Blog: Positive Youth Development

[The following post is reprinted with permission from the blog at the Pongo Teen Writing website. The author has recently posted "Writing from Kids in the Juvenile Justice System: In My Blood to Be a Drunk" and "Poetry as Treatment for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System" on this blog.  Photo by hojusaram. -Ed.]
 
Though Pongo is completely focused on the youth in the program, there have been a few surprising times when the teens have taken care of me. I appreciate it, but I also think it shows a talent in them.

I remember working with a young man in juvenile detention who was gang involved. He wrote about feeling forced to be a man, in the gang way, by carrying a gun on the streets and dealing drugs. He wrote about not knowing any other life. On a deeper level, he wrote about not having a dad, about struggles with loneliness.  He had been suspicious of the writing at first, and we talked for a long time before we began. But when we were done, as he was leaving, he turned to me and said, “It’s very nice of you, sir, to take your time to help young people.”

Once I was leading a poetry workshop with a large group of youth at the state psychiatric hospital. After a nice beginning, they wanted to move on from the writing activities that I had brought. They wanted to write on their own, about issues that were very much on their minds. They worked quietly. And as they finished I would call individuals forward to read. While each person read, the other youth would pause, listen, and applaud, and then continue with their own work. Though I rarely become emotional while working with kids, the writing in this session was so poignant, dealing with suicidal feelings, that I started to cry. The group was calm and quiet, and one teen walked to the back of the room to get me a box of tissues. And we carried on.

Juvenile Justice System News

• Chicago Public Radio's excellent series, Inside and Out, recently covered racial disparities in the Illinois juvenile justice system, and explored them in a live community forum. 
• In an editorial, The New York Times urges support for bills in Congress that would create a blue-ribbon commission on fixing the criminal justice system. Among other items on the fix-it list: incarcerating nonviolent offenders. 
• Federal funding for at-risk youth from ... the National Endowment for the Arts? Yes! In partnership with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the NEA 's Shakespeare for a New Generation program will fund six theatre companies to provide educational activities and performances to youth in the juvenile justice system. 

[The following post is about the Changing Lives Through Literature (CLTL) program. It originally appeared in different form on the CLTL Blog, Changing Lives, Changing Minds, and is reposted here with the permission of the author and the publisher. You can learn more about Bristol County, Massachusetts’ experience with the program here. -Ed.]
 
Recently, I had the chance to interview Michael Habib, who facilitates the Changing Lives Through Literature (CLTL) program for teens in Fall River, MA. Because I volunteer with young offenders in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, I wanted his advice on a few questions:

• What tips do you have for other juvenile reading programs?
• How do you get kids to open up?
• What do you do when they don’t do their assigned work?

There's plenty of chances to apply for funding for juvenile justice system work coming out of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) these days. Recently, OJJDP has announced monies for juvenile reentry, as well as grants to support existing juvenile mentoring programs at the community level; national-level support for mentoring for underserved populations; and support for multi-state regional mentoring programs.
Now, here's five (count 'em, five) more grants from OJJDP (and yes, two of them have to do with mentoring):

• Engaging Law Enforcement to Reduce Juvenile Crime, Victimization, and Delinquency (ddl May 19, 2010)
• Juvenile Drug Courts Mentoring and Support Services Initiative (ddl May 19, 2010)
• Mentoring Research Best Practices (ddl May 20, 2010)
• Support for Conferences on Juvenile Justice (ddl May 17, 2010)
• Youth Gang Prevention and Intervention Program (ddl May 20, 2010)

[The following post is reprinted with permission from the blog at the Pongo Teen Writing website. The author has recently posted "Poetry as Treatment for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System" and "I Feel Like Weights Have Been Lifted" on this blog. Photo by Olivander. -Ed.]
 
 
At 10 years old, the girl was always home alone while her parents were out doing drugs. I asked if she was scared at the time. No, not for herself. She was worried about her parents. Now, at age 13 and in juvenile detention, the girl has been smoking bud and doing things she isn’t supposed to do. She wants her parents to worry about her for a change. She writes about her parents: “They’re the only people who will be there.” But her poem is titled “When Nobody Was There.”

Pongo’s teen authors will often write about drug and alcohol abuse. They give multiple and contradictory reasons for their involvement. For me, as a poet working with the youth, one of the toughest knots to unravel is the role of family. Substance abuse often seems like a response to emptiness at home and also a confirmation of family connection, however flawed. Teens seem to be filling an emotional void with drugs and alcohol, but also emulating someone they love. And parents sometimes give their children drugs and alcohol, playing an active role in both distancing and dependence. Family is very important.

Here are three teen poems from this year’s Pongo project in juvenile detention, that describe substance abuse in the context of family.

[The author is a young person (pictured below) who benefited from the Reclaiming Futures initiative at our site in Montgomery County, Ohio. The site has recruited over 190 "natural helpers" from the community for teens in the juvenile justice system. - Ed.]
Being in the natural helper program saved my life! I never imagined that when I was placed on probation that I would be linked to people who truly cared about me, let alone my future. 
 
My first probation officer suggested that I participate in the drug court program because I had a problem with smoking weed. I used to get high all of the time, and I started to mess up. You know like, getting in trouble with the police, getting into it with family, and skipping school. Headed for destruction, so to say. 
 
So when I got into the drug court program, they told me about a mentoring program called natural helpers. I had never had a mentor before, and honestly I didn’t know what to expect. Would this be another person to tell me what to do or how to do it? I decided to sign up, thinking, "What do I have to lose? If I don't like it, I'll just blow it off. Easy." Boy was I wrong. 

[The following post is reprinted with permission from the Pongo Teen Writing website. The author published "Poetry as Treatment for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System" on this blog in December. -Ed.]
 
For the past four years, Pongo has surveyed its writers. I want to share the latest results because of what they reveal about distressed teens – their enthusiasm for art and for change, and also their insight into their own lives and their appreciation for those who care. (And I want to share the latest results because I believe in the Pongo method, and I want you to try it! Please read our web site and get in touch.)

Let me explain right away that every teen who works with Pongo in a one-on-one session completes a survey, unless we run out of time. The survey-takers are not a self-selected group. Also, when we choose youth to participate in a one-on-one session we give priority to teens who have never written before and who may be having a difficult time that day. (About one-third of Pongo writers are pretty new to writing, about one-third write a lot.)

As you probably know, the teens currently participating in Pongo are either in juvenile detention or the state psychiatric hospital for children. Many have suffered greatly in their childhoods. They have good reason to be angry, withholding, and mistrustful.

Here are the results of surveys collected last year from 100 different individuals:

Poetry can heal traumatized youth. It also creates a community of openness, connectedness, and strength, which helps treatment providers. Poetry particularly serves teens who have a hard time expressing themselves. Here is a poem by Payton (pseudonym), a first-time writer in juvenile detention:
I am 15 and I am lost don't know
what to do.  lost because I get no love.
lost because I messed up my life.
lost because my dad left for some
women.  lost because I got caught
up in gangs.  lost because I lost
real friends my family.  lost
because I screwed my life
up.  lost because I lost
respect and trust.  lost
because I am a kleptomaniac.
lost because I don't show enough
love or respect to peers or elders.
lost because I am always in detention.
lost because I got nowhere to hide.
lost because I got no guardians.

Last week, I featured our top 10 stories on juvenile justice and adolescent substance abuse treatment and 8 great resources to improve adolescent substance abuse treatment.
This week, I'm highlighting posts from our first year to help you focus on creative ways to help teens in the justice system and in recovery learn skills that will help them live crime-free and drug-free lives.
Here's 11 things you can do with teens in your justice system: