Lakeside Academy has been around the longest, but they ran into some real hard times in 2006 and had to close. My guess is that part of the deal of getting them operational again may have been the management contract with Sequel. Here is Lakeside's extremely abbreviated version of their 103-year history:
HistoryLakeside for Children was established by community leaders in 1907. The original facility was a farmhouse on 46 acres of land and first served nine boys who worked the grounds to learn employable agricultural skills and attended community schools. Over the years, Lakeside grew into a 79-bed facility that served boys, girls and sexual offenders. In July, 2007, Lakeside for Children entered into a management agreement with Sequel Youth and Family Services, who began managing the facility under the name Lakeside Academy.[/list]
Just one year later, things sound hopeful:
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Kalamazoo GazetteKalamazoo's Lakeside Academy residents rebound from troubled past with summer basketball programBy Jeff Barr
July 17, 2008, 11:00AM
Lakeside Academy student Dylan Hancock, 16, jokes with Titan Club members Wednesday while watching the Lakeside Academy Titans basketball team cruise to a 14-point victory at The Courthouse athletic facility in Portage.
Jennifer Harnish | Kalamazoo GazetteThey were playing basketball, but they were learning so much more.
A team of former car thieves, gun-toters, drug-dealers and gang-bangers -- all under 18 and residents at Kalamazoo's Lakeside Academy -- played their third summer-league basketball game Wednesday night. And they operated as one in The Courthouse athletic facility in Portage, employing a brand of teamwork and togetherness that has been carved into their personalities since living at Lakeside.
"Basketball is a tool, but it's secondary to what's really going on here," said Lakeside's coach Will Cowen, 26, shortly after watching his Lakeside Titans beat a team made up largely of Comstock High School basketball team members. "There are young athletes out here getting a second chance at life, learning lessons that somehow they missed or were unavailable to them before they came to Lakeside."
The Titans didn't miss much Wednesday night, cruising to a 72-58 victory to up their record to 2-1 in summer-league ball. Lakeside opened its season with a 20-point loss to this same team three weeks ago, so the victory was doubly sweet.
The selflessness necessary to win basketball games showed itself throughout Wednesday's contest. There were tip-passes, and forwards with contested layups giving up the ball to a teammate who could go in alone. It was a display of constant teamwork, from the time Larry Fields hit the first hoop in the steamy Portage gym to team during Wednesday's game at The Courthouse in Portage.
Lakeside Academy Coach Will Cowen speaks to his basketball team Wednesday night during a 14-point victory. Lakeside, a residential facility for youthful criminal offenders, recently reopened after closing in Oct. 2006.
Jennifer Harnish | Kalamazoo Gazette"I messed up before I got here, I missed school, my grades dropped and I couldn't play basketball," said Shelton Coats, of Lansing, 16, who was sent to Lakeside as part of a sentence for carrying a weapon in a school zone when he was 15. "I didn't have any self-discipline at all, and that's what got me into trouble. By coming to Lakeside, and by playing basketball, I'm learning self-discipline. It takes a while, but it's coming."
Lakeside team members must earn the right to play on the team by remaining free of discipline issues at Lakeside. Another option for kids who remain out of trouble at Lakeside is the Titan Club, which filled the gym Wednesday night to root for their team.
Residents at Lakeside Academy -- funded by Lakeside for Children, a nonprofit organization, and managed by Sequel Youth and Family Services -- have plenty of time to learn self-discipline. The average stay is anywhere from six to nine months, during which time residents must pass a four-phase behavioral-adjustment program and given a recommendation by Lakeside staff to the court system from where they came.
The 88 residents comprise youthful offenders from throughout Michigan and Indiana who are deemed qualified for the program rather than be sent to a juvenile home, jail or prison. Kalamazoo offenders are rare at Lakeside because one of the most important facets of such programs is to remove troubled kids from the area in which they found trouble. There are other programs -- such as Sequel's Clarinda Academy in Indiana -- where Kalamazoo juveniles can be sent.
"Every kid here is reachable, savable, worthy of the time that is spent on them," said Michelle Gothard, 42, a youth counselor at Lakeside. "These are kids who've been told their whole lives that they are worthless, that they'll never amount to anything. Worse yet, some of them are not cared about enough to get told anything at all.
"At Lakeside, they have to work hard, have to work on themselves to get ready to go back into the world and interact in society. But they are given the tools to do it, and they know that they are worthy of being cared about."
It took care and planning for Lakeside Academy to recently re-open its doors after being closed in October 2006. Lack of funding and program shortcomings forced the closure, and the Lakeside for Children group took action. The nonprofit organization, which still owns the property, hired Sequel to manage the facility.
"It's a great program, and there are some kids coming through it who will go out there and succeed in society, without a doubt," said Cole Houser, 23, a team leader at Lakeside who formerly worked at Sequel's Clarinda facility in Indiana. "We get very specific with them about their own individual situations.
"Sometimes they try to give us general explanations, generic answers that could apply to anyone with behavioral problems. But we force them to get specific about what happened to them, how they could have acted differently, and how they will act differently in the future should a similar situation arise."
In order to qualify for Lakeside rather than be sent to a correctional facility, potential residents are first recommended by the courts, then interviewed by Lakeside Executive Director Travis Faulds and Director of Support Services Thom Lattig. If an offender seems legitimately welcome to the opportunity of turning his life around, seems willing to follow the rules and programs at Lakeside, and there is room at the academy, he then qualifies for acceptance.
Residents then begin the process of retraining themselves. Anger management, peer pressure and decision-making are all part of the process.
And, don't forget teamwork.
Contact Jeff Barr at
jbarr@kalamazoogazette.com or 388-8581.
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