Changes are coming to a program helping kids in Hennepin County stay on the right track. The Youth Connection Center has been providing services to students who skip school, are out past curfew or are involved in low-level offenses.

Hennepin County, the City of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Public Schools partnered to launch the program 30 years ago.

“It was really a response to 10 to 17-year-olds who were not in school, and we were afraid [they] were at risk for entering the juvenile justice system,” said Colleen Kaibel, the director of student retention and recovery for MPS. “This was a good alternative because it gave police a place to take youth that wasn’t locked up.”

She explained that law enforcement brings youth to the center where they can connect with services.

“The demand when it started was over 500 students per year for truancy, just under that number for curfew; that number has dwindled over the years,” said Kaibel. “At the time Minneapolis Public Schools pulled out of the YCC contract, we had seen zero students brought in for truancy.”

The district pulled out of the agreement in December, citing budgetary reasons. She explained that at that point, the center was seeing less than 400 students. While about 40 kids were there for curfew, the majority were related to possible involvement in misdemeanors.

“I think it needs to be a redesigned version,” said Kaibel. “Truancy doesn’t look like it used to, policing doesn’t look like it used to, we need to change with the times.”

Hennepin County leaders agreed and are in the process of revamping the program.

“We were looking at what is the model? Is this the best way to do this?” said Lisa Bayley, the director of Safe Communities in Hennepin County. “We were hearing from law enforcement and from community and from youth that this really wasn’t what they wanted or needed.”

She explained that needs have changed since the pandemic and civil unrest.

The redesigned program will be a partnership between the county and the City of Minneapolis. It will move next year from the Public Service Building downtown to the Minneapolis South Safety Center when it opens on Minnehaha Avenue. Instead of youth only being brought in by law enforcement, it will also be open for families to walk in.

“We heard from families that ‘We’d like the opportunity to voluntarily come in and see if we can get an assessment, do some voluntary connections with service,’” said Bayley. “That could be behavioral health services, it could be substance use treatment, it could be mentoring. We can make those connections and do it in a really affirmative, warm way.”

She hopes it will be an even more proactive approach than the current program.

“We know if we can make that interaction, make that connection at an early stage, we’re much more likely to reach success in behavior change and creating a better future for those youth,” said Bayley, explaining there will be additional resources available to families, including a greater emphasis on mentoring. “And how important it is to have adult, caring adults in young people’s lives, that look like the young people they’re working with, and who are from their communities and can commit over a longer period.”

Hennepin County expects to launch a request for proposals in January that gives a community provider a role in working with the county to shape the program they want to run. The RFP has a “not to exceed” note of $600,000, according to Bayley.

Jeanne Sharp was doing a bit of window shopping this weekend, surfing online for a new scooter.

“Back on Friday the 13th, my Vespa was stolen,” she explains.

Overnight, someone swiped her 2004 silver Vespa, parked right outside her north Minneapolis home.

“It makes me sad because I’m already a victim,” Sharp says. “And then I feel like I’m being re-victimized.”

Sharp, a middle school math teacher at a local Catholic school, says the scooter was found less than two miles from her house, along France Avenue in Robbinsdale.

It was not in the best of shape.

“The ignition was hammered out with a screwdriver,” Sharp recalls. “The whole frame was cracked, and it was totaled.”

But she says she didn’t know the scooter had been recovered until she received a note from a Crystal impound business 10 days later.  

“I got a letter that said ‘We’ve recovered your vehicle and your Vespa’s here with us, but you owe us six hundred-some dollars.’”

Sharp says as of Saturday, that number has increased to more than $1,000, and that an employee at Twin Cities Transport and Recovery told her she would have to pay the bill, which would increase $50 a day for 45 days.

Sharp says the employee told her if she didn’t pay up, the matter would be referred to a collection agency.

KSTP asked State Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, about Sharp’s situation.

He says it’s perfectly legal for a business to charge impound fees, even if a vehicle is stolen.

“They’re going to charge somebody,” Hudson says. “Under the current structure, the charge falls upon the owner, regardless for the reason the vehicle was impounded.”

Those impound fees can cost hundreds of dollars or more.  

Hudson is proposing a bill prohibiting impound lots from charging owners if their vehicle was impounded due to a crime.

His idea: to make car thieves pay that cost.

“Assuming the perpetrator is caught, charged and convicted, there’s some restitution that should be paid to the municipality for having covered the charge of the impound fees,” Hudson explains.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reached out to Twin Cities Transport and Recovery for comment, but has not heard back.

But what about that $1,000 fee?

Sharp says she’s not sure what she’s going to do, but says she’s considering getting legal representation.

She hopes what happened to her will be a cautionary tale for others.

“I didn’t steal the bike, I didn’t put the bike in the impound lot, so now I don’t have a Vespa, and I have a huge bill,” Sharp declares. “If your vehicle gets stolen, you have to pay for it. It doesn’t seem fair. Let’s put the bill on the criminals.”