LITTLE ROCK -- The Pulaski County sheriff's office has been awarded a federal grant of $600,000 that will go toward the agency's youth outreach and mentor programs, the sheriff said at a Thursday news conference.
The money, which comes from the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, will go into the Junior Deputy program, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, Sheriff Eric Higgins said.
That program, founded in 1947 by Sheriff Tom Gulley, aims to combat juvenile delinquency by teaching the county's teens and schoolchildren about character and career opportunities, particularly law enforcement careers, according to a news release accompanying the announcement.
The grant will let the sheriff's office renew a partnership with the Junior Deputy Baseball Park in Little Rock and strengthen relationships with school districts in the county, as well as create more programs.
"We still see the need to invest in our youth," Higgins said.
The newest of these is a cooperation with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas to bring their Bigs With Badges program to the county, said Raymond Long, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arkansas.
The program will open the door for Pulaski County deputies to serve as adult mentors, called 'bigs,' to be paired with youth mentees, called 'littles.'
Providing emotional support for the state's youth is the foundation of preventing youth violence, Long said, and stressed that "bridging and healing relationships with law enforcement officers" is crucial for the county's young people.
"We all should be biased toward action" when it comes to ensuring children have reliable mentors and career opportunities available to keep them from crime, Long said.
Long on Thursday introduced the first pairing in the new program: mentor Deputy Justin Johnson and mentee Justin Henderson, a sixth-grader at Mills Middle School.
The Bigs With Badges program aligns with the four core components of the county's initiative to keep juveniles out of crime and meet the needs of at-risk youth, said Brian Miller, administrator of the Junior Deputy program.
These tenets include keeping non-offending kids such as runaways or truants out of jails, separating juvenile and adult inmates in jails, moving youths to juvenile-specific facilities to address their trauma and reducing the disproportionate contact of minority youth with the justice system, Miller said.
The number of youths from minority groups who are victims and suspects in juvenile cases has reached "epidemic levels" in the nation, Miller said.
"We can't arrest our way out of this situation. It's going to take genuine love in the form of incentivized mentoring with expectations," Miller said.
Mentees in Pulaski County programs know the behavioral and academic standards their mentors have for them, but also receive advice and encouragement to reach those goals, said Sgt. Willie Davis, who Miller called "the Lebron James of mentoring."
"We empower these young boys and girls to excel," Davis said.
Members of the program who meet their academic goals are rewarded with special trips and fun activities, which should also help incentivize others to set and meet mentorship goals.
Additionally, Davis said he thinks it's very important for the deputies working with kids to form a personal connection and get to know their mentees.
"They have to understand that their names mean something, their names are important to us," Davis said.