(INDIANAPOLIS) – A Boys and Girls Club job-placement program is part of Indy’s anti-crime strategy.
“Pivot” targets teenagers and young adults who aren’t in school and don’t have a job, and helps them get their GED and the skills to find work. Boys and Girls Club reengagement director Erik Davenport says Pivot provides individualized help aimed at each participant’s own obstacles.
Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett visited the eastside club Monday to sit in on the latest Pivot class’s opening session. A dozen or so participants introduced themselves with variations on the same theme: they looked at their lives and decided they needed to make changes. Hogsett says that’s what puts a job-placement program under the umbrella of anti-crime efforts: if people are ready to transform their lives, and can get the skills they need for a stable job, they’re less likely to make bad, and potentially criminal, decisions.
The program received $100,000 from the city’s Community Violence Reduction grants. It’s one of several programs the city hopes can reduce crime by taking aim at underlying causes.
Indianapolis is on pace for its sixth record homicide total in seven years.
