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Carlos has a big dream – he wants to be the first in his family to graduate from high school. Tamara is putting herself through college, with hopes to join the military. The team at Youth Transformation Center (YTC) is helping them get there.

Carlos is enrolled in a school in which he spends half the day recovering lost high school credits and the other half learning the skills of an auto mechanic. Tamara attends school and works in a daycare center where the “little people” hang onto her and don’t even want her to go on break. They are both on their way to achieving their dreams, but, life wasn’t always like this for these young people.

When Carlos was only a few months old, his mother dropped him off at the “bad uncle’s” house so she could feed her addiction to heroin. For entertainment, his uncle would throw Carlos across the room like a basketball. At age 16, during a Youth Transformation Center Boomerang workshop, Carlos shared his story with tears in his eyes. One year later, he said: “I stopped blowing off homework and handled my frustrations. I’m graduating next month.”

Tamara’s also has a heartbreaking story: “Although I had respect as a leader of my gang, my life was going in the wrong direction, and if I hadn’t come to the Boomerang training, I would probably be in jail or I’d be dead now,” she said.

Thousands of teens have attended YTC’s Boomerang trainings at their schools – regular kids whose lives are altered in this motivational workshop that helps them rediscover natural gifts and talents and create a compelling life action plan. YTC also works with youth who’ve been suspended or expelled, referred by schools and the courts because of wrongdoing.

The overuse of suspension and expulsion for minor to moderate offenses has led to a national dropout crisis. Schools lose $7,000-$12,000 for each student who fails to graduate, while taxpayers lose billions in Welfare, incarceration and health-care costs for dropouts struggling with unemployment and poverty. Through YTC, suspended and expelled youth can choose to take responsibility for their actions, meet face-to-face with those they’ve harmed, listen to how their behaviors have affected others and work together to repair the harm.

Thanks to a generous $65,000 grant from Grinnell Memorial Trust and contracts with two school districts, YTC is now helping ten schools in the Pikes Peak region to reduce student discipline issues, keep kids in school, and help them graduate.