Director of Probation Services Amy Miller is retiring, but her heart will always be in juvenile justice
By James Bateman, TJJD Probation Services
Amy Miller began her career with the agency in 2002 as a case manager at the Corsicana Residential Treatment Center working with female offenders with mental health needs.
As the saying goes, cream often rises to the top and it didn't take long for administrators to recognize her talent. She was quickly promoted to a program administrator position in 2004. During this time, Amy celebrated what she now reflects on as one of her proudest career accomplishments: She created a program specifically designed for youth with intellectual disabilities.
Tapping into her years of experience with the Mexia State Supported Living Center, where she served for 10 years before joining the then-Texas Youth Commission, she and her staff developed a program focused on both behavior analysis and behavior shaping. Everyone received additional training beyond what was required by the agency. “This dorm transformed into their home. It became a safe place that they shared with other youth with similar needs and where they ultimately thrived, the true definition of community,” Miller said.
Over the next several years, she served as Mental Health and Rehabilitation Services Supervisor and Assessment and Placement Coordinator. Miller can also be credited with assisting in the creation of the youthful offender program at McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility, at Mart, assisting the Corsicana center in achieving a 96% score on their first ACA accreditation audit, and revamping the state’s intake process to include the first use of the PACT assessment.
Miller left the agency for a short time, only to realize that her heart remained in juvenile justice. She returned in September 2016 as the Special Grants Coordinator for Probation Services, becoming the first ever grants manager. In October 2018, she accepted what would become her final position with the agency, Director of Probation Services.
During her time in this leadership role Miller says, “I have worked really hard to grow a division that can better support our county partners. I knew how very important it was for our Chiefs to have front door access to our agency, and that has remained the focus of the regionalization team today.”
“I am also proud of restructuring the JJAEP team to be more sustainable, revamping title 4E to be more effective and probably, most importantly, building a collaboration with our chiefs centered around a mutual trust,” she said.
“From the beginning, the probation chiefs have embraced me as one of their own, taught me about the probation system, and valued my expertise in both juvenile services and granting. They are varied in philosophy, resources, and approach, but united in their mission to make communities safer and help the kids sent their way. I’m humbled and grateful to have worked with them in support of that mission over the past seven years.”
Miller also praised her TJJD team. Working with and for Lou Serrano, Deputy Executive Director of Probation, Reentry and Community Services, “has been the highlight of my long career,” she said.
“I’ve been privileged to work with many amazing professionals and have had some incredible mentors in my 31 years of public service, most of which are still my friends today. Among them all, Lou has been the best mentor, colleague, and friend. I’m so very proud of the team Lou and I created in Probation Services. Every member of the team brings strong skills and expertise to their role, and more than that, incredible passion, and energy for probation services in Texas. I consider my time working with this team, and with the probation departments across Texas, the pinnacle of my career, and I am glad to retire knowing the system is in good hands.”
Amy Miller’s work has not gone under the radar. TJJD Executive Director Shandra Carter lauded Miller for her “instrumental role” in unifying the juvenile justice system and ensuring counties have the support they need.
“While we will greatly miss her passion for this work, we're also grateful for the time she's invested in building up and mentoring her team so they can take up the probation services gauntlet. They have big shoes to fill, but Amy prepared them well. We're excited to see what they accomplish next for and with the field,” Carter said.
Ashley Kintzer, who has been named Interim Director of Probation Services, said Miller has been her mentor and friend for many years.
“She is an incredible human with integrity and wisdom. As my supervisor, she was my rock. She was the person who always got me what I needed so I could do my best work. I appreciate her so much and always will,” Kintzer said.
Here are some tributes from County Juvenile Probation Chiefs who’ve worked with Amy Miller:
“From my first interaction with Director Miller, it was evident she was a practitioner with broad knowledge and expertise regarding juvenile justice. More importantly, it was even more obvious Director Miller possessed an immeasurable heart for kids and was committed to positively impacting every person she came into contact with. . . (she) became an immediate lifeline of support and consultation.
