Youth Services Florida aims to transform the lives of at-risk and high-risk youth by equipping them with the necessary tools and knowledge to develop into self-sufficient, productive members of society and thus reduce youth incarceration in our communities. Pictured, Vince and Donte are learning how to hold a hammer and drive in roofing nails during the Building Construction Technology Program.
BY KILEY WOODS | Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG — Faith Youth Services Co-Founder and CEO Chris Davis mentors youth in south St. Petersburg – the same community and spaces where he grew up — who have been impacted by the foster care or juvenile justice systems.
Mentoring at-risk and high-risk youth into their value, the skills needed and the know-how to use those skills creates self-sufficient community members, which many of the children already have but are not in use until working with Davis and the mentors at Faith Youth Services.
Faith Youth Services Founder Chris Davis posing with students during the Teen for Christ conference in Kenya, Africa.
Davis worked as a photographer for the City of St. Petersburg and as a freelance photographer. He worked in the school system for eight years committed to working with the high-risk and at-risk youth in south St. Petersburg.
While he worked at Gibbs High School, he saw homeless children and ones already in the penal system. He saw the issues from a kid’s and teacher’s perspectives.
“I saw traumatized kids with traumatized teachers,” Davis explained.
Many teachers wanted to help but needed to understand where their students came from; they needed to know their experiences. Some teachers are placed in high-needs schools, unaware of the demographics and definitions, and are under-prepared for what they will encounter.
“If a teacher has not earned their student’s respect, they have not earned the right to teach them, and they will tell you that,” Davis said.
Davis was exhausted from lingering in the system and resigned from public education. He received a youth grant from the city and started interacting with at-risk and high-risk youth. He contacted Family Support Services and the Department of Child Services and was eventually contracted to work with kids in the foster care system for a year.
“My calling was to build a youth ministry,” Davis explained, noting that Faith Youth Services is located in Bay Point Christian Church, 2001 62nd Ave S. Kids from the surrounding community started coming to the services.
Faith Youth Services helped find employment for Jamal (middle) and Mikal, two workforce development students. Shown here with Burger Monger manager Greg.
“Sometimes in life, we are dealt cards that are not related to who we are, but that is how life is.”
Davis met two girls trying to get a job, but they only had one pair of shoes to share, so they had to alternate who wore them.
“You realize that there is a need, and you have to ask how you can meet that need,” Davis said.
Faith Youth Services is faith-driven, but at the core, they work with children to create change in their lives and build relationships to help them understand how their origin story impacts their choices.
The youths Davis mentors come from high-crime neighborhoods, but he is sure their choices are not who they are. In the world we live in, it is easy to make what someone does who they are.
“I had a mentor in my life for a while, and you understand the value of having someone in your life,” Davis said. “We come alongside these kids and help them process what they are going through.”
Enrichment Coach Ian Smith seen above using nails to teach students critical thinking skills.
Mentoring means becoming a part of the other person’s life. It means learning how they think, their experiences and how they feel. One of the kids they worked with called Davis because he feared going back into the system.
“He was always afraid because when a cop stops him, he is always judged for his past,” Davis asserted. “In our community, that’s a problem.”
“We have to humanize these kids, and we have to give them value. I will not tell you that all these kids stopped committing crimes, but it’s about the relationship,” Davis stated.
One of the youths used to sleep in a garage, but now she is a nurse with a child of her own. Others were doing and selling drugs and are now doing landscaping work.
Many are products of impoverished families, so Davis feels “to really help these families, we have to help the parents,” Davis said.
Vincent Volpe teaches students the importance of accurate measuring in the Faith Youth Services workforce development component called the Building Construction Technology Program.
Many children are placed in the foster care system because they have experienced neglect, often due to poverty in low-income and marginalized communities. The system shows that separating parents and children is easier than finding an alternative method of supporting families.
“There is a kid I work with who is incarcerated right now, and you always look at yourself and wonder what you could have done differently. I knew him when he was in second grade.”
Davis and his colleagues want to go upstream, meaning they want to work with children in elementary school, where the trauma begins and before the criminal element starts taking place in their lives.
“In this work, you have to find a way to encourage yourself,” Davis said.
Davis volunteered in the court system to observe the realities of the juvenile justice system. He observed kids being arrested and then going back into society without any help or resources. Davis started making connections, and people began calling him for help.
Faith Youth Services offers mentorship, life skills, workforce readiness, trauma care therapy and coaching.
“We just walked alongside these kids,” Davis said, noting that sometimes all a child needs is to have someone they could call on.
“A choice becomes a habit, and a habit becomes a lifestyle,” Davis said. For many of these children, crime became their lifestyle; it became a way of life.
Some told Davis they would rather be in the system, what seems like a vacation for some, because they have food and interaction, something they may not have access to on the outside.
“You have to look at the behaviors and ask why they are doing what they are doing, and then you offer an alternative,” asserted Davis.
Faith Youth Services teaches their mentors how to be the parent, child, and adult. How to think like the youth they work with, how to be an adult without handing out punishment and how to be the parent and the one who has to say no.
“He has such a caring heart and really wants to do good work,” said Deborah Black, database and budget manager at Faith Youth Services. “His goal is to make a really positive impact in these children’s lives.”
“I will answer his call whenever he calls,” Black said, referring to Davis asking for help on any project, research or new training.
When you connect with a child genuinely and respect them, they will give you the honor you deserve. Davis encouraged awareness around existing biases and then let the biases go to earn the kid’s respect.
Faith Youth Services offers mentorship, life skills, workforce readiness, trauma care therapy and coaching. Please call 727-452-9613 for more information or visit FaithYouthServices.com.
