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Once a year the new beginnings youth development center hosts a family day for it's young adolescents at the facility, giving them a chance to bond with their relatives, which plays a crucial part in their rehabilitation journey. At present there are 18 boys and 13 girls at the center, and today we met with the new director Kahlifa John who gave us more details on the work that they've been doing with the youths.

Khalifa John, Director, Community Rehabilitation Department
"Well this is the new beginnings youth development center and it's focused on different types of residents we have children between the ages of 12-17 that are based on care orders beyond parental control we also have minors who have done criminal offenses minor criminal offenses and we also have immigration, we are also serving as an immigration detention facility for unaccompanied minors. And last but not least we also serve as a psychiatric facility for adolescents as well so as you can see many layers to the new beginnings facility but certainly one that helps to help the adolescence and challenged youths in our society."

"Today we are having the family day which is basically the culmination of the summer program. We all know that family plays a vital role in the rehabilitation process specifically working on the emotional and the physical well being of our residents so this is the end of the summer program and we are so happy to have you here to celebrate it with us."

"I think it's a beautiful thing to have their family here today certainly not without challenges. We have a member of the team who also has his birthday today one of the residents we also have another member who recently lost her dad yesterday so there's several layers like I've mentioned but it means a lot for family to be here and for persons to come out and show their talent, what they are saying from the corners of their rooms and so forth is that they want to be seen they want to be heard they want to be known for who they are they want to express their individuality and we try to come up with programs that help them to express this in a healthy way and of course making sure that at the end of the day when they transgress out of these programs that they will become a better person all in one."

It may not be an easy route for some but there are methods and forms of teaching that can make the transgression easier, like art for example. Briheda Haylock who teaches art at the facility says that using art as a form of healing has changed the lives of her students.

Briheda Haylock, Art Teacher
"So I'm the art teacher but I teach art a little bit differently I use it to help the kids empower themselves so it's how to have them connect in a different way it's not about how skilled they are because art it's subjective. And it's how to navigate life lessons using art to help them build different disciplines so the first time I taught here was about self confidence and how as an artist you can tap into that self confidence and that self individualism so this summer it was all about helping them focus and build their patience tap into that meditation. It was so nice I knew I accomplished my goal when my student told me Ms I feel like I'm floating to heaven and that means he is tapping into his safe space so it was nice to see that and then the kids do admit that they learned patience throughout the summer camp so everything I created for them was designed to slow them down and with that at they could focus more and they develop their patience and you know they can forget that they are angry you or that they are stuck here so it was a really nice time to watch them grow in that way."

And aside from art there is also music that also leaves a long lasting impact on these youths.

Lenox Awardo, Founder, Harmony Coast Music Academy
"To understand music we need to keep timing and so what we did was we did basic rudiments and rudiments is just keeping the beat to three or four timing two four timing and four four timing those are simple time signatures and so the children got it they did their best we did percussion which is all instruments that you shake, hit or scrape so we had the base drum the snare drum the shaka the shaky eggs the rhythm sticks and so they learned how to read rudiments off the chalk board and play patterns and then we sang we enjoyed free style because there are so many rappers here so these guys are so talented."

"You know well I'm a musician I'm a music teacher and everything has to come from inside and soul so i encourage them to aspire for their dreams, everyday we say our prayers in the morning we pray for each other, we reinforce positive love and support each other and so each one of them wants to be something different and we told them hey if you want to be this you can't just expect it to come there are certain things you have to put in place and so we set it in place everyone sets their goals and we are all moving forward they did great."

We also got a chance to speak to two of the youths today, a 14 year old boy and a 16 year old girl who shared with us what their experience at the center has been like so far

Voices of Members, New beginnings youth development center
"Well I learn like the music class and also patience and how to do my art and thing. Most of all the new beginnings helped me change may because I was not a good person before."

"Well my favorite part of the summer program was the painting because I like how you can paint something large from like a small image and like you can imagine different things and make it useful in life. And it also teaches you patience."

Jo-
"And how has the family day been going for you guys? What are some of the things you've been doing for the morning so far?"

Voices of Members, New beginnings youth development center
"Well I did the welcome speech and most importantly for me I am spending time with my mom and be with the officers and so."

"Well my sister is here with me today and I did I dance and it's actually fun today I like the activities they are playing today."