Brandon Caprio was headed in the wrong direction. The 15-year old was cutting school and having problems at home. Then a two-week stay at a new program in the Hill proved to be “the turning point in my life.”
Brandon told his story to a crowd of dozens of people during the Monday afternoon dedication ceremony at the Jimmy Miller Center, at the corner of White and Congress streets. The state-funded center, which has been open for several months, is a project of St. Francis Home for Children, a private non-profit that provides support for troubled children and families.
The top two floors of the four-floor Jimmy Miller Center comprise The Boys’ CARE Program, a residential center for up to six teenage boys. The center provides assessment and “respite” for teenage males involved in problems like truancy, troubles at home and breaking curfew. Boys stay at the center for two weeks and benefit from a variety of services, including one-on-one mentoring, tutoring, therapeutic groups, and recreational activities.
A Spark
Brandon came to the center in June after a period of serial truancy during which he’d missed a lot of his sophomore year of high school. He told the crowd that the program helped him to strengthen relationships with his family and showed him the importance of school. He spent his time at Jimmy Miller working on the school work he’d missed when he was playing hooky. Then he enrolled in summer school. Brandon received an ovation when he announced he had caught up on his school work and would start next fall in the junior class.
Upstairs in the center after the ceremony, Brandon said that his stay at Jimmy Miller had given him more confidence and motivation. “I realized that everybody’s out to help me,” he said. “You gotta make something of yourself.”
What does he want to make of himself? “I wanna do this,” he said, looking around the center. Brandon wants to be a youth worker. He figures his experiences will help him to be an effective counselor.
Brandon’s mom, Roberta Caprio, said that she has seen a change in her son. “He realizes that his life is more worthwhile,” she said. “Something here just sparked with him.”
“A New Foundation”
Below the boys’ center is a Family Support Center. Program manager Leslee Larrivee described it as a “triage center” for “families with service needs.” FWSN are families with children who are out of control, getting into trouble at school, or running afoul of the law. Larrivee said that the Family Support Center refers families to a variety of social services and also runs several support groups.
D.J. Nadeau, program manger at the boys’ center, gave a tour of the new facility to some friends of Jimmy Miller. Nadeau showed them the classroom where the teens can keep up or catch up with their schoolwork, the bedrooms and living area where they stay, and the kitchen and offices.
The final stop on the tour was the “perks lounge,” for boys whose good behavior has earned them entry. The little room is equipped with a couple of easy chairs, a flat screen TV and a Sony Playstation.
Nadeau explained that the center takes in boys from all over the state, many of them referred by juvenile court. During their two-week stay at the center, the boys benefit from schooling, needs assessment, one-on-one mentoring, psycho-educational groups, and team-building and recreational activities.
“We’re not gonna completely change them in two weeks,” explained Nadeau. “The goal is to create a new foundation for them.”
Bill Carbone, executive director of the state judicial branch’s Court Supportive Services Division, said that centers like Jimmy Miller are “part of a larger effort at improving the state juvenile court system” by “dealing with underlying causes.” The hope is that intervention services like those at Jimmy Miller will help to keep teens out of the juvenile court system and prevent them from becoming a part of the adult justice system.
The Eponym
In addition to Brandon’s, the outdoor dedication ceremony included a number of other speeches, including a short address by Jimmy Miller himself. Brought up by nuns at the St. Francis Home for Children, Miller has now become a local philanthropist, raising money for several youth programs, including St. Francis.
Miller’s main fundraising event is an annual Friends of Jimmy Miller dinner. Last year, the dinner raised over $100,000.
In the culmination of the dedication ceremony, Miller stood alongside Archbishop of Hartford Henry Mansell and Paula Moody, executive director of St Francis, as the Archbishop cut the ceremonial ribbon.