Young adults who have committed a crime often see more than the legal repercussions of their actions.

For many juveniles, searching for employment means carrying a stigma that is often hard to overcome. This may change, however, as Butler County is working with a $300,000 federal grant aimed at assisting juveniles learn employment options and skills to help reintegrate them into the community.

"They (juveniles) go in with a record," said Robert Clevenger, director of the Butler County Juvenile Justice Center. "They have no training or have a lifetime of no education. These are training opportunities that we take for granted."

Although the $300,000 award is a 12-month planning grant in its preliminary stages, the money allows the Justice Center to propose ideas and strategies and to design a plan to effectively aide juveniles with this process, according to Clevenger.

"It's going to allow us to bring together a plan specific to the needs of Butler County kids," Clevenger said. "These are young people that walk out the door with new skills and are ready to leave that life behind them, but what they are confronted with are obstacles."

To help navigate the obstacles, Clevenger said he plans to work with community programs that can pay juveniles wages and, in part, instill them with work ethic and experience.

"One of the things we're looking at is transitional-type jobs," Clevenger said. "We will use different programs such as Youth Build, programs where there are federal dollars, to give something back to community. Also, they can learn soft construction skills, landscaping, or help clean the homes of the elderly."

Clevenger said juveniles face difficulties when finding work, but he said he believes any form of job will point them in the right direction.

"We're not training them to be engineers," Clevenger said. "We want them to have

entry-level jobs. You've got to start somewhere, and we're trying to make these youngsters understand that to buy into the American dream and succeed, employment is part of it."

The grant is aimed at 16- and 17-year-olds, Clevenger said.

While employment opportunities are the chief motive behind the grant, it also includes counseling, like the utilization of the Big Brothers Big Sisters group, a service where kids are paired up with a mentor.

Tyler Chini, Miami University senior and an active participant of Big Brothers Big Sisters, said he thinks the mentoring component of the grant is commendable and would have no qualms or reservations about counseling a juvenile.

"I joined the program hoping I would get involved with helping troubled youth," Chini said. "Mentoring somebody who needs to be mentored would be the most fulfilling relationship, a lot of these troubled kids are just misunderstood."

Brad Mitchell, regional director of public affairs, said Butler County is fortunate to have been awarded the sum.

"It was a competitively based grant," Mitchell said. "The labor department was satisfied with Butler County's useful application and they show promise."

Other than the Butler County grant, nine other counties, in Arizona, California and Maryland, received sums to explore juvenile employment options, Mitchell said.

The total grant award was $18.7 million, according to Mitchell.

While receiving a grant is promising, Tim Myers, project coordinator and administrative services/facilities manager at the Juvenile Justice Center, said he hopes the grant will come into fruition and be implemented shortly after the 12-month grant is over.

"I hope that we will have been able to author an actual plan that matches what was proposed and be in a position to get that plan funded," Myers said.

Whether or not the grant translates into success remains unknown, but the determination to assist juveniles is obvious.

"We take a lot for granted because we've been taught work ethic from our parents, or learned in school," Clevenger said. "They probably haven't had that experience with a parent that instills the importance of going to work on time or dressing appropriately. Employment is key to getting kids on the right path."