Thank you one and all!
Steve Van Bockern, President
It was a pleasure for Reclaiming Youth International to welcome participants from all over North America and beyond to the 2009 Black Hills Seminars in western South Dakota. An undergraduate student of mine who confessed that he attended because “I needed the college credit” told me after several days at the seminars that this was the best thing that ever happened to him. He was charged up when he expressed to me his appreciation and amazement that he had the opportunity to rub elbows with such a diverse and inspirational group. Those are my thoughts, too!
Scott Larson is the president and founder of Straight Ahead Ministries, an international faith-based organization working with juvenile offenders in more than 400 juvenile detention centers in 15 states and three countries. Scott has authored or co-authored 11 books on working effectively with troubled youth and has been a speaker to youth, parents, teachers, social workers and youth workers since 1983.
This Guest Article comes to us from our Board Member from Germany, Beate Kreisle. Beate is the Executive Director of Jugend-Kolleg am See. This agency serves up to eight adolescent girls and boys in a co-educative group home setting. It was founded 1998 as the first one in Germany working with the model of Positive Peer Culture, originally developed by Henry H. Vorrath and Larry K. Brendtro.
Franky D'Oosterlinck from Belgium contributes the following Guest Article. Franky joined the RYI Board in 2008. He serves as Pedigogical Director for the Othopedagogical Oberservation & Treatment Centre and works as an Academic Consultant at the Dept. of Orthopedagogics at Ghent University.