Everyday Champion: Carlos Trincado

This story is a part of our Everyday Champions series. Helping youth succeed takes commitment and action from our whole community. Everyday Champions are people who are committed and who act in small and big ways to support youth in central Indiana. Do you know someone who you think would make a great Champion for Youth? Click here to get started.

As an IMPD Officer, Carlos Trincado began to see a need in the community. Schools needed additional help dealing with behavioral and low-school performance issues. And students needed extra help with academics and finding outlets to reduce stress. So Officer Trincado developed B.R.I.D.G.E. (Behavior, Responsibility, Integrity, Discipline, Guidance, Education). The program is one of the only support and prevention approaches of its kind in the metropolitan Indianapolis area.

During each nine-week session, students meet three times a week for academic tutoring, physical activity and speaker presentations for students. Additionally, there’s a weekly parents group and two-hour spiritual growth session for the whole family, which includes a class for parents in parental skills. With this, B.R.I.D.G.E. participants can develop lifelong wellness habits.

The program operates at NO COST to families. Teachers and staff members are volunteers.

What is your profession or vocation?
Police Officer

How are you an Everyday Champion for Youth?
I worked very close with public schools and teen students, assisting the school system and parents with their children. As the Latino affairs officer for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, I try to be a role model for young students; I focus a good portion of my time with the Latino youth at-risk.

I developed a teen crime prevention program over a year ago. I meet with the students three times per week and I meet with their parents one day per week as well. We work with the students to instill a sense of pride and accomplishment by teaching them a series of good values. Through every contact with the children in the schools or the street, I yearn to be a positive experience for the youth.

What impact do you hope to make on youth?
The impact I hope to have on the children, regardless of what the choices in their lives may be, is to remember to be responsible, positive, trustworthy and serious about it and honest with others and with themselves. I wish that some of them will be inspired to follow my steps in what I do in my professional life.

What’s the one thing that you wish an adult had told you when you were a young person?
Relationships in life are the most important things and should be the focus. Nothing else will fulfill a human being as much as the relationships we develop with other people. Accomplishment in life is measure by the true relationships you can build—family, friends and neighbors. A relationship is what makes you a reach person, not the money you make.

What do you want to do next to support youth?
I would like to expand B.R.I.D.G.E. teen crime prevention program throughout all Marion county schools. This is a children support project and parent-oriented program. I know it can benefit students, parents, school systems and the neighborhoods were we live. Teens and their parents can start building relationships with role models for the youth, and the community can be involved in meaningful relationships with children.