These young adults are the influencers on the street.
We serve the 10% that are involved with 90% of the criminal activity.
We don’t say “at risk”. We say “proven risk”.
If we can do really solid work with these young adults
and they can do solid work for themselves,
that 10% can really flip into the number one biggest and best allies in our community towards positive change.
Today is a new day, a new beginning.
How you show up in the world is really important.
You’ve been through a whole lot of things but you make it right for yourself.
Should I choose conflict? Or should I choose peace?
What the streets have to offer sounds good in the beginning.
But in the end they really have nothing to offer you except
jail, death, or hospital.
I ended up getting stuck in the streets and I had to do a lot of things that I regret.
Some of those things led me to go to jail.
And then it was just like, I need help, but I don't know who to go to.
And then I found UTEC.
Our mission is all about making sure young adults trade violence and poverty for social and economic success.
We know that the young people we serve aren't gonna just walk in the doors on day one.
It’s really positioning ourselves to be there at that right opportunity
when a young person might be open to potentially change.
We think about these as the windows of opportunity.
Unfortunately, the largest window is usually the jail cell.
And so that brings us to being able to be there months prior to their release,
build that relationship no matter what. We never give up on that young person.
I’m thankful that you guys are here not giving up on the people like us. That society has already condemned us.
And you guys just haven’t. You’re here showing us that you care and you believe that we can do better things with our lives.
We as a street team, we are the peacemakers in the city.
Our philosophy is trying to break that cycle of violence.
And we're not going to wait for them to come to us.
We’re going to go to them and where they’re at.
It’s the street workers who are picking up a young person on release day, bringing them for their first meal out,
visit with probation, home, family, and then get right into the UTEC program.
It’s really been one of the core values.
Madd Love is being more than a second chance.
It’s being that seventh, eighth, ninth chance program.
We’re able to be that safe place to fail, that comfortable place to learn,
for young people to have that launchpad for the next success.
We start young people out at Transformative Beginnings at the mattress recycling plant.
And they learn to work hard and diligently.
And once you get those skills, then you move into the actual workforce development part of the program.
We have wood shop.
We have a café.
We have culinary department.
And so they’re placed in one of these areas.
While the young people are enrolled, they're getting their education, they're getting their high school equivalency degree.
They're getting education in the broadest sense, from social justice to life skills to financial literacy.
I don't want to see my kids go through what I went through.
So if I can stop that now then I'll do it.
The justice system gave up on us and UTEC doesn’t do that.
They don’t give up you. They don’t label you. Every day you come in here you're like a whole new person.
For the past five years, our recidivism rate has been below 15%.
-Community!
Madd Love is really just loving someone unconditionally.
It's to struggle with people to help them realize, "Yo, you have a purpose, you’re amazing.”
Let’s be amazing together.
I broke down when I seen the love that UTEC was giving me.
It just made me want to change and give back to the community that I'm a part of.
No matter what you did in your past, anybody that walks into this building automatically gets Madd Love from everybody.
You have to really want the change
because if you don't, you’re just gonna be repeating the cycle that you go through all the time.
There's always light at the end of the tunnel, man.
You just have to put your shoes on, tie them up, and walk,
because the tunnel is not dark forever.
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