“Amy has always ensured you truly knew and understood she was there for you, whether for questions surrounding stateside operations and policy or to be a sounding board to help navigate and problem solve local issues; she has always been there. Director Amy Miller is the gold standard for what it means to be called to serve others. I aspire to have a career as impactful and meaningful. I will miss her immeasurably and wish her well in this next chapter of her life.”
-Lynn Hadnot, Director Collin County Juvenile Services.
“You have been an amazing advocate for all those working to improve the experiences and outcomes for young people impacted by the justice system and for the staff working with those children and families. You have a deep understanding of the complexities of juvenile justice and the knowledge of how the many state and county system components fit together. We will miss your tenacious spirit supporting our efforts and helping to guide progress. Thank you for all your hard work, candor, and commitment to doing what needs to get done. Looking forward to hearing about your next adventures!”
- Jill Mata, Chief Bexar County Juvenile Services.
“Three things I will say about Amy Miller, she was my friend, she was always a friend to probation, and she will be sorely missed.”
- Kirk Wolfe, Chief Wichita County Juvenile Services.
“In our personal and professional lives, people come and go, leaving little marks or memories, or lessons. Then there are those that come into your life that make indelible, lifelong impressions; those that have the ability to say one word, show the smallest act of kindness, lend you their ear and their shoulder of support, or provide those words of wisdom that changes the entire trajectory of everything happening in your small piece of the world. For me, that is Amy Miller.Very early on in my tenure as a Probation Chief, also responsible for a pre- and post-adjudication facility, I was challenged with the possibility of facility closure, staff and youth challenges that are inherent in our work. Amy became a sounding board, a coach, and a cheerleader for me. Her years of facility operations and administration experience, coupled with her knowledge of field operations, and that necessary balance between rehabilitation and accountability was and is a very unique skillset. Amy’s ability to meet you where you’re at in the moment is something we all preach but few are fully capable of embodying.
“I have a profound respect for Amy because when she says she is going to do something, she does it. When she asks what you need and you say, ‘I need you to come talk to my Commissioners’ Court,’ she’s there, with the team in tow! In twenty-four years (24) in Texas Juvenile Justice, I have never witnessed someone fight as hard as Amy has during a legislative session to bring the field together and have such a profound positive impact on our funding and our operations. She helped us to find our unified voice…and we are far better for it! Amy is a true leader, and she will be greatly missed.”
- Dawn Owens-Chief-Bell County Juvenile Services.
“I first met Amy Miller at a SNDP – TCOOMMI stakeholders meeting held in Dallas. I was very impressed with how well she facilitated the members present at the meeting, since there were some tensions with “growing pains” amongst both programs.Amy was extremely patient, professional, yet tactful in addressing the concerns and managed to get the group to reach a positive outcome. Meeting Amy that first time, I immediately knew she understood our juvenile justice field and most importantly, she was all about the youth/families we serve. And I especially liked that she was an Aggie! In 2017 during the first few months as CJPO, Lou Serrano and Amy were instrumental in guiding me through a major challenge within the department. Amy came down to Cameron County and provided valuable technical assistance and support. Based on her previous expertise and the current management structure with TJJD, we were able to model TJJD and create an Executive Management Team (EMT), so we could have better internal controls within the organization. What I truly appreciated from Amy was her professional demeanor, guidance, yet non-judgmental with what we needed to correct to move forward. Throughout the years, Amy was our “lifeline” for quick and easy answers. Plus, we could easily chat about family and A&M football, softball, and baseball. She will be missed tremendously. We wish her the best in her new journey.”
- Rose Gomez-Chief-Cameron County Juvenile Services
A note from the author James Bateman: Even though I only worked for Amy Miller for a short time, I have known her through various project assignments with both TJJD and the legacy TYC. I am both humbled and honored that I was able to write about a superior manager and dear friend.
Photo: Amy Miller and her husband Matt Miller
Rachel Gandy joins the agency as Chief of Staff
By TJJD Communications
This summer TJJD welcomed Rachel Gandy as the agency’s new Chief of Staff.
Gandy replaces Sean Grove, who has been promoted to Deputy Executive Director and will be focusing on improving operations and working closely with the secure facilities.
