By: Azim Khamisa, RYI Board Member

www.AzimKhamisa.com

The work we do in healing and transforming challenging youth is not easy. It takes a high level of dedication, patience, and energy. While a lot has been written on various clinical cognitive therapies the role and effectiveness of spirituality is still in its infancy. The CANEI program that I co-founded with the National Youth Advocate Program (www.nyap.org) has three pillars: Spirituality, Restorative Justice, and Literacy. It is currently in its 9th year with presence in 8 cities showing amazing results. I believe that one of the main reason for this is we are working at the spiritual level. What does that mean?

Modern science would like us to think we are trillions of cells. All medicine then interferes with the chemistry of these cells to cure symptoms. However – every pill has negative side effects. I believe that there is a deeper dimension where healing is far more effective. I have coined the word “soulular” to describe this level. When you are energetically able to vibrate at a higher frequency there is a soulular shift that you create within yourself and the challenging youth. Once this soulular shift occurs – you are not the same. The transformation is permanent. I believe it rearranges your DNA and this is validated by Bruce Lipton’s book “The Biology of Belief”. I have seen this happen to me many times and also seen the impact it has on the many thousands of youth that I regularly interact with in schools, juvenile prisons as well as in the CANEI program.

Moving toward a more reclaiming model of service in a Belgian school program.

By Franky D’Oosterlinck, Eline Spriet & Cindy Kesbeke

http://www.oobc-nieuwevaart.be

Franky is an RYI Board Member.

The OOBC Nieuwe Vaart in Ghent (Belgium) combines special education and day care treatment for children and youth with emotional and behavioural disorders. From its early history the OOBC has a strong cooperation with the Department of Orthopedagogics of the University of Ghent. In this Department, Orthopedagogics is viewed as the science of meaningful action. It is particularly in this very view that we try to use and align different theories in our treatment (Broekaert et al., 2009; Broekaert et al., 2004).

Especially because of the day care character of our treatment, we stress the importance of the ecology of the child. The child is an individual and should be viewed as part of differing life domains: e.g. the child as part of the family, child as student in its school, child as member of the sports club, etc. In this sense, the behaviour of the child should not only be seen as a symptom of the disorder of the child, or as evolving from the possibly painful traumatic events during the history of the child’s life, but also has a meaningful function in the ecology of the different life domains of this child.

This is why we state that there are always two sides to look upon when working with children and youth with emotional and behavioural disorders; (1) the side of the actual (behavioural) problem, often identified at the time of the intake, and likely to shift during the treatment and (2) the child as part of several ecological systems in different life domains. In our view on treatment, we stress that there should be focus on both sides, if we want it to be effective.

The OOBC Nieuwe Vaart is constantly striving towards an integrated treatment program in which these two sides are incorporated.

By: Dr. Scott Larson

Straight Ahead Ministries, http://www.straightahead.org/

RYI Board Member

If there  was a particular stretch of highway where accidents routinely occurred, at some point officials would close it down and address the core issue that was to blame – whether that be straightening a dangerous bend, clearing an obstructed view, or repairing a defective section of the road. Reasonable people would scorn a proposal of parking an ambulance nearby as a viable solution to deal with perpetual accidents.

In the United States we have only 6% of the world’s population, yet we house 23% of the world’s inmates. Simply building more prisons or passing tougher legislation is as shortsighted to public safety as parking an ambulance near a troubled spot in the road.

By Beate Kreisle, Reclaiming Youth International Board Member

,,You’re nobody, till somebody loves you… a line out of an old song maybe many of you know.

In my mind that is connected to a conference I attended some years ago. Everybody had their name tags. And some had different ones. These were the presenters. They had a name tag and a ribbon added to it saying “faculty”. I thought it helped with having an idea who would present tomorrow’s workshops. For me in some cases it made choosing easier, because I felt I’d rather listen to somebody whom I considered to be nice. The conference was on for three days. On the second day I met a lady with a ribbon of a different color. I wondered how that could be and went closer to read the printing on it. My thinking was it could say something like “keynote” or “award”. When I finally came into reading distance I saw it said “Somebody”.

