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Preventing Lincoln County youth from continued or first-time involvement with the criminal justice system can save us millions of dollars each year – and save lives – one youth at a time.
Some sobering realities:
- It costs taxpayers more than $120,000 to incarcerate one child for a year – in a facility that can unwittingly become a training ground for increased criminal activity. A youngster who gets involved with this system will cost us $1,000,000 over his/her lifetime.
- In the State of Maine last year, there were 9,424 arrests of children. Another 2,000 dropped out of school. Forty-seven youth between the ages of 15-19 died a violent death, 11 of these were by suicide. And there were over 5,000 reported domestic assaults in families.
Poverty is an undeniable contributor to these statistics with more than 41,750 children whose parents have less than $19,000 a year to feed, clothe, and house their families. Add in isolation, and a lack of contact with positive role models, and the pressure to engage in harmful risk-taking behaviors only increases.
By supporting Youth Promise, you can help Midcoast youth and families succeed in overcoming these factors.
We work hard to keep our neighborhood youth from becoming statistics, but we can’t do it alone.
Your donation is tax deductable. You can send us a check, give us something of value that we can sell, or give us stock through RBC Dain Rauscher, 179 Main St. P.O.Box 280, Damariscotta or call them at 563-6300. For more information, call Youth Promise at 207 563-6123.
Thank you for your support.
Mary Trescot
Executive Director |
