Organization committed to at-risk youth hosts Founder’s Day open house

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Thursday in Savannah a gathering of law enforcement, court judges, and city officials took place at The Front Porch.

The Front Porch is an outreach organization that takes juveniles at-risk of falling into the court system, and keep them out of it. They work with the courts, they work with the city of Savannah, and multiple other groups but today, they celebrated their founder’s day, bringing back their original members that helped start this outreach organization.”

“I come now and gosh this place is wonderful,” said SOT: LeRoy Burke III, former Chatham County Juvenile Court Judge.

Burke is one of these original members who helped to create The Front Porch in 2018, and on Founder’s Day, he told me why it was formed in the first place.

“What we were trying to do is make sure what we did actually impacted children that needed it,” said Burke. “We decided collectively that the best way to do it was to give them opportunities for resources, not just for the children but for the families.”

The Director of the program says it continues to make strides in finding other groups that help them direct children and their families on how best to proceed.

“So when families come in, we do assessments and they find the gaps and the needs and so we can refer them out to the community,” said Danica Rubenstein, director of The Front Porch.

She says they’ve worked with groups like Forsyth Farmer’s market to have food and baby formula on hand for families affected by the government shutdown and SNAP benefits.

The outreach group has been declared a success by both former mayor Eddie Deloach and current mayor Van Johnson.

“I see it expanding to other of our county, this is an approach that works it has proven to work and so I would love to see this expanded,” said Johnson.

Former mayor DeLoach gave credit to his former mayor pro-tem, Carol Bell, who he said was the driving force on city council that put the plan together.

“I am delighted because this is actually the demonstration of what happens when agencies forget about turf and come together to work together for the good of the community,” said Bell.