She comes to TJJD with a uniquely informed perspective, having served as the project manager for the Sunset Advisory Commission’s review of the agency. In that role, she worked with TJJD leadership and other stakeholders to identify agency strengths and weaknesses and recommend changes.
The Sunset review was an independent legislative evaluation of TJJD to determine whether Texans still need the agency and if so, how it can improve its efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability. For example, Sunset identified ways TJJD could expand support for county juvenile probation departments and update certification processes to increase local job opportunities.
Gandy will oversee the implementation of the Sunset recommendations for TJJD, which will undergo another review in four years.
In addition to working with the executive team on the day-to-day operations at TJJD, she will have oversight of the newly budgeted and planned TJJD facilities, working with the Texas Facilities Commission. She will manage initiatives to build capacity at the county level, collaborate with the TJJD Board and work on legislative and stakeholder engagement.
Gandy’s educational years prepared her well for this new leadership position in Texas juvenile justice. After earning her bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, she received graduate degrees from both the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the UT Steve Hicks School of Social Work, where her interest in improving the juvenile justice system took hold.
She was the lead author for a year-long policy research project to identify, evaluate, and publish a report on correctional oversight bodies in adult and juvenile justice systems across the United States.
After earning her master’s degrees, she joined Disability Rights Texas, achieving more remarkable career milestones. She won a fellowship funded by the Hogg Foundation to advocate for reforms to federal, state, and local policies regarding disability and mental health services. She developed, supervised, and executed a targeted legislative campaign to improve the identification of and service delivery to students with disabilities. That campaign led to important legislative changes, and she received the 2017 Justin Dart Memorial Award for Outstanding Service from the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities.
Gandy also served as vice chair of the Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities and co-facilitator of the City of Austin Youth Justice Task Force.
Later, while working at the Sunset Commission, she and her team were awarded the 2023 Certificate of Impact from the National Legislative Program Evaluation Society for documented policy changes.
Gandy says she couldn’t be more excited about joining the TJJD team.
“I am thrilled to join a team of folks who dedicate themselves so completely to safety and rehabilitation across a unified juvenile justice system,” she said. “This work is tough, but the opportunities for impact were too good to pass up.”
“Usually when a Sunset bill passes, I am excited to immediately dive into a new policy area. But when TJJD’s bill passed in May, walking away from the juvenile justice system seemed unfathomable. Everyone I encountered throughout the review – from agency staff to probation chiefs to advocates – had a passion for improving youth outcomes, and it turns out, that passion was contagious.”
Expansive TJJD Capstone project brings treatment and case management innovations
By Barbara Kessler, TJJD Communications
This summer a group of TJJD leaders kicked off a special program for the agency that aims to improve cohesivity, working conditions, youth engagement and behavior management at the secure facilities.
Under the guidance of the Georgetown University’s Youth in Custody Practice Model (YICPM), the agency is pursuing a “Capstone” project that will put strategic changes into play and track and report about them. The aim is to develop a more unified treatment plan for TJJD youth that can make a big difference in youth outcomes, starting with the girls in residence at Mart. At the end of the project, TJJD will receive a certification from GU recognizing the agency’s work to improve and establish best practices.
Antonio Houston, Superintendent of the McLennan County secure facility at Mart, is a key leader of the project and his campus will serve as the flagship program for the Capstone initiatives.
“This is going to give our agency a better toolbelt to help these kids,” Houston said. And an important feature of the project is that the people who work day-to-day at the facility will shape the operational changes, he said.
Houston has already had focus meetings with Juvenile Correctional Officers, Case Managers, and other staffers to gather input that will drive the direction of modifications.
“In the past we’d have Central Office say, ‘Hey, you’re going to do this program.’ Instead of that, we’re getting the staff feedback and saying give us your ideas.”
“We had a training (at Mart) and we talked about the culture and how we can align that with this new program.”
Developing the Plan
TJJD was accepted to participate in the Georgetown University program in May. In June, 12 TJJD executives and program leaders traveled to Washington DC for a week-long training at the GU Center for Juvenile Justice Reform.
