THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 9, 1994 TAG: 9411090314
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
The City Council invited a Bible-based education group Tuesday to try to help solve the region's juvenile crime problem.
The Institute for Basic Life Principles, a nondenominational religious group based in Illinois, has created a promising program to provide an alternative sentencing option for troubled youths, council members said. They voted 10-0 to extend an invitation to the group to establish a program in Hampton Roads. Councilwoman Nancy K. Parker abstained.
Dozens of cities, including Little Rock, Ark., Oklahoma City, Cincinnati and Jacksonville, Fla., have already invited the group to tackle their juvenile crime problems, according to President Bill Gothard. The youth program has been operating in Indianapolis for nearly two years.
Gothard's program is not supported by taxpayers or run by the city. But the institute requires a formal invitation from the local governing body before it will consider opening a facility.
Charles W. Gardner, the Virginia Beach resident who persuaded the council to invite Gothard to the region, is also trying to obtain invitations from other area councils, including Chesapeake and Norfolk.
The institute would have to be licensed by the state as an alternative sentencing facility before coming to Hampton Roads.
The program works this way: Instead of going to jail, the youths can volunteer to attend the residential program, called Advanced Training Institute International. They would remain for the length of their sentence, usually three to six months, Gothard said.
The idea is to get troubled teens away from the source of their problems: delinquent friends who encourage them to steal, have sex, do drugs, listen to rock music and generally waste their lives, Gothard said.
Instead, the program offers the young men and women Bible-based moral teachings that help them live more productive lives, he said.
The teachings are basically the same as those Gothard has taught through the Institute for Basic Life Principles for the past 30 years. The institute works as a roving training program for people who want to lead Bible-based lives.
The staff of the delinquent youth program mostly consists of people who pay to be mentors.
More than 7,000 have offered to work with troubled youths in the Indianapolis program and others that will be started across the country, he said.
No tax money is used to support the youth program, so that the separation of church and state can be maintained, Gothard said.
Councilwoman Louisa M. Strayhorn, who visited the program in Indianapolis, said she voted for it because she believes it has the potential to help city teens without costing city money.
She said she was impressed by the sincerity of the youths she saw in Indianapolis and was convinced that the program had helped change their lives.
Her primary concern is that the program would only be able to help a small number of youths because of its religious base and a requirement that parents also attend institute seminars.
If the troubled youths had parents who cared enough to attend seminars, they might not have gotten into trouble in the first place, Strayhorn said.
She said she also wishes the institute had a longer track record by which to judge its successes.
Gothard said he does not track the success rate of his program.
``I don't like to add up the score until down the road,'' he said. ``I was told by officials in Delaware that success meant they were not arrested and convicted again for same crime. On that basis we are doing very, very well.
``We don't like to look at that as success. Success for us is that they have a new set of standards and that they become productive citizens rather than just stay out of trouble.'' by CNB