Helping youths find their way

After volunteering for 1 1/2 hours each Wednesday afternoon for months, Tyriek Howard became a fixture at the Samaritan House Soup Kitchen in Concord, where he helped serve lunch and pass out drinks.

But initially he had no interest in helping. The 16-year-old had robbed a Concord store in November 2008 and was ordered by juvenile courts to perform community service and pay restitution.

"But once I started going, I wanted to help people out," Tyriek said.

Tyriek was referred to Project Challenge, a nonprofit community service restitution program for ages 8-17 available in 33 counties across North Carolina. Children are often referred to the program by the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention when they're ordered by the courts to perform community service or pay restitution.

Kareen Taylor, Project Challenge's Cabarrus County program coordinator, said she received about 30 referrals in Cabarrus County last year. About half of those referred have completed the program.

Program participants volunteer at the soup kitchen and Cabarrus Meals on Wheels, as well as local nursing homes. They also pick up trash and rake leaves.

It could take weeks to complete the community service, or it could take up to a year, Taylor said.

Project Challenge helps pay off court-ordered restitution in exchange for community service from participants, many of whom are not old enough to have jobs that would allow them to earn money .

Taylor said the crimes of the children she works with range from armed robbery or breaking and entering to drug charges. She said many have troubled backgrounds. Some live in foster homes. Some are involved in gangs.

"I think they get a sense of helping their community," Taylor said. "Although they've done something to get themselves in trouble, they redeem themselves by helping others."

Statewide, Project Challenge has an 11 percent recidivism rate.

Project Challenge is one of the programs supported by Cabarrus County's Juvenile Crime Prevention Council.

"We're trying to keep them from going to the streets," said Carolyn Carpenter, Council chairwoman and a member of the Cabarrus County Board of Education.

For Tyriek, a freshman at Concord High School, the trouble started when he moved to Concord from Utica, N.Y.

"When I moved down here, I was doing all kinds of crazy things," he said. "I was hanging out with the wrong people."

When he first began the program in February, Tyriek said, he shrugged off Taylor's attempts to get him involved in community service.

"Then she told me, 'the faster you do it, the faster you get out,'" he said.

Tyriek, who was ordered to work 100 hours of community service and pay $250 in restitution for the robbery, finished his required community service hours in December but continued working at the soup kitchen. Taylor said she'll miss Tyriek working with her Wednesday afternoons at the soup kitchen now that he's back in school.

Tyriek said that one day he wants to become a detective.

"I'm totally different now," he said. "I turned myself around."