In addition to Supt. Houston, the group included: Executive Director Shandra Carter, Director of Structured Programming and Accountability Henry Schmidt III, Deputy Executive Director Sean Grove, Sr. Director of Integrated Treatment Evan Norton, Deputy Director of Treatment Lacey Evans, Training Director Chris Ellison, Senior Director of Secure Facilities Alan Michel, Director of Research Emily Knox, Senior Strategic Advisor Cameron Taylor, Manager of Institutional Clinical Service Erin Nemons and Clinical Director for Forensic Mental Health Services at Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex Autumn Lord.
The TJJD team participated alongside other state juvenile justice professionals from South Carolina, Maryland, and Hawaii. That alone was instructive because everyone shared useful ideas, Houston said.
The hard work came as the facilitators led the state groups through a process of evaluating their programs, benchmarking against best practices, and developing improvement plans.
TJJD leaders concluded that the Texas system follows many best practices but could use improvement in getting everyone out of their departmental silos to better coordinate and collaborate as they make plans for a youth’s progress through the system and beyond, into reentry and back home, Houston said.
“A youth’s case plan is primarily driven by case managers and the youth also have to deal with mental health providers, floor JCOs and dorm leadership. That can be confusing to kids, right?” he said.
The Capstone group knew that implementing a "one case plan" would require that all the adults working with a youth would have to collaborate, practice a team approach and be “speaking the same language, so the kids are not confused,” Houston explained.
Diving deeper the group identified barriers to implementing the plan and came up with ways to overcome those barriers by looking at all areas -- case planning, education, behavioral health, behavioral management, transition/reentry and community-based services, Houston said.
At the same time, they kept the top-level goals in mind of promoting a “safe, fair and healthy environment for the youth” while properly equipping and empowering staff, he said.
The overall case plan would have to include everyone on the ground at the facility and reach outward to include probation officers and families, who are vital to a youth’s enduring success.
“We don’t do a good job of asking the families what their needs are,” Houston said.
The Capstone plan recognizes that shortcoming and is building in multiple ways to engage families more thoroughly throughout their youth’s justice involvement, at TJJD and beyond.
Treatment is Paramount
Another beneficial aspect of moving to a unified case plan approach is that it recognizes the foundational importance of specialized treatment, said TJJD Strategic Advisor Cameron Taylor, who helped outline the Capstone project goals.
Only when youth and their treatment teams effectively address antisocial or dysfunctional behaviors can the youth move forward to make progress mentally, socially, and academically. Conversely, unaddressed dysfunctional behavior will perpetually block their progress.
That’s why the Capstone effort at Mart will encompass a specific treatment protocol already underway at the campus, Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which has proven effective in correctional environments. DBT is a form of therapy developed by the psychologist Marsha Linehan that places high value on helping clients with problem-solving, incorporating aspects of acceptance and mindfulness.
Mart staff who work with the girls in residence have been getting training in DBT that includes learning a protocol for managing youth crisis behaviors, such as suicidal, self-harming or assaultive acts.
The training directs staff to consider and explore the antecedents – life events or prior experiences – that lead to these behaviors. Through understanding root causes, the staff learns to strategize solutions for and more effectively manage these behaviors.
“Understanding that youth disruptive or dysfunctional behaviors are their efforts to solve legitimate problems in their lives is core to beginning to offer meaningful treatment to them,” said Dr. Schmidt, who is leading the treatment training at Mart. “The cognitive-behavioral protocol for responding to these behaviors helps the youth and staff understand the youth’s intent and goals, so that we can work to offer them tools to more successfully navigate the challenges of life.”
“We can help youth by providing them with skills to regulate their emotions, tolerate distress, and navigate relationships with others; these are challenges that we all have experienced and share in common. Our primary task is helping youth to clearly see and evaluate their goals (short-term and long-term), have a variety of options for responding, and to increasingly use skillful means,” Schmidt explained. “We do this by balancing our support for change with acceptance of the challenges of learning new behavior and ways of thinking and acknowledging that change takes time and practice.”
The staff need to be aligned in their help for the youth, he said, and “working from the same sheet of music.”
“The unified treatment plan will assist us to do that, with line staff, case managers, mental health staff, and security all coaching and encouraging the youth in the same direction.”
