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ROYAL OAK — The Royal Oak City Commission unanimously approved a service agreement in the amount of $20,000 with Royal Oak Youth Assistance at the March 24 meeting.
Royal Oak Youth Assistance, 1601 N. Campbell Road, was created to strengthen youth and families and to reduce the incidence of delinquency, abuse and neglect through community involvement, according to royaloakyouthassistance.com.
City Commissioner Sharlan Douglas said that the money that the commission approved, which had been included in the 2024-25 budget, is being matched by the Oakland County courts and the Royal Oak Schools to provide a social work team to work with young people who are in danger of coming into the criminal justice system.
“Year after year I have been impressed by the work that this organization does,” Douglas said. “But the organization also raises money independently to fund a number of programs that help young people and their families along the way.”
According to its website, Royal Oak Youth Assistance provides skill-building programs for children that could include extracurricular activities or other needs. Shelly Kemp, chairperson of Royal Oak Youth Assistance, spoke on the uses of the approved money.
“We have camp scholarships. For (fiscal year) ’23-24 we helped 43 kids go to camp in various forms,” Kemp said. “We also have skill building grants and that could be violin lessons, cheer lessons or tutoring, so we help students who have financial issues so they can be kids and learn and do fun things like they should.”
They also offer family education, which is a series of classes and workshops to help parents understand issues facing today’s families. The classes also work on improving child-parent relationships.
Royal Oak Youth Assistance also provides mentors for children.
Additionally, the program offers counseling services that are staffed by professional caseworkers.
“We also have an emergency needs fund that we used a lot during COVID,” Kemp said. “Last year we used around $9,500 worth of emergency needs that’s paying for Consumers Energy, that’s paying for groceries, that’s paying for rent when a family can’t afford it, so we do that,”
The program also tries to uplift the youth by giving them a Rising Star Night, where youth get recognition for their efforts in the community.
“Youth recognition recognizes youth in our community who go above and beyond; this is recognizing someone who shovels someone’s walkway more than once,” Kemp said. “These are groups of kids who do good in the community over and over again.”
“The Rising Star Award is for children who traditionally may not get recognized for being an A+ student, and the kid that keeps trying over and over again even with lots of difficulty,” she continued.
Commissioner Brandon Kolo thanked Royal Oak Youth Assistance for its work.
“This is such an amazing service that touches so many kids in our community, and it’s a need that may not be seen all the time, but it is always there,” Kolo said. “The fact that you are all out there is phenomenal.”
For more information, visit royaloakyouthassistance.com.
