Rock N Roll Meeting Notes

Rock ‘n Roll Meeting Minutes
January 24, 2002

Attendees:  Mel Thom (parent), Jim Borte (CC Sheriff’s Dept.), Michelle Maike (Praxis Research), Dori Goin (Diversified Resources), Sylvia Moon (Evergreen Family Village), Glenn Goldberg (GUTS), Jody Moss (PDRC), Kim Kettel (Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe), Khia Donahue (youth), Jim Martin (Diversified Resources), Dave Fluke & Jody Jacobsen, (Juvenile Services).

Presentation: 

Due to a lack of communication with the school district, Michelle Maike, evaluator for the Safe & Drug Free Schools program, graciously filled in and provided information on the Behavior Intervention Specialist services provided by local schools. 

Behavior Interventionists are provided for youth in grades K-8th.  Interventions work with identified children who are victims or at-risk of becoming victims of violence.  The programs have done a fabulous job locally and have made a tremendous difference in the kids themselves, the classrooms and the families of the participating children.  They found increased academic performance for the participating youth and subsequently the entire classroom performed better. 

The grant-funded program has served over 2000 kids in 2000-01 school year and is in it’s last year at the schools, although some schools will be able to fund the program and run services on a limited basis.  Crescent School will be able to keep their combine Behavior Intervention Specialist/Mental Health person 2 days a week with other funding.  Port Angeles School District is probably going to be able to keep the services in the two middle schools but they will be scaled back. 

As for mental health services, there is a specialist assigned to each district to work with youth K-12.  You can contact your local school district office to find out who the mental health specialist is in your district.  You can also contact Bob Kreiger at Peninsula Community Mental Health Center at #457-0431 or at the Children’s Center at #452-2595.  The Port Angeles High School has a mental health specialist on site who works with youth both individually and in group sessions.  Choice, the Alternative School does see a significant need for a mental health specialist/counselor however they do not have access to the specialist provided to the high school. 

The Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) program is currently funded through the next school year, 2002-2003.  Services are being provided to local school districts at least through that time.

If you would like more information about these services, please contact Michelle Maike directly at #457-9766.

Announcements:

Glenn Goldberg, Director/Founder of GUTS (Gifts Unlimited Teen Seminars) was awarded a grant and is eager to work with local agencies at replicating GUTS around the country. 

GUTS is an intensive four day seminar with teenagers and includes experiential learning, team building, music and fun to help youth realize their self worth.  Originally conducted at Juvenile Services, follow up reports showed that the recidivism rate of clients who participated in GUTS was about half that of the control group of you who did not participate in the seminar.   The School of Social Work also did an evaluation that showed a significant increase in self esteem with youth after the seminar. 

The GUTS Institute:  Paying for the seminar has always been a barrier to participation.  With the assistance of the foundation grant funds, rather than teaching the seminars himself, Glenn will be able to train willing participants and transfer the program to agencies in the community, enabling them to provide the seminars to more youth throughout the county at a substantial savings to the participants. 

The GUTS Institute training will run for nine days, May 16-24th, 2002.  The first five days of the training will be teaching the trainers how to run the seminars.  The last four days will include hands on experience of running a four day seminar with 20 youth.  Each participating agency is providing a male/female co-facilitator team.  The two-team participants will be coming from five agencies:  Sunshine & Rainbows (Forks), Holy Trinity Church (PA), Jefferson County Juvenile Court (Jeff.Co.), and Tempest (PA).  The Sequim Community School had been invited but have not confirmed and the Sequim Boys & Girls Club may participate instead. 

The foundation funding will allow for 20 kids to participate in the four day seminar and staff will be trained to carry it on. People who do the training commit to hosting one GUTS seminar within four months of participating in the training.  Lynn Keenan is going to be the project evaluator.  They will be tracking attendance, grades, recidivism, abstinence/relapse with regard to drug/alcohol use, self esteem, and creation of subsequent attachments.  Training will include Portable Ropes and 12 aftercare sessions for the kids.  The trainers will receive several special gifts and tools as part of their participation.  If you are interested in participating as a trainer, you may have an opportunity if an agency is not able to keep their commitment.  Looking for diversity in the team trainers. 

If you know of a teen who is at a cross-roads in their life, please consider contacting Glenn for a referral to participate in the seminar.  Participants will include a mixture of kids, some high risk kids, some well functioning youth with self esteem issues and some in the middle.  Youth must be of high school age. 