Far-reaching Impact
The Capstone project is a big endeavor that touches many areas of operations and requires all oars in the water as the team at Mart pilots this project with the girls’ program.
And while it focuses on an effective, unified treatment plan for the youth, it reaches outward to incorporate many adjustments to operations that will facilitate the core goals and have intrinsic value as well.
For example, Supt. Houston is looking at ways to improve the work/life balance for staff to improve the overall campus culture, creating an environment that fosters success. This and other modifications lay the groundwork for the Capstone project, but extend to improve all lives, staff, and youth.
So far staff have told him they’re eager for innovations that will ripple outward.
The Capstone project plan, for instance, calls out that TJJD will cultivate “teamliness” and shared responsibility to meet its new goals of more effective treatment and case management. It’s not hard to envision how that can positively affect many operations at TJJD campuses.
It also calls for reaching out to families, and probation officers and community groups that can help address needs as a youth moves through their proscribed program and prepares to reenter their community.
The hope is that staff at all levels and across departments will be engaged in both developing and finetuning the unified treatment plan and the final set of processes developed will be clear and comprehensive so staff can easily and consistently apply the behavioral interventions they have learned.
As the Capstone plan notes, the quality of services provided to youth is contingent on the quality of training and support provided to the staff. Only when all the parts come together – the training, shared vision, positive work culture and team energy -- can staff most effectively assist and empower the girls at Mart.
Houston says that watching the early progress at the campus, he is optimistic.
In this early stage, everyone is working in concert, setting goals and taking baby steps, but what staff have reported to him after discussions has been positive. “What I heard was ‘thank you,’ for getting our input," he said.
Like them, Houston wasn’t sure what to expect when he was tapped for the Capstone project.
"Going into it I felt kind of apprehensive,” he recalls of the trip to DC. “Is this really going to work? Or will this be a program where we go through the motions? But after going through the training and listening to the presenters and the ideas that the executive team had, I feel confident about it.”
(Photo above: The Capstone team in DC; McLennan County campus Supt. Antonio Houston.)
Longtime TJJD secure facilities and Texas Model leader Tom Adamski retiring after 25 years
By Barbara Kessler, TJJD Communications
TJJD Director of the Texas Model Tom Adamski doesn’t plan to spend his retirement writing a history of the agency.
But he certainly could.
Adamski, who is retiring Aug. 31, started at the Texas Youth Commission (TYC) in 1998 as a case manager and served in facility and executive leadership positions over the next 25 years at the Ron Jackson campus, in Brownwood, and within Central Office.
He worked for many executive directors (12, if you count the conservators), oversaw a variety of youth socialization programs and helped TYC navigate through the complex evolution to becoming TJJD, which in 2011 combined and replaced TYC and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission.
His colleagues came to know Adamski, who’d already completed a 22-year career as a US Army Ranger, as a committed leader who always found a way to manage whatever tasks came his way.
“Tom Adamski is the most dedicated Texas Juvenile Justice Department employee I have ever met. He has been a mainstay and model of change with the purpose to improve youth’s lives. Tom has been a proven leader as a superintendent and director dealing with agency changes and difficult times,” said Alan Michel, senior director of state facility operations.
Adamski remembers those difficult times and the challenges of 2007-2009, when then-TYC faced a painful public house-cleaning over mistreatment of youth centered at a West Texas facility.
By then, Adamski had worked for a while as a Program Administrator (today called Team Leader) at the Ron Jackson State Juvenile Correctional Complex facility overseeing some 60 JCOs on his roll. Texas secure facilities at that time housed hundreds of kids – Ron Jackson had more than 500 -- with youth ranging up to age 21 committed for misdemeanors through felonies. (Today, under the reformed system that emphasizes keeping youth in their counties, and serves youth only up to age 19, the secure state facilities have much lower populations.)
In 2006, Adamski became Assistant Superintendent at the Ron Jackson campus, a time he recalls fondly. “We were firing on all 8 cylinders,” he said. “It was fun to come to work. You didn’t have staffing issues. My staffing was 95 percent filled.”
