Two years ago, when Kyli was in eighth grade, she wasn’t having problems with the law, and her grades weren’t really suffering. Instead, her problems were more with relationships at school.
“I was fighting with my teachers, harassing the principals and fighting with the kids,” she says.
Kyli was ready for a change, and she found the tools she needed in Personal Responsibility In Development and Ethics (PRIDE). For her, the program’s mentors made the biggest impact.
“They really help you and try to just be there and give you a shoulder to lean on,” she claims. “Most kids come in not being able to lean on their parents, so they just get into gangs or do drugs. I’m really close to Tom [a PRIDE mentor]. He’s like my dad, and he’s the one I lean on. That’s what really changed me.”
Now, she picks better friends, is getting better grades and wants to go to college.
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