Project L.I.F.T. expands roles and opportunities

MARTIN COUNTY ? Project L.I.F.T., which stands for Life Initiatives for Teens, is an organization that was founded by Bob Zaccheo to help teens struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. Its novel approach works to help teens develop skills as they go through intensive substance abuse treatment and provide an innovative experience utilizing these skilled trades to change the course of the their lives.

Among the many programs the project offers are boat building and small motor repair, to go along with T-shirt screening processing and air conditioning repair. The program has business mentors who come in and guide the teens through what is basically an apprenticeship process and the recidivism rate is a remarkably low 13 percent of teens who return to drug and alcohol abuse.

"This past year has been a pretty intense year of growth, because we purchased a 9,000-square-foot building in October of 2015 and we doubled the capacity that we had to work with and we ended up having a banner year with over 125 kids," Mr. Zacceo said. "So this year we were able to do some expanding and we identified three critical areas."

Those areas focus on what education actually means to teens and the fact that about 70 percent of those who enter the program won't go to college. The organization also focused on new programs such as upholstery and sewing, air conditioning repair, and welding. Those areas of focus can help employees make statistically more money than a person with a liberal arts college degree over the course of their careers.

The second area of focus is the treatment process and Project L.I.F.T. is trying to more effectively target what traumas and backgrounds or depression the teens suffer from and which helps lead them toward substance abuse. Mr. Zacceo ? who is a licensed psychotherapist and certified substance abuse expert ? said it "warrants a deep investigation into why it happens, because you can't just say that we are 85 percent successful without being able to prove it."

The third focus is how to employ the youths in the program and how best to get them into the workforce. During the past seven years, Mr. Zaccheo said the program has seen resounding success, but they want to build on that success and expand the teens opportunities. "What we have done is to incorporate a different model, where we teach the kids inside of our building for several months at a time and teach them how to be on time for work and how do provide a job well done," Mr. Zaccheo said.

The program was once specifically targeted to boys, but recently opened similar opportunities for young women as well.

In addition, the mentors who train the youths have routinely hired straight from the program, leading to many of the teens working in the trades they desire. The mentors and business owners get to see them go through the training process and pick the best candidates, which leads to gainful employment that also saves them having to go through trade schools and certification programs.

The teens also get guidance from business leaders and learn interview techniques and how best to satisfy the expectations of employers. This training helps ease the burdens of nervousness and helps them connect with potential employers so they are not just pursuing jobs in the fast-food industry or low-level retail outlets.

"Our boat builders have come in and taught the kids how to build boats and then hire them into their company," Mr. Zaccheo said. "They now have four kids working full-time in their buildings and two of them have been there for more than two years.

"I will take that kind of long-term investment and take those kids over 30 kids bunched into a room and given a piece of paper saying they can work at a fast-food business."

For more information about Project L.I.F.T., please visit the Web site at www.projectliftmc.com/or contact the organization at 772-221-2244.