Changes are coming to a program helping kids in Hennepin County stay on the right track. The Youth Connection Center has been providing services to students who skip school, are out past curfew or are involved in low-level offenses.
Hennepin County, the City of Minneapolis and Minneapolis Public Schools partnered to launch the program 30 years ago.
“It was really a response to 10 to 17-year-olds who were not in school, and we were afraid [they] were at risk for entering the juvenile justice system,” said Colleen Kaibel, the director of student retention and recovery for MPS. “This was a good alternative because it gave police a place to take youth that wasn’t locked up.”…