First Week at NLF

Welcome to my blog! I decided to start a blog for several reasons, as a way to keep in contact with friends and family and avoid sending out mass emails that crowd your inbox! Also, everyone else seems to be doing a blog so why not jump on the blog-train?!

For those of you who don’t know, I graduated from Whitworth in May and spent the summer in Spokane working at the Student Accounts Office. I moved back to Tacoma a few weeks ago, and started my Internship at the Northwest Leadership Foundation (NLF) on Tuesday. I am an AmeriCorps volunteer working with NLF, in what they are calling the NLF Intern Initiative. There is a team of about 20 of us who are working in various non-profits and churches across Tacoma that NLF sponsors, funds, and supports.

I am an Intern with NLF’s ProTeen program, which works with at-risk youth ages 11-18. There are three components to the program—an Evening Center which functions as a detention alternative for youth, a case-management and resources program, and the Street Behaviors program which is an alternative suspension and mentoring program for students at Mt. Tahoma High School. I am going to be working in the Street Behaviors program, and working over at Mt. Tahoma mentoring and working with youth there. They are in the process of hiring a full-time district staff member to supervise the program, so I am doing random things with the other programs in the interim.

The last 4 afternoons I have spent in court observing Juvenile court proceedings at Remann Hall, which is Pierce County’s Juvenile detention center. It has been both a heartbreaking and positive experience. I have seen kids as young as age 11 in handcuffs and ankle shackles and bright orange jumpsuits in the courtroom for offenses such as theft, possession of a controlled substance, possession of a firearm, assault, etc… Some are detained and sentenced further; others are released to a parent or foster parent/guardian, depending on the severity and circumstances. Sometimes the judge is ready to release a kid, but the parents are unable or unwilling to show up to court, which means the kids have to stay in custody. It is very sad to see a 12-year-old looking around the courtroom for a familiar face of a parent, and then the crestfallen look when they realize there is no one to support them.

It has been good to see how all of the parties (the State, probation, etc…) really work together to come up with the best sentence or plan of action for each youth. The judge really does care about the kids he sees, and is interested in doing what is best for them. Last week the judge focused on trying to release the kids he could and get them into school right at the beginning of the year. Television paints a picture of court as a really hostile place, however it is nothing like you see on TV!

I am excited for the week ahead and orienting myself more with case management resources and the juvenile system, and really understanding the context that the kids I am serving are coming from. It is my hope that I can identify with them, yet provide a positive environment and actually make a difference. I am anxious to actually get into Mt. Tahoma, [back to high school !], and start that facet of my job as well.