In the future, Glenn plans on conducting further GUTS Institute training’s around the nation.  Local programs would be coordinated by locally trained teams but the Institute would still be available a couple of times a year in Clallam County.

New website!!!  Check out GUTS new website at:  www.gutsforteens.org.  For referrals or more information, please email Glenn at guts@tenforward.com or call #457-0745.

Project Updates

·         Mentoring:  New volunteer training scheduled for January 30th, 2002, 3:30-6:00 PM at Juvenile Services.  We need volunteers so if you know of anyone, please have them call #417-2282 Ext. 240 for more information. 

·         Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is also formalizing a mentoring program through the tribe.  They currently have nine tribal youth paired with mentors and are able to coordinate up to 15 pairs.  DASA will be hosting a training for their mentors on February 21st, 2002. 

·         Mediation:  PDRC awarded a small grant and are now ready to take on Parent-Teen Mediation referrals.  Seven teens have been trained and have entered the practicum.  The contract between Juvenile Service and PDRC is now on a month-to-month basis due to looming state budget reductions.  Currently using the teens in the Victim-Offender mediations and they are doing great!

·         Restitution Fund:  4-H coordinates work group meeting at Tempest Youth Center every Monday and Wednesday from 3-6 PM.  As of November, 9 youth have paid 10 victims a total of $876.94 in restitution monies.  The contract between Juvenile Services and WSU 4-H is also on a month-to-month basis due to potential state budget cuts.

·         Teen Court:  Teen volunteers hearing first time offender cases two nights per month. Since April, we have had 32 youth go through Teen Court, only 3 have re-offended, resulting in 10% recidivism rate.  27 Exit hearings have been held with all but one case having successfully completed diversion.

Upcoming Events

            Become a Mentor, volunteer mentor training for work with at-risk youth under Juvenile Court supervision.  Wednesday, January 30th, 2002, 3:30-6:00 PM, Juvenile & Family Services.  Call #3417-2282 Ext. 240 for more information.

Parenting Matters Foundation 3rd Annual Benefit Luncheon:  Saturday, February 2nd.  Guest speaker Scott Beers from Talaris Research Institute will be discussing “Inside the Child’s Mind:  Lessons from Brain Research”.  The cost is $25.00 (plus a children’s book).  For more information please log on to:  www.parentingmatters.org/events or call #681-2250. 

Peninsula Dispute Resolution Center is hosting several in-service training’s listed below and are open to the general public.  For more information, please call #452-8024.

·         How Gender Impacts the Mediation Process, February 6th, 5:30-7:30 PM, Peninsula College, Room K-4.  Presenter:  Nancy Lynn Newman

·         Family Dynamics:  For Family, Parent/Teen and Restorative Justice Mediators.  February 25th, 6-8 PM, Sequim Library.  Presenter:  Diana Hornbogen, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

·         Restorative Justice Refesher, March 5th, 4:30-7:30 PM, Port Angeles Library. 

“Taking A Stand with the Truth”, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (The Insider).  Friday, February 8th, 2002, 9:00 – 3:00 PM, Gig Harbor.  $25.00 per person, lunch included. 

Deadline: February 1st.  Call (253) 853-7954 or (800) 550-4609 for registration information. 

“Parenting with Love and Laughter”, Judy Ford, best selling author and inspiration speaker.  Friday, March 1st, 2002, 7:00 PM.  Tickets $5.00, available through Juvenile Services or Prevention Works! (#417-2384). 

“Collaborating for Student Success”, hosted by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Ocean Shores, March 11th – 13th, 2002.  For more information please call April Wrigth at (360) 725-6049 or email:  awright@ospi.wednet.edu. 

7th Annual National Prevention Symposium - Empowering Our Youth To Thrive in Uncertain Times.  Seattle, July 31st - August 2nd.  Look for more information soon at:  www.chef.org, or call/email Debbie Pitcock Crawley at #1-800-323-2433 x 129, dpc@chef.org.

Next Meeting:  Thursday, February 28, 2002, 4:00-5:00 PM
Juvenile Services
Port Angeles, WA 98362
Guest Presenters
Cherie Reeves
& Rob Thomas
Family Planning of Clallam County will present information on Teen Services

Minutes and Agendas can be viewed on the web at:  www.preventionworkscc.org/rocknroll.htm

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