Coach Me! Working with Cultural Differences to Create Successful Outcomes
Maximizing the Teen Court Experience for Youth Panel Members
1. Paula Rogers Huff
4-H Youth Development Agent
University of Wisconsin – Extension
Oconto County
2. Teen Court and Restorative Justice
Teen Court and the Essential Elements
Oconto County Teen Court Experience
3. A second chance for youth who have
committed a first offense, and admitted
guilt
Deferred prosecution agreement
Appear before a panel of their peers
Complete assigned sanctions
8. Seeks to repair harm…
To the victim, the respondent, and the
community.
9. Youth are held accountable for their
actions
Youth are given the opportunity to enhance
their skills
Youth are given the opportunity to form a
bond with the community
30. 0
3
6
9
12
15
Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor
NumberofParticipants
Working Together
Toward a Common Goal
Before Training After Training
31. Panel Members have increased
confidence in their decision-making
Panel Members create better sanctions
focused on needs of respondents
Increase in benefit to Respondents
32.
33. Maximizing the Teen Court Experience for
Youth Panel Members
Department of Youth Development website:
http://www.uwex.edu/ces/4h/department/publications/index.cfm
Editor's Notes
Think, Pair, Share Handout:
Restorative Justice helps respondents:
See how their actions affected others.
Take responsibility for their actions
Get the chance to repair the damage (directly or indirectly)
Fit into their community
Increase their level of knowledge or skill
Element Prompt Handout
Element handout table tent
Teen Court Pencils and Element table tent in manila envelope
Fact Sheet sample handouts
Flip charts and markers
Objectives:
Participants will identify and design ways in which to apply a Youth Development Framework to Teen Court
Participants will experience and evaluate one method of increasing an element in an existing Teen Court panel.
Alignment of the Oconto County Teen Court Program with the Critical Elements of Youth Development has provided opportunities to enhance the experience for youth panel members. Through group interaction and discussion, participants in this workshop will identify strategies to enhance the Teen Court experience for panelists, and examine potential outcomes of an enhanced program with regard to youth offenders, panel members, and the community.
As Extension educators, on-going evaluation and refinement of our programs is critical to our continued success. In an effort to enhance the Teen Court experience for panel members, I sought a framework that would address identified gaps, both for the panel members and the youth offenders. The framework that I used – the Critical Elements-- provided me with a new way of looking at the program, and created opportunities to enhance the program in a variety of unanticipated ways. In addition, for me personally, it has created a renewed enthusiasm in a long-standing program.
I am in the process of evaluating the portion of the program that deals with the element of Mastery. To address the panel’s need for an understanding of adolescents and risky behavior, current research materials were reviewed and synthesized. This material was then used as a basis for the preparation of a series of Fact Sheets, which are currently being used as the focus of mini-training sessions, and panel members have been evaluated as to their perceived effectiveness. Those results will be incorporated into the workshop.
Description:
An introspective analysis of a local Teen Court program showed that alignment with the Critical Elements of Youth Development could potentially maximize the experience for youth panel members. In this interactive workshop, participants will identify strategies to maximize the Teen Court experience and explore possibilities for increased community engagement.
In this session today we will be looking at Teen Court and ways in which to maximize the experience for the Teen Court panel members.….
First….an overview of the Teen Court process
Then looking at the teen court panel and how they experience can be enhanced for them,
And then sharing the Oconto experience.
Background info on teen courts….
What is Teen Court?
How does it work? Set-up and Deferred Prosecution
I. Restorative Justice
The Rationale Behind Teen Court
Why do we do Teen Court? Because it WORKS! 18% recidivism rates in Teen Courts across the nation; 66% in regular courts. 66 is from CJCA; 18 from Butts
Warning: Like comparing apples and oranges in many cases, so use these numbers with caution.
Most Teen Courts are strongly based on a framework called Restorative Justice. I’ll give you some background, and be thinking as I do that, of what might be contributing to the those low recidivism rates, in a teen court setting?
When a crime is committed or an ordinance is violated, there are negative consequences. Restorative Justice takes into account those who feel the negative impact of those consequences…
Victim
Community Offender
so it isn’t an adversarial process…it’s more of a facilitated mediation …
To all three parties that are harmed by the crime….
Not punishment, yet youth are held accountable for their actions….
Restorative Justice seeks to REPAIR HARM (not punish) and has three tenets:
Gives respondent the chance to repair the damage (either directly or indirectly). Take responsibility for their actions; see how their actions affected others.
