Every weekday morning, 32 teenagers file into a little building off SW Archer Road. Many of them wear ankle monitors as they make their way into school. 

Staff searches the students every morning when they arrive in the pale green lobby, a practice which student Ayajah Manuel said makes her feel safer when she arrives. Most of the students were referred by the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), but some were sent by the school district. All have some kind of disciplinary record, and AMIKids is geared to help teach them better behaviors while also catching them up in academics and skills training. 

“My favorite value is kids first. A lot of our kids have never been put first. We put them first every single day,” said Chad Cadwell, AMIKids’ director of development for programs. “We are surrounded by people who would literally give the shirt off their back for these kids… and some may not appreciate it until they’re gone.” 

AMIKids began in 1969, when a juvenile court judge in Fort Lauderdale got tired of seeing the same boys over and over again in court. He asked a friend at the Florida Atlantic Ocean Science Institute if he would be willing to put the boys to work aboard a research vessel. When those boys finished their time, the research director asked the judge to send more. 

As the project grew over the years, it became a non-profit organization called the Associated Marine Institutes (AMI). In 2009 the organization tagged “kids” onto the name to emphasize the core value of putting youth first. 

AMIKids now has 54 locations in multiple states, including the Gainesville location which opened in 1991 and has served 400 young people in the last five years alone. While marine education is still a component of the program, it has become much more than that. 

As part of the positive reinforcement and reward system, students earn their way through the ranks of freshman, sophomore, junior and senior by maintaining attendance and grades, along with making special presentations. AMIKids Gainesville has a 70% graduation rate, which usually takes about six months, according to Cadwell. 

Asia Hutchings has served as the general education teacher for AMIKids Gainesville since August. She said working with students at their own pace is a welcome change after leaving a position at a regular district school. 

Hutchings said when a student struggles on a test, she can walk back through the problems with them. She does not give them the answers, but she helps them break questions down into manageable parts, building their confidence as she shows them that they do know how to work it out. 

“It’s just me being consistent,” Hutchings said. “I tell them, ‘It’s my job to be an advocate for you. If you’d say to me, you don’t understand this, it’s my job to figure out a way for you to understand.’” 

She said empathy makes all the difference.  

“When they see you care, they start to come to school and say, ‘Miss Hutchings, can you help me?’” she said. “When some of the kids went up two grade levels, that just means they just needed someone to push them.” 

Hutchings’ job differs from that of a regular school teacher because she is the only instructor for all AMIKids Gainesville students—and she teaches all of their subjects. Her students are also a unique set. When they are frustrated, they lash out, sometimes calling her names. 

Hutchings said everyone has hard moments. She tells her students she will not judge them for theirs, and asks that they offer her grace when she is struggling. 

The students also have full access to a mental health therapist, Dani Dorn. She said most students who come from the DJJ system have had multiple encounters with law enforcement, and many need their traumas addressed before they can improve their behavior. Students’ behavior must be under control before they can get caught up in traditional education, she said. 

Dorn said students often arrive with shame and embarrassment to try to change their lifestyles, afraid they will lose who they are if they try and fail. She said physical incentives like those in AMIKids’ “token economy” allow them to feel success. By behaving well in each class period, students can earn points, with which they can eventually buy items ranging from a bag of chips to a television. 

“Along the way, as they continue to get those incentives, they also recognize [that], ‘As I’m getting these things, I’m starting to recognize what really changes around me: how I feel different, how the people around me treat me different, how I succeed more often because I’m able to make these behavioral changes,’” Dorn said. 

AMIKids teaches students 11 guiding principles: creativity, honesty, enthusiasm, integrity, loyalty, leadership, diversity, goal orientation, excellence, dedication and respect. 

Student Ayajah Manuel said her favorite principle is respect, but she has grown the most in integrity since she came to AMIKids. 

“I like for people to respect me as well as I’m respecting them,” Manuel said. 

Jasmin Hall, AMIKids Gainesville’s executive director, said the program itself does not get much respect or recognition in the community, often because people are unaware of its existence. She said she attended the city’s gun violence prevention summit in August and heard the community saying it needs a creative school with wraparound mental health care—all of which she said is already available at AMIKids. 

With its low name recognition, AMIKids Gainesville also struggles financially. It receives funding from the DJJ, Alachua County Public Schools (ACPS), the Department of Education (DOE) and the Department of Labor, but the funding barely covers the organization’s basic functions. 

The DOE determines how much funding it will provide AMIKids based on FTE (Full Time Enrollment) numbers, counted once a year. 

Hall said because the population of her school is constantly shifting, FTE numbers are often inaccurate. Four of her students were temporarily in a detention facility when the snapshot was taken this year. Although they are back now, the DOE’s funding for them is going to the detention facility. 

Most funding comes from the DJJ, but Hall said the government has reduced funding for AMIKids programs, which saw declining enrollment across the state while Gainesville numbers held steady.

AMIKids Gainesville’s budget this year was $1.3 million, but Hall said she started off the year in the negative and had to take a $54,000 loan from AMIKids corporate. 

Although part of Hall’s job should be to build support in the community and find grants, she said it is hard to find time to leave the building when the program is understaffed. With nine full-time employees, Hall said AMIKids Gainesville is still four staffers short of where it should be. 

The tight budget means all the students squeeze onto benches in a long classroom to listen from one teacher over all subjects. The equipment in the backyard recreational area is outdated and sparse, and therapist Dorn said she will soon have to leave the job that made her want to do counseling because AMIKids cannot afford to pay her enough. 

AMIKids serves students a hot breakfast and lunch every day, Hall said. Those meals come from ACPS, but Hall said they are often lacking and the nonprofit adds to them with groceries to fill out what may be the only meals the students have at all. 

“A lot of the times when people are looking at our kids, or they are being labeled as ‘bad kids,’ I don’t think it’s necessarily a ‘bad’ thing,” Hall said, referring to the importance of addressing basic physical needs before students can make academic or behavioral progress. “I think it is that they are dealing with issues at home, and they do not have the necessities that they should have and so that’s causing them to act out.” 

Because AMIKids maintains a nonprofit status, it can receive community donations, which Cadwell said are both welcome and needed. He cited key areas of need as follows: 

• AMIKids Gainesville currently has a $400 monthly budget for incentives, which Cadwell said leaves the program in a tight spot. While it can receive in-kind donations, AMIKids prefers monetary donations so staff can shop directly for what they know students need. In contrast, in-kind donations are welcome for the program’s “dress for success” closet of professional clothes. 

• Mental health services, staff incentives and education supplies and technologies are underfunded, and experiential education is entirely unfunded by government sources.
• AMIKids Gainesville is also looking for a sponsor for its monthly Saturday Fun Day events, which usually cost about $400.  

Some areas are eligible for dollar-for-dollar matches on donations larger than $10,000. AMIKids Gainesville also needs more members on its board of directors.

Community members interested in other ways to get involved can volunteer, such as bringing a group who can provide a meal for students. AMIKids also needs volunteers for its annual Challenge Event in February. 

The Challenge Event involves all AMIKids programs but is hosted at Camp Kulaqua in High Springs. That event, running Feb. 5-9, is a massive undertaking that gives AMIKids students the opportunity to compete and showcase their abilities in spelling, science, trivia and skills and more.

This story has been updated.