Community Outreach
"We will continue working to help our youths and direct them to positive lives and futures. It helps them and our communities!"
District Attorney Tony Clayton has long recognized that reaching youths before they get into trouble with the law is critical to keeping them away from a life of crime.
He has established a multi-pronged approach to helping young people before they get into serious trouble by committing crimes.
Those efforts include:
- Free on-line courses for students who are being put in detention, are causing disruptions in class, or have been truant. The courses are offered to all Iberville, West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee schools.
They will include courses on conflict resolution, effective decision-making, anti-bullying and hazing, vaping/drugs, and financial responsibility. - A video geared to parents on the consequences of their children being truant. This video includes comments by DA Clayton, District Judge Kevin Kimball and others. It notes the damage done to students who miss too much school, along with the legal consequences of fines and jail to parents who allow their children to become truant. It also points parents to resources to help them with children/youths having difficulties.
- $50,000 provided to Families in Need of Services (FINS), an organization that brings together resources to help troubled youth and their families remedy self-destructive family behavior and/or pre-delinquent juvenile behaviors.
- $25,000 to the 18th Judicial District Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Program. CASA recruits, trains and organizes community members who advocate for abused and neglected children living in foster care. CASA volunteers are independent voices who thoroughly investigate each child’s unique circumstances and make recommendations to the court based on their best interests.
- $25,000 to the Child Advocacy Center. The Center helps children and their families in the aftermath of physical abuse, sexual abuse, human trafficking or after witnessing violent crime by providing trauma-informed, child-focused services.
- Speaking engagements to high schools in the 18th Judicial District to show and tell students real-life cases of youths getting involved in crime and ending up in prison for the rest of their lives.