through its Family Focus Center, offers counseling services, an information referral library, and a Teen Focus Component that features evening basketball, a drama club, and other healthy alternatives for teens.