It’s a life Anthony is all too familiar with, but one he’s left far behind him, thanks to a strong will to succeed in life and help from Southern Westchester BOCES social worker Kay Schonberg, who works at the BOCES Incarcerated Youth Program at the Westchester County Correctional Facility in Valhalla.

Ms. Schonberg remembers meeting Anthony in the late 1990s. He was incarcerated at the correctional facility on a six-month felony charge. “Anthony stood out from the beginning as being respectful, having the ability to relate to his teachers, even going as far as doing extra work, and really being an unusual student,” she said.

Today Anthony is an important member of the Youth Bureau’s team of social workers, recently winning the “Social Worker of the Year” award from the New York State Social Work Education Association, and working with the local White Plains police to help reduce youth crime in this city of almost 60,000.

Brooklyn Beginnings Anthony was born in Brooklyn to a mother from Guyana and a father who abandoned the family when Anthony was very young. At age 8, his mother was admitted to a psychiatric facility after suffering from a nervous breakdown, which left Anthony and his two siblings without adult care.

The family was split up and Anthony found himself in the midst of the New York City foster care system. He describes the experience as traumatic, remembering how as a little boy he would cry himself to sleep. “At first I was confused and then I think the confusion led to anger,” he said.

At one point, Anthony attended a public elementary school in Queens, where he was placed in a class with special needs children. By the fifth grade, his behavioral problems were getting out of control and he was sent to Leake and Watts, a former residential facility for troubled teens in Yonkers.

Gang Induction Anthony’s foray into gang activity began at Leake and Watts, which at the time housed approximately 200 youngsters. Ms. Schonberg said these young people often find themselves in situations that force them into gang activity because the gang provides protection from rival groups.

Anthony was inducted into the Bloods, a gang that was established in the 1990s by prisoners at Riker’s Island. It was not long before he got into trouble. Yonkers police arrested Anthony, who was involved in a scuffle with a rival gang. His sentence: four to six months in the county jail for assault and resisting arrest. He was 17 at the time.

Life in Prison Life in prison was monotonous for Anthony. The hours spent in a jail cell were torture, so when Ms. Schonberg approached him about enrolling in the BOCES GED course, he seized the opportunity. Life at the correctional facility was, said Anthony, “familiar to me in that my peers in prison shared the same life struggles, whether it was gang involvement or drugs.” It also prepared him for future prison terms served at Riker’s Island; the Hudson Correctional Facility, a medium security prison in Hudson, NY; and the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, N.Y., a maximum security prison.

More Obstacles Released from the county jail with a GED in hand, Anthony tried to make the best of his life. Even after finding a job bagging groceries at a Fairways supermarket in Manhattan, he was still drawn to the streets, and to the Bloods. Living in an area infested with drugs and crime didn’t help, and as a result, Anthony found himself in the middle of street fights and other altercations.

At this point, he began to connect with the more active members of the Bloods, hanging out in the Wakefield section of the Bronx, a neighborhood that a few years ago had one of the highest murder rates in the city. “I was meeting up with other members of the gang, getting high and drinking, and I really didn’t want to get out of it at that point,” he recalled.

Anthony’s thirst for knowledge was something he hid from fellow gang members. While still active in the Bloods, he managed to attend Mercy College’s Bronx campus and enrolled in its behavioral science program. Although he was desperately trying to make something of himself, the dark side continued to take hold. An arrest for assault landed him in prison again, this time in Riker’s for a two- to four-year term, a place rife with gangs.

Trying to Move Forward Anthony only communicated sporadically with Ms. Schonberg during this period. “I guess he was trying to protect the relationship between us,” she said. “Kids like him are so used to being discarded, especially if they grow up in group homes; it took him a long time to trust me and to know that I would be there no matter what.”

The constant vigilance and stress associated with prison life was exhausting. A fight with a member of the Crips gang in an upstate prison resulted in confinement to a small 6-by-6 cage known as the “box.” “At that time, I was given a moment to really think about my life and where it was headed,” Anthony said. Shortly after, he received and filled out an application for admission to Westchester Community College.

Anthony remembers leaving prison for the last time, and being chided by a prison guard who said he’d be back. But there was no returning this time.

A Turning Point Despite the fear of being on “the outside”, Anthony persevered. Ms. Schonberg said she continued to reach out to him, offering to edit his college papers and asking how his schoolwork was coming along. At WCC, Anthony majored in human services. He admits having to “start from scratch,” taking basic courses and then specializing in subjects that would later qualify him as a caseworker.

As time went on, Anthony started to “come down,” breaking away from the gang and beginning to mature. Ms. Schonberg said his admission to WCC was the turning point. The BOCES program maintains a strong relationship with the college, inviting guidance counselors to talk to inmates on a regular basis. Anthony also visits the jail now, offering advice to the young incarcerated population there and touting the value of a college education.

While attending college, he worked at Legal Seafoods in White Plains and a second job at a local movie theater. He later completed an internship at a youth shelter in Mount Vernon, part of his college training. “He was a phenomenal worker,” said Ms. Schonberg. “He had jobs in the morning and evening and did his homework in between; this kid was serious about wanting to improve his life.”

Four-Year College and Beyond After graduating from WCC with an associate’s degree in human services, Anthony attended Concordia College in Bronxville, where he majored in social work. “It took a bit of getting used to,” said Anthony, “but I met a lot of good people there and the spiritual aspect to the school was definitely the foundation for my success.” Anthony took several religion courses at Concordia and said they created a new “awakening” in him, moving him closer to God. He later received a graduate degree in social work from Fordham University.

Reaching the troubled youth of White Plains is, however, Anthony’s priority. White Plains Assistant Police Chief Anne Fitzsimmons, who has worked with him on the city’s nationally recognized Step Up Program, said he has done a remarkable job. “He goes out and speaks to these young people, gets them to be part of the program and makes sure they have what they need to succeed.”

Ms. Fitzsimmons said that Anthony’s contribution to the program has helped stabilize crime among the city’s youth. “Having someone who lived the life and realized there was a way out of it gives his work more credibility,” she said. “For these kids to see Anthony and know that he succeeded, that’s more important than anything.”

Anthony hopes that his own experiences might somehow impact both the lives of the young men who are desperately seeking help and the police officers who come in contact with them. “It’s all about building communication with these kids,” he said, “but it’s also about each group humanizing each other and having them come to a common ground.”

Anthony admits that his success would not be possible without the intervention of those who cared about him most. “The BOCES teachers took on the role of my father and mother and believed in me,” he said, “even when I was at my worst.”