City to discontinue at-risk youth program

After six years, the city has pulled the plug on a program for troubled youth.\nThe Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department announced Tuesday that it's discontinuing Project Breakaway, an after-school mentoring and recreation program for at-risk youth. \nOriginally funded by a federal grant, Project Breakaway was first conceived of as a substance-abuse prevention program.\nLocal funding -- mostly from the parks department -- has supported the program for the past three years. Mick Renneisen, director of the parks department, attributes the program's demise to a counselor shortage.\nThe parks department ran the program in coordination with the county school system and Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County, a juvenile delinquency prevention group. The bureau withdrew counselors after losing several master's degree-level interns, director Ron Thompson said. \n"The city is really disappointed that one of our partners in a direct-service program for at-risk youth has walked away," said Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez. "Project Breakaway was an innovative program with several success stories. Our goal is to continue serving at-risk youth with a variety of diverse recreational programs."\nThompson said the bureau would be interested in resuming the program in the spring, when it hopes to have filled its vacancies. But for the moment, its resources are spread too thin. \nThe parks department would also consider re-launching the program, Renneisen said. But at its monthly meeting Tuesday, the Board of Parks Commission approved the department's request to redivert the funding into other youth programs.\n"Our department will continue to develop recreational programs geared to help youth who are considered at-risk," Renneisen said. "However, we won't be able to provide the individual and family counseling component that Project Breakaway provided."\nReneisen touts new social services planned by the department, including Rhino's After School and Leave Out ViolencE, or L.O.V.E., a community-based arts outreach program founded in Canada. The planned after-school programs feature a number of after-school activities, such as arts projects, rock climbing and nature hikes. \nProject Breakaway served as many as 40 children referred by county schools on a budget of about $200,000 annually. Attendance was voluntary, and the program mainly served students in area middle schools.