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Troy Youth Assistance asks council for more funds as county mentor training is cut
Summary
Troy Youth Assistance presented its annual report and warned the council that county defunding of mentor training has left Troy without a locally trained mentor pipeline; TYA asked the city for an additional $5,000 and described program innovations including a podcast library and student editing training.
Carl Schmidt, an adviser to Troy Youth Assistance, presented the group's annual report to the Troy City Council on Feb. 10 and asked the city to consider increasing its support to $20,000 annually, specifically requesting an additional $5,000 above the $15,000 the city provided last year.
Schmidt said Troy Youth Assistance continues core services at roughly the same level as prior years but has added a library of on-demand podcasts created with local school staff and external experts to help parents and principals find resources. He said students in the Troy School District are learning editing and production skills as part of the podcast project.
The main concern Schmidt raised was mentor availability. He said Oakland County has defunded the county-run mentor training program (Mentors Plus), leaving Troy Youth Assistance unable to train new mentors under the county umbrella. Schmidt told council that TYA offered to take over training for the county and to train countywide mentors but that the county declined. He said the county offered that TYA could provide training independently if TYA secured its own insurance, but that affiliation with the county program would be lost.
"We have offered to take over the training for the county and allow Troy to train anyone else in the county, and they've said no," Schmidt said. "It's extremely effective, mentorship is, and we're very disappointed that the county has has defunded that at this point." (Carl Schmidt, TYA adviser)
Council members asked clarifying questions. Council member Chamberlain Krenge asked for the dollar amount needed to sustain a mentor program; Schmidt reiterated that the immediate obstacle is an insurance/training-authority issue rather than an operational dollar figure for training, and said TYA will investigate insurance costs to operate training independently. Mayor Pro Tem Gun and Council member Hamilton noted that TYA has referred prospective mentors to Big Brothers Big Sisters when no local mentor slot was available, but Schmidt said that external programs also face supply constraints and do not give Troy priority placement.
Schmidt said TYA has been working to persuade county commissioners to restore funding and that he may ask the council to send a letter to the county advocating for restoration of mentor training support. He also described mentorship as one of the most effective interventions for at-risk youth, and said the county's defunding is part of a wider reduction in juvenile-justice-related programming.
The presentation closed with Schmidt thanking council for past support and repeating the $5,000 funding request. Council members said they would stay engaged and that councilors might contact county commissioners about the issue.
TYA speakers and city officials who participated in the exchange asked the council to track the mentor-training status and to notify the organization if the council can assist with advocacy or funding decisions.
