Mayor Greg Ballard at Save The Youth Center meeting for pastors & leaders
About us @ Save The Youth ...
The phone rings at 2 a.m. A few moments after, the car door shuts and leaves the driveway. A situation between two known gang rivals has become heated.
The kids are just 15 and 17 years old and ready to die for their cause. It’s just a matter of time before blood is shed unless intervention is successful. This is the life of a gang consultant. A doctor of the streets rather, on call 24/7. Don’t feel too bad for him, this is a promise he is fulfilling to himself and to God.
The promise Byron Alston made to himself and God is to help clean up the streets he once ran. By the age of 15 he was a known gang leader responsible for drug trafficking, a prostitution ring, and gang activities. At 16, he was sentenced to 40 years at the Michigan State Prison.
What amazing leadership ability God gave Byron. But now the time had come to make a choice. Continue the reign of terror or begin the process of healing. God sent vessels in the way of Chaplains and teachers who would begin the process of peeling away the scars of time from the teenagers mind. Until one day, it was all made clear. He began to see things through Christian eyes.
He began to see the negative down spiraling trend of the prison population. God used amazing vessels to open Byron’s eyes to the worldly consequences of his behavior. He began to understand that his gift as a leader could be used positively to affect change rather than negatively. He could build up people instead of tearing them down. He could sell them on hope rather than dope.
This is where Byron’s story begins. Out of his vision for youth – the mission was conceived – the purpose of his existence, circumstances and future. Save the Youth was born, his legacy of saving futures. Since 1998 Byron has developed and expanded this program. A prevention program, Save the Youth is designed to target communication to at-risk youth at a level they can understand and appreciate to assist them in making positive choices and understanding consequential behavior.
Since its inception, Byron Alston’s Save the Youth program has assisted schools, churches and communities broaden understanding for one another. As the statistics of gang activity, youth violence and imprisonment rise, so does Byron’s effort to combat the disease of gang infiltration in our schools, communities and homes.
Black people are victims of an enormous amount of violence. None of those things can take place without the complicity of the people who run the schools and the city.
Toni Morrison
/ reaching / teaching / networking /
I N D I A N A P O L I S
youth others agencies
Save The Youth
, Inc.
Save The Youth was founded by a certified gang consultant and at-risk youth specialist.
Prior to opening our doors, we spent two years in active research to uncover the needs of the Meadows Area youth.
As a result, the findings resulted in the need to provide a social networking system to inform disadvantaged individuals and families about services available to "gang-proof" their children.
Additionally, STY provides a networking system for social services organizations to prevent duplication of services, thereby assisting in reducing their cost per family and helping to increase the number of individuals and families serviced.
STY accepts monetary, service and item donations.
We're continually assisting the community with a multitude of needs and appreciates any donation kindness.
Our facility is in need of expansion to keep up with the social services needs of the surrounding area.
STY is looking to build on to the existing facility to support more programs and a bigger athletic center.
If every person took the time to help one other person, we would make a world of change.
STY is designed as a portal from one who thinks he can’t, to someone who knows he can make a difference in the world. Let’s all help Save The Youth.
We're offering free TaeKwonDo Classes every Friday at the Center from 5pm until 6:30pm
Please call the office to receive more information or to register your child.
