Ex-football player scores for juveniles
by Jennifer Pellant, Outpost contributor
As a professional football player, his build kept the defense at bay. Now that physique captures the attention of Reno's at-risk youth long enough for Kelly to spread the message to stay away from street crime.
"Otto is the embodiment of strength physically, intellectually and spiritually," said Family Court Judge Scott Jordan, who works with Kelly on juvenile court cases. "And when those qualities come together, as they do in Otto, miracles can happen."
For Kelly, miracles started in 1980 when he accepted a full-ride scholarship from UNR as Wolfpack running back while studying human ecology. Drafted in 1984 by the Kansas City Chiefs, Kelly leaped into his pro-football career, a dream he held since he was 8. While playing for the Chiefs, Kelly contracted a shoulder injury and was cut after a year and a half. He was then recruited by the Philadelphia Eagles and played for a year until he was cut again and decided to return to Reno.
In 1988, Kelly started the job he still enjoys today. As a family counselor and laison for Washoe County Juvenile Services, young people and their families are referred to Kelly through the Juvenile Justice Department, Fourth Street Youth Center, the Reno Police Department and the Children's Cabinet.
At his neighborhood intervention office on Sullivan Street in Sparks, Kelly oversees an after-school program, a mentoring program and a dozen other activities and resources including computers and sports.
Kelly's office is one of three similar neighborhood centers in Reno providing an alternative for at-risk youth. The Sullivan Street center also offers family counseling and a foster grandparent program.
"There's something about pouring your life into youngsters and then watching as the light comes on," said Kelly, whose passion is to reach at-risk youth before they turn to the streets.
In most cases, Kelly does a needs assessment and then begins to work with those youth considered at risk because of gang involvement. Kelly spends a lot of time with young people and, when possible, the entire family.
Discovering a young person's dream and helping that young person believe in himself is one way Kelly turns youth away from the streets. Kelly also takes practical intervention steps to make the dream happen.
It's youth like Jerome Wright, who was 15 when Kelly began working with him, who have made Kelly's 11- year career so rewarding.
In and out of juvenile hall for four years, Wright found his identity as a gang member, pushing drugs and involved in shootings. After meeting with Kelly for two years, the lights began to turn on and Wright decided to get out of gang life.
Kelly linked Wright with local successful African-Americans who took time to mentor the youth in business, giving him another alternative to gang life. Wright went to college at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and Georgia Law School, opening the door to his current job as an NAACP lawyer in Georgia.
"There's been a lot of success," Kelly said.
But not all of Kelly's cases turn out as a success story. Kelly has had his share of heartache, too.
Over 11 years, Kelly has been to 10 funerals of youth no older than 17.
"Going to a funeral is the worst," Kelly said. "You get emotionally attached to people. To love on people and then hear that phone call at 2 a.m. in the morning that they've been wasted, arrested or paralyzed. It's rough."
Kelly recalls a fatal incident that happened in the family of one young man who had been out of gang activity for almost three years. While driving in Reno with his wife and two kids, a rival gang member from years past shot at the young man's family and killed their baby.
"I thought, I can't do this," Kelly said. "Going to that funeral and dealing with the reality that his kid died as a direct result of his life and gangs, and having to talk with him and not knowing what to say," was almost enough to make him call it quits, said Kelly. But as Kelly explained, he feels indebted to the Silver State and works hard to make a difference with at-risk youth.
"I have a loyalty to the state of Nevada," Kelly said.
Kelly moved to Las Vegas from Detroit when he was 13, a move prompted by his father's professional singing career. It was in the Silver State that Kelly began to excel athletically, which kept him on a path he believes charted his journey on a straight course.
"If I would have stayed in Detroit, I wouldn't have been productive," said Kelly. "The neighborhood we lived in was poor Italian, African American, Puerto Rican," Kelly said. "You had to defend your neighborhood. It was required for living there. You didn't have a choice. If others came over and caused problems, you were expected to defend it because that was how it had been done for years."
Kelly learned a lot about loyalty from his childhood neighborhood. Now, Kelly is guided by a similar sense of ownership to help find solutions for Nevada's youth.
For five years, Kelly has been a subcommittee chair on juvenile matters for the Supreme Court Task Force that studies racial and economic bias in the justice system.
This year, Kelly helped start a Men's Professional Organization for African-Americans. The group's primary goal is to re-instill family values in African American youth. Kelly said his membership with the NAACP and the Northern Nevada African-American Culture Awareness group reveals his desire to see Reno become culturally aware.
Eight years ago, one door was opened to greater racial understanding when Kelly was called to a racially motivated shooting in northeast Reno. A 16-year-old skinhead had killed a 23-year-old African-American man. Kelly, who oversees all gang activity, was called in as the mediator. When the young person realized he didn't have the security of his friends, he was scared to death and literally started to weep.
Kelly said it was one of the bigger success stories for him.
"In my flesh, I wanted to rip him apart," Kelly said. "But once I got there I prayed. I know his life was forever changed," Kelly said. "This person was a bigger victim of racism than I was. His hatred brought him behind bars and it melted both of us."
Kelly's dream is to eventually have services for all the undesirable youth in the area. Kelly believes this dream can be accomplished by developing a volunteer group to provide relationships with youth who are leaning toward the gritty side of street life.
In his spare time, Kelly develops his musical talents and concentrates on his education.
"Music has always been a passion for me," said Kelly, who started playing drums as a teenager. Now, as the choir director for the 40-member choir at University Family Fellowship in Sparks, Kelly continues to develop his passion for music and express his faith in the process.
Kelly is finishing his degree in Human Ecology at UNR and plans to pursue a master's in sociology to help him in his work with young people. You may also see him spending time with UNR athletes on the sidelines or behind closed doors in Bible studies.
Posted Aug. 26,
1999
Copyright 1999, Nevada Outpost
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