The Evening Report Center (ERC) is a joint effort from Volunteers of America, Dakotas, and the Minnehaha County Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, whose mission is to reduce the unnecessary confinement of youth in our community. This effort, a growing nationwide trend, is responsible for decreasing the number of youth in locked detention, in addition to creating programs like the ERC, which keeps pre-adjudicated youth from reoffending while awaiting a court date by giving them positive activities to do.

This video was made as a graduate school project to show what the ERC does and its youth, family, and community impact. The youth tore up the scripts given to them and the interviews and program commentary are of their own design and content. It is a humbling and amazing thing to see how a few well-placed resources can get a kid from "at-risk" to shining star over the course of a few weeks.