Youths assigned to do maintenance work

In a move to keep youths occupied during the summer break, the Division of Youth Services has implemented a program that would put juvenile probationers in schools to conduct community service.

DYS Juvenile Corrections/Probation Unit Supervisor Sylvio Ada said this initiative is being administered in order to intensify the agency’s efforts in curbing juvenile delinquency in the Commonwealth.

Youths under the DYS’ probation program have been sent to school campuses in the last couple of weeks to perform upkeep jobs, according to Mr. Ada.

“This is to encourage kids to use their idle time wisely,” he added.

Some students have already been assigned to Hopwood Junior High School and Oleai Elementary School for minor maintenance jobs like cleaning classrooms and repainting campus walls.

Students are tasked to work an average of eight hours a day or depending on the terms and conditions set forth in their probation contract.

Mr. Ada continued that additional help from students under probation is saving the CNMI government funds that would be allotted for school maintenance.

“In a way, we are also helping the local government cut costs for maintenance,” said the supervisor.

The youth services has also been preoccupied with assisting youths to find jobs during the summer break.

“We’re appealing to some agencies to absorb these youths. And it’s really hard because most companies are willing to take only individuals 18 years old and above,” said Mr. Ada.

DYS is conducting this program in collaboration with the Department of Labor and Immigration.

The youth services has so far been successful in placing four students into four different jobs.

Meanwhile, DYS is still geared toward expanding its prevention services through the acquisition of more fulltime equivalents.

The supervisor said that the youth services requires staff members who would specialize in intervention and juvenile probation tasks separately.

Additional FTEs are necessary in light of the agency’s plans to deploy juvenile probation officers to school campuses to monitor students who are under probation.

Though the plan is to send officers only a few times during a week, he added that DYS needs to add three more to its five-man intervention team. (MM)