MTZ Charitable’s TRY program marks five years helping youth find a different path

Mt. Zion Baptist Church’s philanthropic arm, MTZ Charitable, is marking the fifth anniversary of its Transforming Our and Reaching Our Youth (TRY) program, a milestone that comes as organizers say the need to reach young people in the juvenile justice system is greater than ever. The program brings community volunteers into the Dane County Juvenile Detention Center, 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., on the second and fourth Sundays of each month to spend about an hour with youth discussing topics such as love, forgiveness, decision-making and vision, along with practical life skills. Since launching in 2021, the program has continued its work with detained youth, while organizers have observed an increase in the severity of offenses for which young people are being sentenced. Plans for the program originally started in 2016 after there was an uptick in kids stealing cars in Madison. Reverend Marcus Allen and his wife actually had their cars stolen from their garage on the same night, w