With an almost 25% increase in juvenile crime in the state of Louisiana over the past ten years, there is a growing need for effective rehabilitation and prevention programs for incarcerated and at-risk youth.   The Break the Chain. . .Build A Bridge program serves to address the needs of juvenile offenders through hands on activities within juvenile facilities as well as advocating for change on a policy level as well. 

Over the past five years, Refined By Fire Ministries, Inc. through its Break the Chain. . .Build A Bridge program has had the opportunity to work in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections on several projects regarding the Louisiana juvenile corrections system. With an ever increasing juvenile incarceration rate as a result of continued delinquent activity among juveniles and the lack of effective preventative programs.    The increase in delinquent activity is followed by a high recidivism rate (recurrence of criminal activity) among juveniles, which often leads to a life of crime for these children that will ultimately be carried over to their adult life.  Because of these startling factors, there is a growing need for prevention programs to warn children of the dangerous patterns of delinquency and to provide them with positive influences and role models to follow as an alternative to delinquency.  Continued reform and rehabilitation programs are needed in juvenile institutions to aid in decreasing recidivism and ensuring academic and social success.

The children in these institutions desperately need individual attention, education, life skills, and conflict resolution programs to help them in their rehabilitation process as well as assimilating back into their families and communities.   Though most juvenile institutions provide those types of programs for residents, resources and professionals are always needed to make the programs work. Most of all, these children, many from broken homes, need love that no program or institution can give them.  

As one link on a chain leads to another, so do the patterns of violence and crime lead to incarceration for Louisiana's youth. The goal of BREAK THE CHAIN...BUILD A BRIDGE is not simply to decide that something must be done about the problem of juvenile delinquency, but to act to prevent delinquency among youth and rehabilitate those youth who succumb to the dangerous patterns of delinquency. Through active child involvement and mentoring activities, we wish to provide Louisiana's children with positive role models to follow as an alternative to crime. Together we can BREAK THE CHAIN of juvenile delinquency and BUILD A BRIDGE to a better future for Louisiana's youth.

  "I am only one, but I am still one; I cannot do everything, but I can do something; And just because I cannot do everything does not mean I will not do the something I can do."

If you would like additional information on how to get involved with the Break the Chain. . .Build A Bridge Program or have additional comments or suggestions, email us at RBFOutreach@aol.com.