Then came “rumblings” that there was deep trouble in the agency, and in 2007 it came out that two TYC employees at the West Texas State School in Pyote had allegedly sexually abused several teen boys in their care. The two men were prosecuted, and one was convicted. Investigations uncovered allegations of other violations at TYC facilities, including Ron Jackson, and at least one attempt to cover up problems by TYC leadership, prompting then-Gov. Rick Perry and the legislature to initiate sweeping changes.
These were difficult years for many at TYC. Facilities were downsized and later closed. TYC was placed into conservatorships and leadership changes roiled the process. At one juncture, “we went from being managed by people with backgrounds in childcare to management by people who ran corrections in adult system,” Adamski recalled. The agency see-sawed as executives and new programs came and went.
“We lost a lot of good staff. Many people quit,” he said.
In 2010, the Brownwood campus was downsized when “Brownwood Unit II” was closed. Administrators had to hand out 156 riff notices, Adamski recalled. You can guess this was an excruciating experience from Adamski’s total recall.
“I went down there every day for a week, and I handed those out personally, because I thought I owed them that. I owed them my gratitude and sorrow,” he said.
On a happier note, he remembers that the Ron Jackson HR Department, backed by HR in Austin, was able to secure jobs in the community for about 120 of those who’d been laid off. “They did a hell of a job,” he recalls.
Adamski’s career, and that of many others, was indelibly marked by these ups and downs, but he emerged as a trusted leader whose even hand was needed more than ever. In 2009, he became superintendent of the Ron Jackson campus, which then served about 250 boys.
As if there weren’t enough changes, the Ron Jackson facility moved in 2010 from being an all-boys to an all-girls campus. “This transition for the staff was a real challenge. We had to rebuild the skill base with girls,” Adamski said.
Interestingly, a woman brought in to help the transition suggested “softening” the environment, Adamski recalls, an idea that would land on his desk again in just a few years, as he served in another role working with leadership to make sure programs were trauma informed.
In 2012, Adamski moved from helming Ron Jackson, to overseeing all secure facilities as director of secure operations. This was a job he loved and would embrace until 2018. It leveraged the full range of his experience, from the Army, where he’d worked with a ROTC program, to his educational background and degree in Criminal Justice Administration and Corrections.
The agency had settled into a period of stability, Adamski said. Still, these years brought their own set of demands. To stay in touch with the TJJD’s secure facilities (six at the time) he traveled the state constantly, putting 200,000 miles on state cars in one two-year period. That required resilience on his part and patience from his family, though his three children were now grown.
In 2018, TJJD executive leadership, including then-State Services Director Shandra Carter, recognized Adamski’s deep experience and tapped him for a special role as Texas Model director.
He remembers hearing the vision – that it would encompass trauma-informed care and a training called Trust-based Relational Intervention. He hadn’t heard much about TBRI, but when he took the training at Texas Christian University, it all came together.
“I came back from that, and I was really impressed,” he said. “Hearing Dr. (David) Cross and Shandra (Carter) and others. . . Even though they were talking about foster kids, I thought, 'This can really work with our kids.’ I really drank the Kool-Aid at that training.”
Adamski led the roll out of the Texas Model and TBRI approach to youth rehabilitation at TJJD, coordinating countless trainings, activities, and programming for staff to enable these new approaches to become embedded in how Juvenile Correctional Officers, teachers, and mental health professionals work with the youth at secure facilities.
Getting the Texas Model to become “internalized” was a huge team effort that depended on many players, including Tatrina Bailey, Troy McPeak and Sr. Director of Integrated Treatment Dr. Evan Norton, whom Adamski describes as man who knows how to work in the trenches of youth rehabilitation and could “deescalate a pit viper.”
TJJD Executive Director Shandra Carter said the agency has greatly benefited from Adamski’s contributions.
“Tom Adamski is a trusted leader in our agency and will be greatly missed,” Carter said. “He has incredible depth of experience and moves forward with an uncommon flexibility. He has professionally evolved with the constantly changing juvenile justice landscape. His steadfast commitment to ensuring safety while providing effective rehabilitative services to youth has been inspiring to us all.”
Added Alan Michel, “Tom has been a stable, constant force and spokesman for positive change.”