Addresses the YOUTH and his or her needs Increase their level of knowledge or skill (examples include coping with family life, vocations skills, goal-setting, quitting smoking). Leave better than they came in.
Community Connnections so that he or she is less likely to offend again. Fit into their community
Explain how court works…
Youth have pled guilty and the panel is working with them. The youth panel are the ones who decide the sanctions. They listen to the facts of the case, explore the respondents needs and determine sanctions that fit inot the tenets of Restorative Justice. They carefully consider all parties and seek ways to repair the harm.
Here is a summary of how Restorative Justice repairs harm, and it is the handout at the top of your packet.
Now, keeping the goals of Restorative Justice in mind, I’d like you to take a moment to think to yourself about the following question. This is just to yourself….
From what you have just heard….what might be a couple of factors that would lead to success of youth repsondents.
Now, I’d like you to pair with the person next to you (threes are ok if you have an odd number) and share your thoughts.
What is one thing that you discussed? Another?
Ideas may include: positive peer pressure, a second chance, community support, idea that youth are in charge?
Most research that has been done has focused on the respondent to tc and how restorative justice and teen court benefits them. But from a youth development standpoint, there is another group that is potentially impacted by TC, and that is the panel members themselves.
So how can we as YD educators work to enhance that experience for Panel Members? How can we approach this opportunity and set the stage for a Positive Youth Development experience?
The framework of restorative justice is used for the respondent; but let’s look at a framework for panel members.
First, a quick look at the panel…
I chose the framework of the Essential Elements….which is based on the importance of
meeting the four basic human needs of belonging, generosity, independence, and mastery. Identified as a framework by the National 4-H Impact Assessment (2000).
They assessed the role of 8 critical elements in 4-H programming drawn from literature – pieces here and there; Kress adopted the essential elements from a book called Reclaiming youth at risk…. Studies indicate that youth whose needs are met in positive ways are likely to develop into active citizens and contributing members of their families and communities.
Three philosophies:
Positive Youth Development (this model focuses on environmental conditions)
Developmental Assets
America’s promise
PAAT
Elements
Prevention (elimination or reduction of future problems by focusing on risk factors)
A valuable guide in assessing community and individual problems
I would say that if you use prevention you would be well-served to tie it with asset-based programming.
Education/Life Skills
Builds competencies
Stanley Coopersmith observed 4 basic components of self-esteem:
Significance (acceptance and affection of others)
Competence (develops as one masters the environment)
Power (control ones’ behavior and gain respect of others)
Virtue (worthiness judged by values of one’s culture))
Many of you are familiar with the Essential Elements , there are 4 , the first of which is Belonging.
(Keep this general)
Part of a group, accepted, safe and valued…
Youth need to know they are cared about by
others and feel a sense of connection to others in group
settings.
Belonging – Kids feel welcome and know that they belong. They feel safe from physical and emotional harm.
Example of belonging in a group….name tags so that everyone knows each other’s names…
Independence –Independence– the chance to make decisions for themselves, assume leadership positions
By exercising independence through leadership opportunities, youth mature in self-discipline and responsibility and learn to better understand themselves.
Mastery – Youth have the opportunity to learn skills and gain knowledge…have opportunity to apply their skills and knowledge….explore ideas and activities related to their interests
Through the exploration of ideas and activities related to their interests, youth learn skills and participate in experiences that help
them make positive life choices for their future.
Generosity – the chance to value and practice service to others.
Meaningful community service that youth have chosen to do can have a profound effect on their lives.
Small group discussion: TC pencils, handout, and elements chart.
For the next few minutes, we will be working in table groups to explore the elements and how that framework might be applied to the Teen Court Panel MEMBERS. Each table will be assigned an element and I would like you to think about that element relative to the Teen Court Panel
At your tables, in your groups it is is likely that there is a wide variety of experience with Teen Courts… from staff who have experience in running teen court programs to those for whom this is the “first-time they’ve really thought about it”…..Ideal for a discussion like this because those differences expand our understanding and help us look at things in different ways and enhance our discussions…
Any questions before we get started? If you have any tc procedural questions, or need clarification, I will be floating amongst the tables.
SHARE
Many solutions, depends on the situation, etc.
Process (depending on time)….
The application of the elements to Teen Court
How did this fit for you ….applying an Essential Element to the Teen Court program?
What might be the benefit in using a Framework to enhance the experience for Teen Court Panel Members?
(consistency, a checklist, evaluation….)
How might you use this framework as a basis for evaluation?
Draw a comparison between Restorative Justice and Essential Elements…
Handout:
With the Teen Court Panel as your focus, what are some ways to incorporate the element of _________________________ into the design of Teen Court?
