Boston Business Journal - by Andy Pond

Teenagers are dying on the streets of Boston, a recent victim felled as he walked home, a mere block from Madison Park High School. The violence unfolding before our eyes is brutal and beyond comprehension. Yet its origins are not a mystery.

Violence does not begin when one teen pulls a gun on another. It begins years earlier, when a child does not receive the social or familial intervention that might have diverted them from the violent path they are now on. Maybe that child grew up in a home filled with violence, and the law enforcement and social service agencies did not have the resources to intervene. Or perhaps that child was from a loving home but had serious learning disabilities that went undetected.

What is most important for all of us to remember is that when these failures happen and children go down the wrong path, it affects all of us. It affects us as a business community and as a society.

My agency, the Justice Resource Institute, supports families and helps troubled kids deal with their challenges and put their lives back on track. In some cases, these children have moved from placement to placement. The care in these settings may have been perfectly decent, but the constant transition undermines a young person's sense of confidence in the world. In other cases, traumatic abuse, mental illness, a developmental disability or an emotional disorder overwhelm a family caring for their teen, and they struggle to find a formula that works for them and brings them happiness.

Children in our agency and others like it get the support, attention and the love they need to put them on the right path. We see it every day. This region's businesses are filled with employees and even leaders who have undergone such turnarounds in their early years. The former runaway who lived on the street, who thanks to an intervention got shelter, a high school diploma, and a sense of purpose, goes on to become a teacher, lawyer or a CEO.

No program reaches everyone, however, and in the end each of us makes choices for ourselves. But can anyone seriously argue that an adolescent victim of chronic abuse or neglect is able to fully comprehend the consequences of his actions?

These at-risk kids, children who never connect with caring adults, are the ones we need to worry about. The social and economic cost of failure is enormous.

We can help teens today; it is rarely too late to turn a life around. As work begins on a new state budget, let us make the proper investment in family supports and programs for children and teens. Let us ensure that the staff on the front lines of this work are paid a living wage. Effective services save lives and ultimately build safer communities, stronger businesses, and a better society.

Andy Pond is president of Boston-based Justice Resource Institute, which focuses on bringing social justice to children and adults with physical, emotional or learning-related difficulties.