NORWICH – A recent round of state grants will allow the Chenango County Probation Department and Department of Social Services to continue a series of proactive programming geared toward keeping youth out of the criminal justice system.

Director of Probation Karen Osborn met with county officials on the Safety and Rules Committee last week, asking permission to accept the grant which will help administer two different programs designed to help at-risk youth and their families.

Those two programs, called the “Parent Project” and “Why Try?,” aim to prevent PINS (Persons In Need of Supervision) or delinquency petitions from being filed against a youth while also giving parents useful resources to help keep their kids on the right track.

Osborn said the two programs provide a valuable service that could keep troubled kids from making harmful decisions that lead to long-term consequences. They may also provide a cost savings to the county as it costs far more for reactive-type services for PINS than proactive programs, she added.

With the stipulation that Chenango County uses grant funds to steer preventative programs, the NY State Office of Family Services has allocated more than $55,700 to Chenango County that expires in March of 2016. The county may tap into those funds as long as it agrees to kick-in 38 percent of the cost to facilitate programming.

In June, the probation department and DSS sought $10,000 from county government in hopes of using those funds to train two Parent Project facilitators (at approximately $4,000), as well as purchase training and curriculum for 10 Why Try? facilitators and 50 youth books (at a cost of $3,500); and provide 50 Parent Project books for approximately three classes (at a cost of $1,000).

Left over money would be used to front any unforseen expenses.