one week to go

As the semester winds down, there is not much new going on within my role in the agency. I am still leading groups, assisting the youth in the educational piece of the day program and visiting the adolescent I have been assigned for my case managment.

Monday I led group with the boys. We discussed ways in which they can better prepare themselves to become productive young adults

Tues. we continued the conversation and discussed Jay-Z, a promanent rapper who has worked hard and made it big in the industry.

Wed. I visited my student in his school. I then went to the agency and since I was to late to work with the kids in group, assisted one of the other interns in the computer lab.

Practice/micro: How have you experienced successful endings? What do you already do now to help your clients experience successful endings?

As we end this semester, I have been talking with the kids in the day program about how I will be leaving in a couple of days. Not surprisingly, the girls are a little more sensitive to the ending of the semester. They ask me questions about what I am going to do this summer, how I have liked my time at the agency, things like that. I have also provided them feedback that I have learned a lot from them and the conversations we have had. I have told them as well that the time spent over the last 15 weeks has been beneficial in my development as a person, and I appreciate their willingness to let me in and discuss issues they face on a regular basis.

Time:
Week: 16
Total: 229.5

Just another week

As the semester continues to roll on, the bulk of my work has been in the Day Program there at T.A.S. Last week did not produce much in the way of new activities.

Monday I was at the agency working with the kids in the day program. I co-led group with both the boys and the girls. As we continue to dialog with the kids in group time, I am continually amazed with the lack of respect they have for themselves. I am begining to wonder if the lack of respect comes from being desensitized within not only the community they live in, but also society as a whole. It seems as if the discussions about violence and shootings does not seems to bother them. They see people shot in their neighborhoods and see shooting on t.v., movies, and video games, and I wondering if they have continued to see this behavior as acceptable.

Tuesday I stopped in to see the kid that I have been working with within my case management. I did a questionnaire with him which helps to better understand what kind of treatment plan will work for him. This is a child who has been in services with one of the Therapist, so it was a good tool to reevaluate where he is at, what what may help him continue to improve his behavior.

Wed. i was at the agency again. I led goup discussion with only the boys. It did not go so well. They were more interested in talking about what was going on in the neighborhood than the topic at hand for the group. It is kind of hard for the kids to focus on because they are in group 4 days a week. After time, i think they just decide they don't need to discuss things that indepth any more.

Juvenile Structured Day Programs

The place in which I am doing my practicum is considered a Juvenile Structured Day Program (JSDP). Douglas Yearwood and Jibril Abdum-Muhaymin (2007) say this of JSDP's, "Structured day programs are designed to offer education to expelled and suspended youth and are sanctioned by the courts. These programs are part of a community corrections and juvenile rehabilitative effort" (p. 49). The two authors did a study on JSDP's in the state of North Carolina to see the effectiveness of the programs. What they found is that of the programs that responded, 1,803 suspended or expelled students attended the programs in 2001. Of those attending the programs, "521, or 28.9%, were reported to have no further contact with the juvenile courts after leavening the program. At least 200 of these students, or 11.1%, were reported to have had no further truancy incidents, and at least 477, or 26.5% , of the JSDP students reportedly improved in their school attendance" (p. 51). While this may not seem to be an outrageous amount of productivity among these students, those who have been helped in those programs have made a difference. Within the agency I have been at, it is incredible to see the change in some of the students I have been working with over the course of the semester. Within this program, the students have been given a safe place to learn and catch up academically to where they need to be. Have I seen drastic improvement in every teenager that has walked through the doors here at T.A.S.? No, but I have seen improvement in at least three or four kids and I know that this program will make a difference in those kids lives.

Source:
Abdum-Muhaymin, J. & Yearwood, D. (2007). Juvenile structured day programs for suspended and expelled youth: An evaluation of process and impact. Preventing School Failure, 51(4), 47-61. Retrieved April 14, 2008, from Academic Search Premiere.

Week 13

This past week at my practicum there was not a whole lot new the went on, but it went well in way of interating with the kids here in the program.



Monday - Monday in group we had a good conversation with the boys about some the media they see and how it pertains to their lives. The conversation started because of the movies they were talking about. All the movies portrayed some sort of illegal activity, everything from drug dealing/using to killing people. As we talked we also started talking about the music they listened to and what was portrayed in it. We had them print off the lyircs to their favorite song and we disected the lyrics. One particular song we focused on quite a bit. Within two verses of the rap song there were 41 different uses of racial and sexually durogatory slurs. We discussed how these types of lyrics only instilled more racial setbacks due to the sevarity of the lyrics.



Tuesday - Tuesday was kind of a short day because I left early to attend Phi Alpha National Honors society in which I was inducted into.



Wednesday - Wed. was a good day in the I was able to spend most of the afternoon with the kids in the computer lab. There were a few directional questions that the main facilitator of the day program wanted to get across to the kids, so he had me stay in with the kids on the computer lab. I was able to get quite a bit of work done on one of the free computers.

Values & Ethics/micro or macro: Describe an ethical issue, concern or dilemma you experienced in the field. How was it resolved?

One of the ethical issues I have faced here in the agency has been with an African American boy who seems to be oppositional towards me. It seems as if he does not recognize my leadership within the agency so he tests his limits to what he can do. This has made me wonder if the issue he has with me is racial or if he does not respect the authority I posess within the day program. I have not been able to resolve this as of yet.

Weekly hours: 12.5
Total hours for the semester: 196.5