Copyright Live 5 News WCSC
GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCSC) - The nonprofit organization, the Prison Dr,. has opened a Goose Creek location to help mentor and empower at-risk youth. The new location marks the first office in the Palmetto state and offers services such as personalized house calls, mentorship and accountability sessions for troubled teens. Organization officials say this also comes at a time when several members of the Berkeley County community are feeling uneasy after two weapons were found at Berkeley County Middle School earlier this year. The organization believes the work they do will help kids before they make mistakes that could lead to incarceration. “We don’t want to get the kids after they commit crimes,” Prison Dr. Founder Myron Fountain says. “We want to get them before. We will be doing community walks where me and my team will be going through the neighborhoods of Goose Creek with the police officers and mentoring kids.” Outside of partnerships with the community, there are three different types of mentorship programs the organization offers that are all 12 months long and are designed to address the unique needs of each child and their family. Benefits the program provides to at-risk youth include a lower school dropout rate, higher self-esteem, better relationships, less trouble with the law and a reduction in alcohol and drug use. The organization says young people who meet regularly with a mentor are 35% more likely to graduate on time and 55% more likely to enroll in college. Organization leaders say what makes them unique is the way they make house calls where they have direct intervention with kids who have either been misbehaving, are experiencing mental health issues or are having patterns of aggressive behavior towards their parents. “We have a unique way of going into the home and basically just loving on them,” Fountain says. “It’s not just about scaring them straight. It’s also about loving them straight and we do that in a very unique way and to the point where we are all over the country doing this.” Shane Reid has been a Prison Dr. South Carolina state representative for four months and played a part in bringing the organization to Goose Creek. He says he could’ve used the resources they provide when he was a kid. “I wish I had a place like this when I was a child,” Reid says. “My mom is a single mom and she raised three boys on her own and we didn’t have help like for me, but the object of history is not to repeat it, so when you know better, you do better.”
