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Opportunity Center giving fresh start for kids
FOX 26 Anchor Anthony Antoine went to the center to find out more on what they're doing to break the cycle.
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - There is enough research out there to support significant changes in how we interact with the youth in the juvenile justice system.
In 2019, Harris County closed a secure facility, repurposed the building, and reimagined how we can redirect the youth away from violence.
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The Opportunity Center is a place where the youth can get their GED and learn a trade, but more importantly, it's a second chance, for kids who often - don't get one.
Henry Gonzales is the Executive Director and Chief Juvenile Probation Officer at the Opportunity Center, formerly known as the Burnett Bayland Rehabilitation Center, one of three secure facilities in Harris County.
"This was a correctional facility built to be a correctional facility. As you walk through the building, you’ll see what it was built for. But I really wanted to challenge us, and the system, to take a building that was built to lock kids up and turn it into a building that kept kids from getting locked up," says Gonzales.
His vision for the Opportunity Center became clear after visiting Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. A rehabilitation and re-entry program for former gang members and incarcerated people - giving them resources and skills to thrive. That theme of a second chance, rebuilding the person from within, and creating a renewed sense of self-worth is now the cornerstone of the Opportunity Center.
Gonzales says, "Unfortunately, for justice-involved kids, they don’t always have that support. These are kids pushed to the side and thrown out of school. Someone has to be there to give them those same opportunities."
The transformation of the building is night and day. A juvenile supervision officer is now an academic coach. The deafening echos of a sterile facility now have carpeted areas. The heavy, imposing 800-pound doors are gone and some of the walls are filled with color and character, a true representation of what this place could be.
Vanessa Ramirez is the director at the Opportunity Center.
"Removing the doors wasn’t just part of the deinstitutionalizing process; it’s pretty poetic."
She says, for half the day, students are in GED courses.
"For the other half of the day, they are taking a vocational class of their choosing, and we rotate every five weeks because we want students to really get a chance to explore the opportunities, and the options they have now are culinary, carpentry, auto mechanics, entrepreneurship, digital literacy, and digital storytelling," says Ramirez.
Gonzales says success isn't based on recidivism, the success is in the stories of the students.
"It is hearing them say that this is the first time that they have ever felt successful in school. This is the first time that they’ve ever felt that someone really cares. The more kids that come in, the more classes they’re taking, the more vocations they are exposing themselves to the number of hours of internships that they’re doing, that is really what we’re looking at."
The program faces a major challenge, transportation.
Students are coming from all over Harris County and the center provides the transportation, but there's only so much they can do. To reach more kids - they need help.
"What I would love to see is an opportunity center in every quadrant of Harris County, so that it’s easier for our young people to be able to access what we do here," says Gonzales.
Vanessa Ramirez says they need more community members and business owners to get involved.
"We want employer partners that are willing to look past, you know - those typical HR requirements and see the person who’s trying to build his or her network for the first time."
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The Opportunity Center represents a fresh start for many, proving that with the right support and opportunities, transformation is not just possible—it’s happening.
Henry Gonzales is witnessing it firsthand.
"With programs like this, we’re not saying that young people should not be held accountable for their actions. But accountability in this case, really, is making sure that we provide those young people with the tools and the resources that they need to be able to change."