Blog: Positive Youth Development

Did you miss some of our blog posts last month? Not to worry - here's a round-up of the top 10 posts from September 2012.
10. Dismantling the Cradle to Prison Pipeline
A recent Children's Defense Fund report looks at the cradle-to-prison pipeline and offers ways to disrupt the cycle.
9. Phoenix House Uses the West Side Story Project to Disrupt the Cycle of Youth Violence
By connecting law enforcement agencies and troubled teens through the West Side Story, Phoenix House is interrupting the cycle of violence and distrust and encouraging positive youth development.
8. Pilot Juvenile Reentry Program in Illinois
Right on Crime's Jeanette Moll looks at a program in Illinois working to slash recidivism rates by targeting the underlying issues, whether related to substance abuse or family problems.

I met Amber at a tutoring program for inner city children. It was 1966, my senior year in high school, and the war on poverty was on, a war we’ve failed to win.
At nine years old Amber looked like a scarecrow, an old scarecrow at that, bird-picked, weather beaten. She was stick thin. None of her clothes fit, hand-me-downs from her sister Bunny who quickly outgrew her clothes while her younger sister didn’t seem to grow at all. Her eyes were dark circled; her hair, straw and falling out.
Saturday mornings she was one of the first kids through the church basement doors. My friends and I weren’t naïve. We knew that that gaggle of children who showed up each week wasn’t there for the mandatory hour of instruction. They put up with our drilling them on the timestables or helping them parse a paragraph. They were really there for the cookies and milk, and the tables spread with art supplies and games. It wasn’t until years later that I realized that they may have been just as eager for our attention, our reliability, and perhaps even our youthful faith in the future as for those treats.
I worked with Amber all that year. She didn’t progress much. But that didn’t seem to matter. She was always there. Besides, there was something else going on: I was being tutored in what poverty was really all about.

It is so important for young people to realize they have gifts.
The Reclaiming Futures site in Travis County, Texas is providing an opportunity for their young people to identify their gifts and express themselves through a nationally recognized program called Do the Write Thing Texas Challenge. The anti-violence and academic program provides middle school-aged youth the opportunity to think and write about the issues surrounding violence.
Students engage in thoughtful classroom discussions about violence -- its impact on their lives -- and solutions. Students then compose essay responses.  Community volunteers select a boy and girl with the most thought-provoking essays. National ambassadors, selected from the finalists, then have the opportunity to present their views on violence to national leaders like the Secretary of Education, the Secretary of the Interior, the Attorney General of the United States, the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and Members of Congress. The essays of the National Finalist Ambassadors are published annually and placed in the Library of Congress.

Juvenile Justice Reform

• Caseload Limits a Win for Public Defenders, Clients — and Justice (The Seattle Times)
  The order requires public defenders to certify that they meet certain standards, including caseload limits and experience qualifications. The new standards limit caseloads to 400 misdemeanors or 150 felonies or 250 juvenile cases per lawyer per year.
• Juvenile Hall Camp Alternatives Catch On (SF Gate)
  Camps and community-based programs that rely on group formats and help youths develop new skills and address personal challenges fare much better when it comes to reducing recidivism, studies show.
• DJJ Recognized as the Second Juvenile Justice System to Obtain Golden Eagle Award (SurfKY.com)
  The American Correctional Association (ACA) has presented its highest honor for commitment to excellence, the Golden Eagle Award, to the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (KYDJJ) for its work in achieving ACA accreditation in all of its facilities, the training academy, central office and community and mental health division.
• Federal Money to Help Illinois Change Troubling Youth Prison Statistic(WBEZ 91.5)
  Illinois Governor Pat Quinn's Juvenile Justice Commission says 50 to 60 percent of the kids released from youth prisons end up going back within three years. It’s a troubling statistic, but the state is now hoping to use federal money to change it.
• TJJD Doing Blanket Review of Youths in Facilities (The Texas Tribune)
  The Texas Juvenile Justice Department is in the process of reviewing the histories of all youths in its detention centers to better assess security risks in the facilities.
• Children's Defense Fund conference sparks Cleveland teens to action: Margaret Bernstein (Cleveland.com)
  At its conference this week, speakers ranging from poet Maya Angelou to Federal Reserve Board Chair Ben Bernanke have said the nation needs to do a better job of investing in young lives, not prisons.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) published a comprehensive guide, “Identifying Mental Health and Substance Use Problems of Children and Adolescents: A Guide for Child Service Organizations” to promote early identification of children and adolescents with mental health and substance use problems.
SAMSHA audited a variety of available tools for identifying substance abuse problems in youth, and created a matrix of the most useful tools. Many of these screening tools are free, and others are available for a nominal fee.
Geared toward personnel working in child-serving organizations and families of children and adolescents being served, the guide offers strategies and methods for identifying problems in high-risk youth. According to the guide,