“It’s been a great career” with many proud accomplishments, Adamski said. At the same time, he says he’s eager for retirement. He and his wife, Geralyn, recently built a new home in Tuscola, near Abilene, where they’ll be gardening together and enjoying their fur pals, a King Shepherd named Aslan and their five (the number is not a mistake) Papillon dogs.
They plan to staycation, work on their forever house and he will spend recreation time at the firing range, where he target shoots pistols and long-range rifles.
And instead of worrying about fine-tuning a government agency, he’ll be tuning up his other “baby,” his Harley Davidson 2022 Street Glide St. “My wife,” he said, “is going to let me put a new motor in it.”
Photos: Tom Adamski; Tom with his King Shepherd buddy, Aslan.
Wharton County community alliance helps kids believe 'Yes We Can'
By John McGreevy, TJJD Communications
TJJD and juvenile probation departments in counties across the state rely on partnerships within our communities to help better serve their young people. In the case of the Wharton County Juvenile Probation Department, a key partnership has been with the Just Do It Now, Inc. organization and their Yes We Can Intervention and Prevention Program.
“Just Do It Now is a faith-based organization and I think that’s one of the key factors in making a difference in these youths’ lives,” said James Perez, executive director of Just Do It Now. “We try to take a Christian approach to teaching the kids. We want these kids thinking in the right direction, thinking about college, about life after high school, but also teaching them the day-to-day living habits and treating each other with love and respect. We talk to our staff quite a bit about it.”
“We can send food home with the kids,” Perez continued. “We have clothing drives and jacket drives. We try to make sure these kids have these essential needs in their homes. I think they’ve grown to appreciate the extent to which we go to make sure they know that we really are trying to set them up for success.”
Just Do It Now, a 501(c)3 non-profit, was founded in 2000 by the late Greg Baines. Baines was a local businessman and ordained minister who had overcome his own battles with substance abuse and saw Just Do It Now as a means of bringing the community together to tackle challenges they and their children faced.
The non-profit group's acclaimed Yes We Can afterschool and summer program serves kids ages six to 18. It provides programs for the youths’ education, a healthy lifestyle, mental health, as well as a variety of teen programs that include preventing teen pregnancies and STDs. All these things impact the youths’ lives on a daily basis, said Barbara Fortenberry, assistant director of Just Do It Now. “We provide food for them, we provide mentorship and tutoring for them, as well as individual and specialized programs geared towards helping educate them toward healthy lifestyles.”
Yes We Can has been funded by a TJJD state of Texas grant of $168,217 annually since 2012, and is completely free and available to any child in the community, though the program focuses on low-income neighborhoods. The program serves between 45-50 youth daily in the summer to 80-100 daily during the school year. Roughly 175 kids are being tracked in the program on average.
Billie Jean Bram, chief juvenile probation officer for the Wharton County Juvenile Probation Department, first approached Just Do It Now, and it was the first grant she applied for when she became chief. “I thought maybe I’d get some gas money for this program because I think it’s really worthwhile what they’re doing there.”
Bram wound up getting more than just enough to cover some gas money for the program and this led to the effective operation that Yes We Can has become.
“We were already operating an afterschool program and Ms. Bram offered funding for us to specialize in certain areas to provide more programs to more kids in the community and we could help them learn to make better decisions that could help keep them from entering the juvenile justice system,” Fortenberry said.
There were also practical advantages to what Yes We Can was doing for the community. “What really made me think this program was worth fighting for is the fact that if you figure out how much money you were actually spending per child you’d realize it’s not that much money,” Bram said. “If we have to put a kid in a detention facility it’s $125-150 a day. Long-term, this program is a whole lot cheaper.”
Perez said that while Yes We Can offers so many programs and activities, the time the kids spend at the center allows for more flexibility than the average school day. “We’re not in a school environment where it might be a rigid forty-five minutes for each class,” he said. “We have these kids for a few hours, we eat with them, we play with them, and we work with them on their schoolwork. Thanks to the TJJD grant, we’re able to transport them home from the center to wherever they live. We’re able to bond with the kids.”
