Redeploy program having positive effect by Nick Mariano
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Ayvaughn Lester’s 16-year-old son was about to return to juvenile detention last winter until a new program interceded. Rather than being incarcerated, again, the youth was enrolled in Redeploy Illinois, launched in January within the First Circuit Judicial District.
“My son was getting into trouble since age 11, in and out of the juvenile system. We had one result left before they sent him off to prison,” Lester said. “Now, he has turned around a whole lot to where he is straight and narrow, basically.”
The program, funded by the Illinois Department of Human Services, incorporates a multi-systemic therapy approach administered by service providers who work with the youth and their families, usually in their homes.