Choose one of the ideas that your group listed above. How might implementing the idea affect the Teen Court Panel members?
If you have time, consider how implementing your element idea for Teen Court panel members might in turn affect a Respondent?
To enhance the experience for Teen Court Panel Members:
What I saw when I observed the panel….asking questions was often difficult for the panel members, and the questions came right out of the manual. It was clear that the panel didn’t have purpose for the questions they asked.
Panel members related that they were unsure that they were doing any good. Seemed like they gave the same three sanctions to every person – questioned how that would help….
How can their capacity be increased…so that TC panel members can ask more effective questions…give them more of a base to draw upon. In looking at the needs of the panel, I used the Elements Framework, and this particular need fit under Mastery ….
Increase their capacity with regard to content (mastery)
Developed a series of Fact Sheets focused on typical offenses and the needs that we see in Teen Court. The Fact Sheets were designed to give youth a purpose in their questioning….
Bu using their knowledge, youth can ask targeted questions that help them learn more about the respondent and his or her needs. (Prevention Framework) using their behavior and risk factors as a key to understanding the whole youth.
The Fact Sheets provide a link between current research – what was going on with youth involved in specific crimes and what research told us might benefit individuals…
Wanted to provide enough information to panel members that they could ask purposeful questions, and create sanctions based on individual needs.
Increase their understanding…
Mini-training
And now, we are going to experience a mini-training similar to what the teen court panel members did prior to court.
Each table will have a different fact sheet, and I’d like you to discuss the questions. You can use the flip chart and markers, if you’d like. We’ll have your report out after the group discussion.
So the following charts are all self-reported…(6 months of data…discrete events but not individuals)
Be clear about how data was gathered!
21 panel members, non-discrete members but pulled if fact sheet was a repeat for them. The goal was to see how the panel perceived that the fact sheets impacted their ability to use knowledge to ask questions, work as a team, and develop effective sanctions.
Data is six months and 13 cases: January – June
Panel members’ perspectives…
((Here is another example of a Fact Sheet – this one dealing with Truancy – which is one of the most difficult areas in which to effect behavior change. Yet the current research gives us some clues as to which youth Teen Court may be able to help, and which need professional intervention.
___________
Educationally Disaffected
In general, this group of youth is of average or above average intelligence. Problems began after elementary school. The youth in this group who successfully reconnected with school usually had supportive families.
Unmet Special Needs
Youth in this group had special needs that either weren’t diagnosed or were not met. Special needs included emotional and behavioral difficulties, or learning disabilities.
Chaotic Lives
With these youth, problems generally begin early – sometimes even before elementary school. There may be issues like unresolved educational issues, family problems including alcoholism, violence, and neglect.))
So the following charts are all self-reported…(6 months of data…discrete events but not individuals)
Be clear about how data was gathered!
21 panel members, non-discrete members but pulled if fact sheet was a repeat for them. The goal was to see how the panel perceived that the fact sheets impacted their ability to use knowledge to ask questions, work as a team, and develop effective sanctions.
Data is six months and 13 cases: January – June
Panel members’ perspectives…
Coupled with their own perspective of the issue…
The Panel’s rating of …
Observer comments….
Panel Members’ perceived effectiveness at using their background to design sanctions to fit respondents and crime.
“We did GREAT tonight”….
Adding that level of compentence and understanding – the Mastery.
Let’s consider for a moment what the implications are of enhancing the element of mastery for the teen court panel. Increase in knowledge and understanding which led to more confidence in their decision-making…
This is just one of the elements – the one that raised a concern for me after the needs assessment but all elements are being considered in the design of the program.
Stepping back and assessing the Teen Court program gave me clear picture of ways to enhance the program, which is leading to a way to enhance outcomes for the panel members, the respondent, and ultimately the community. I’d like you to take a few minutes in your small group to discuss ways in which we might maximize the experience for the community…..
(Did anyone identify a framework?) How might the impact on the community be measured?
But that’s a topic for another day…..
Stepping back and assessing the Teen Court program gave me a clear picture of ways to enhance the program, which is leading to a way to enhance outcomes for the panel members, the respondent, and ultimately the community.
OR….I’m involved right now in leading a community engagement process in the city of Oconto, and we are looking for ways to partner with youth to enhance our community. Teen Court is the only program I work with where I turn youth away from the program. ….
For offender
For panel
For community….
If I make it better at one level, does it affect another level? Will the results magnify?
Looking forward, who are we impacting? What framework would we apply to increasing the capacity of the community?
