By donna.wiench@pdx.edu, April 20 2015
Responders to Reclaiming Futures’ eNewsletter readers’ survey say they want to read about Juvenile Justice, Youth Development, Family Engagement, Youth and Family Voice, Disproportionate Minority Contact, and the School to Prison Pipeline. Most responders to the Fall survey report working in juvenile justice or with teen behavioral health treatment organizations, and both the personal as well as professional passion for helping youth came through strongly.
A Restorative Justice worker in Columbus, OH wrote: “I have seen many young people turn their lives around and get on the right track. Sometimes all our youth need is for someone to take a few extra minutes with them to show them that they are valued, which is why I do this work.”
Parents also commented. From a Santa Rosa, CA woman: “I am a pediatrician and the mother of a teen with mental health issues who has been in the juvenile justice system. I’m Interested in breaking the school to prison pipeline.”
Words in a similar vein came from across the country in New Haven, CT: “As the mother of a son who was involved in the juvenile criminal justice system decades ago I see that although things have changed there is still much to do to keep young people from going to jail, and helping them to succeed when they get out. Reclaiming Futures plays such an important role in educating the public about how we can help young people stay out of jail and also on how they can be helped while incarcerated and when they are released.”
More than half the responses came from communities where there is not yet a Reclaiming Futures site. States with the most responders were Ohio, Washington and Florida. One Seattle, WA responder brought a particular harm affecting youth to our attention. She wrote: “I believe that there should be more of a connection between Reclaiming Futures and trafficked children.” We appreciate that this was mentioned and will consider ways to address this issue.
One of the unique strengths of Reclaiming Futures is the Learning Collaborative, which would likely benefit a writer from Lansing, MI, where there is no Reclaiming Futures site: “We have many challenges in working with our local juvenile justice system that becomes barriers for youth to receive quality treatment services. I am interested in learning how to overcome those challenges as well as sharing my experience with others.”
Another Midwesterner was the lucky one who won an Amazon gift card in the survey drawing. That went to Jim Moeser, Deputy Director, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families in Madison, WI.
Thank you to all who responded to the survey and who offer feedback to our eNewsletter, websites, Facebook and Twitter posts throughout the year. Your comments are valuable and help us focus the communications we offer.
Updated: April 20 2015