By Linda Lantieri

A strong public demand is arising in public schools in the United States to implement effective educational approaches that promote not only academic success but adequately prepare young people to lead us into the next decade. In fact, a growing body of research suggests that helping children develop good social and emotional skills early in life makes a big difference in their long-term health and well-being. In his groundbreaking book Working with Emotional Intelligence (1998), Daniel Goleman identified EQ – emotional intelligence – as being as important as IQ in terms of children’s healthy development and future life success. He writes (1998, 19):

Contributed by:

Edna Olive

RYI Board Member, Exec. Director of Rocket, Inc. (www.rocketinc.net),

Author of Positive Behavior Facilitation

“Nine teens are charged in bullying that led to girl’s suicide”

“All teachers fired from local school”

“State Senate offers budget plan cutting $1.4 billion from schools”

Yes, these headlines are real. Each of them came from local news sources printed during the last two weeks. I don’t know about you, but when I read stories such as these, it’s easy for me to get fixated on the negativity of the world and the challenges facing those of us in the field of education, advocacy and child care. It’s easy to forget that in the midst of these headlines, there are children who need and deserve our support. In other words, it’s easy to forget what’s important.

By: Dr. Jamie "JC" Chambers

Raphi, age 16, is running wild, sneaking out late at night, drinking and using pot. His parents and five other siblings are worried and beleaguered, they feel hopeless to stop his present course. He arrives at my office smug, indolent and with that look in his eyes-"what do they think coming to this _______ place is gonna do? So, I asked him the ugly question, "what do you suppose your parents brought you here for?" With surprising honesty and boldness, he proclaimed, "They're freaking out cause I'm partying and staying out late, but this is my life and it ain't none of their concern, besides I ain't hurting them."

By: John "Jack" Calhoun, Reclaiming Youth International Board Officer

It had been a long day, beginning with a crack of dawn speech to the Salinas/Monterey Community Alliance for Safety and Peace followed by day-long meetings with the mayor and chief, local academics and a two-hour training I led for Court Appointed Special Advocates volunteers.

I was in Salinas for a site visit.  Salinas participates in the California Cities Gang Prevention Network, a 13 city initiative designed and run by the National League of Cities and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.  In addition to Salinas, Network cities include Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, Oxnard, Richmond, Sacramento, San Bernadino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Rosa and Stockton.

Toward the end of the day, two teenagers were shot in East Salinas.  One of them, 16-year old, Manuel Perez, a "B" student at Salinas High School, was gunned down while waiting for a ride to football practice.  The other, 19-year old Santiago Ortiz, a known gang member, was shot and wounded.

By Steve Van Bockern, President

Sarah and I have been in Australia since December 30 with twenty university students. We return to our homes in the United States at the end of January. Our intent has been to compare and contrast what is happening with at risk youth in Australia and the USA. Students read the Reclaiming Youth at Risk book and completed the Response Ability Pathways training to give them a working understanding before their shadowing experiences with youth workers from Youth off the Streets (Sydney) and the Allambi (Newcastle) programs. In Bimberri, outside the capitol city of Canberra, we visited the 150 million dollar juvenile prison. The director told us it costs about $2000 per day to hold their kids in this facility. In a refuge, we did a service project by helping the kids build a veggie patch. We heard from wonderful guest speakers including Clair Jackson, Andrew White, Peter Walsh, Diana Boswell, Frank Smith, Sally Fitzmaurice and Tim Moore. Their gifts of experience and insight were invaluable.

By: Dr. Martin Brokenleg

Vice President & Co-Founder, Reclaiming Youth International

Several days each year, I lead training days for teachers, child-workers, and parents. On those days, I sometimes have a few minutes during breaks to speak with individuals. I am impressed with the dedication and effort I see among teachers and youth workers. I am sometimes breathless when I see the love parents have for their children.