Almost 21 percent of children and adolescents in the United States have a diagnosable mental health or addictive disorder that affects their ability to function.
In any given year, 5 percent to 9 percent of youths ages 9 to 17 have a serious emotional disturbance that causes substantial impairment in how they function at home, at school, or in the community.

While most children develop coping skills for these life disturbances, those who don’t often lack the resources needed to receive treatment. Via the guide,

I believe all young people can succeed.
The professionals, community members and other caring adults in Snohomish County, Washington agree.
Annie Mulligan and other generous artists in Snohomish County are mentoring young photographers through a program called Promising Artists in Recovery (PAIR), modeled after Reclaiming Futures. The PAIR program connects teens in the county's juvenile justice system with local artists. This powerful work introduces young people, like Ayrton Clements, to mentors along the road to success. Ayrton’s photography appears at right.
The second installment of this three-part series in was featured July 16, 2012 in The Herald of Everett, Wash.

A report released on National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day details the extent to which traumatic events impact children and young people involved in the juvenile justice system. In addition, the report points out the importance of children and teens developing close relationships with caring adults soon after entering the juvenile justice and child welfare systems.
"Promoting Recovery and Resilience for Children and Youth Involved in Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems,” examines the positive impact that the Children's Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Child Traumatic Stress Initiative (NCTSI) has had with children and youth by creating a “trauma-informed workforce.” Trauma-informed workplaces collaborate “to develop, implement, [and] evaluate effective trauma treatment and services. In addition, [they partner] with other community agencies to promote service delivery approaches so that trauma services are effectively implemented within local child-serving community service systems.”
Despite the fact that it’s possible for some young people to experience traumatic events and come out virtually unscathed, studies show that victimization can often lead to life changing consequences and result in a multitude of issues later in life. According to an NCTSN study, children and adolescents who have experienced traumatic events are at increased risk of being arrested in the future. In some cases, young adults who have experienced traumatic events are as much as five times more likely to go through the juvenile justice system.

A young woman in South Los Angeles is trading her violent past for a video camera in order to break the cycle of violence in her neighborhood.
When she was 12, Claudia Gómez lost her sister to a violent ex-boyfriend. Her grief became anger which led to violence and she hurt people. But everything changed when she became pregnant and had a daughter. She turned her life around and began working at FREE L.A. High, a charter school that educates students who've spent time in the correctional system. In addition to a traditional education, students at FREE L.A. High learn about social justice and community organizing. 
Now, Claudia is working with documentary filmmaker Jennifer Maytorena Taylor to film and produce thoughtful and honest interviews with former teen offenders about their lives.

From KQED's California Report:

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has created a new annual health initiative called National Prevention Week. This year’s event will span May 20-26, with the theme: “We are the ones. How are you taking action?”
SAMHSA’s mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities. This national observance celebrates the work that community organizations and individuals do year-round to prevent substance abuse and promote mental, emotional, and behavioral wellbeing, while serving as an opportunity for community members to learn more about behavioral health issues and get involved in prevention efforts throughout the year.
The event’s dates were strategically selected to coincide with the beginning of summer, a season filled with celebrations and recreational activities that can potentially be linked to substance use and abuse (such as graduation parties, proms, weddings, boating and camping excursions); it is also timed to allow schools to take part in a prevention-themed event before the school year ends, raising awareness in students of all ages.