Yes We Can keeps kids busy and out of trouble
Instructing the young people on manners and basic courtesies has been a cornerstone of the program. Insults, bad language, and even the phrase “shut up” are discouraged while less disrespectful alternatives are introduced. “A big component was that they wanted to teach things like social skills, how to interact in public, and how to be respectful,” Bram said. “There are generations of parents who weren’t parented, they never learned the difference between an inside voice and an outside voice and to say ‘yes, sir’ or ‘yes, ma’am’. We’re trying to show them that courtesy is very important. That was one of the first things that had an impact on me when I got involved with the program, because I thought that it could be something that would really help keep kids from coming into my (juvenile justice) system.”
That thought has proven correct, too. Bram estimates that since 2012 there have been fewer than 20 kids who’ve come from Yes We Can that have entered the juvenile probation system.
“The program is centralized in the lower-income side of town,” Bram said. “It has more high-risk families and kids. The program is within walking distance for many of them, but if they need to be picked up or taken home that’s done for them.”
“The kids like to go there because they get fed, for one thing,” Bram continued. “That’s a big thing. There’s always somebody there that actually cares for them, they help them with their homework, and in the summer months they play games with them.”
Not only does Yes We Can offer high-quality programs to the children, but Perez credits the staff at Just Do It Now for playing a large role in the lives of the kids. “We’re all very involved in our community in various ways and the kids know that they can depend on us,” he said. “They can come to us with any of the needs that they may have and we do whatever we can to make sure those needs are met.”
As for incentivizing the youths to visit, it doesn’t get more basic than a healthy meal. “For a lot of kids, the meal they have at the center may be the last meal they have for the day, so we make sure to provide a high-quality meal for them every day,” Fortenberry said. “They know there’ll be food; they know they’re going to be treated with love and respect; they know that there’ll be members of the staff that have been here for a long time, that they can rely on us, both here and outside the center. We show up for them and they know they can depend on us.”
During the summer, the program has functions and activities going on throughout the day. During the school year, the students can take the bus to school from the center and back again after school. Around 6 pm they’ll be bussed home from the center.
“Over the summer, on spring break, and even the Christmas break, we try to offer as many field trips and activities as we can,” Perez said. “We want to keep them occupied and involved and to keep fostering the bond that we’ve developed with these kids.”
Fostering bigger dreams
“The saddest part about working with at-risk communities is that they don’t have dreams, they don’t know what to dream of," Perez continued. "When you’re worried about just feeding yourself you can’t possibly be thinking about a career and having a house – you’re too worried about your basic essential needs. We try to help the kids get past those fears and insecurities about food, shelter, and clothing and allow them to grow and develop psychologically and spiritually through these bonding events and activities that we have.”
"We want to inspire them to dream big."
During the summer, Perez said, “we go to the movies once a week, we go to the local swimming pool, we get tickets to Astros games, we really try to foster the bonds we’re developing with these kids. We try to inspire them.”
To that end, the organization is involved with athletic programs such as basketball, football, and track. They provide transportation to and from these games and competitions. Sometimes, they’re able to do even more and combine inspiration as well as athletic activities. “Our Athletic Director was able to take a group of boys from our basketball program to go to Louisiana Tech and spend a few days in the dorms where they got to have basketball practice and life leadership training,” Perez said. “Spending time on a college campus shows these young people what’s possible for them.”
Best of all, the Yes We Can program is there for as long as a youth wants to be a part of it.
“There’s no exit from this program,” Fortenberry said. “You stay with it until you age out, and the goal is for you to become a mentor in the program with the younger kids as you get older to show them that ‘Hey, this can work for you’ and we’ve been able to do that.”
Over the years, the community has been hit hard by natural disasters. “We’ve had floods, hurricanes, a lot has happened here,” Bram said, “and every time Just Do It Now and the Yes We Can program has been the stable thing in the community for these kids.”
The program has evolved. “Over the years we’re seeing more community support and as the needs of the kids have changed, we’ve had to change with them,” Fortenberry said.
This comes in a variety of ways that includes food, clothing, housing, helping the kids get scholarships and helping family members find jobs.
“It’s worked out really well,” Bram said, “and I continue to partner with them because I truly believe this program is a benefit to the community.”