Pubdate: Sat, 01 Jan 2005
Source: Cibola County Beacon (NM)
Copyright: 2005 Cibola County Beacon
Contact:  http://www.cibolabeacon.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3568
Author: Joan Behar
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

IT TAKES A COMMUNITY

I'm no expert, but I'd venture there are two types of drug-addicted
youth: those who want help and those who don't. I think what we as a
community need to do is create a treatment program that both types of
youngsters will want to participate in - and the program needs to be
here in Cibola County so that kids aren't shipped off to centers
elsewhere in the state. If you don't think our community has a
juvenile substance abuse problem, read the Beacon's Friday police blotter.

What might a youth treatment program look like?

Why not establish a local detox and residential center with licensed,
trained professionals to serve our drug- and alcohol-dependent youth,
centers that offer intensive therapy but also offer educative programs
that get youth involved in the arts - dance, photography, painting,
writing, music, sculpture, film-making? programs that set up
interesting job mentorships? programs that involve youngsters in city,
village and county government? If there were engaging activities for
youth to participate in plus in-depth individual and group therapy,
don't you think our children would blossom? I do.

The kind of center I'm talking about requires collective action with
community members, parents, youth and existing organizations - public
schools, courts, law enforcement, social services, NMSU-Grants -
choosing to become deeply involved. We might even want to set up a
drop-in center for youth who have gone out of the area to seek
services (since there's such a dearth here), have come back home and
still need support of some sort. What's in place for them? To my
knowledge, not a lot. Where are the trained professionals to talk to
informally free of charge in a comfortable, inviting setting? Where
are the poetry slams and musical jam sessions? Where's the pottery
wheel and easel? Where are the storytelling, rap and performance
projects? Where is the array of clubs - housed evenings in our schools
- - that offer constructive things for kids to do? Valley High School in
Albuquerque has such an evening program; so does Rio Rancho Academy.
Why don't we?

Money? We'll come to funds in a moment.

Let's first take a look at the youth who are court-ordered into
treatment. Usually the way a reluctant drug-dependent child gets
treatment is after he or she has committed a crime and is mandated by
a judge to get help. Several months ago I had a phone conversation
with Eva Sanchez, who heads up the juvenile drug court located here in
Grants. Youth are court-ordered to the program, which has a team made
up of law enforcement, school reps, attorneys, juvenile probation
officers and counselors. It's a great program, strength-based in
orientation, that focuses on rehabilitation. When I asked Sanchez how
many kids the juvenile drug court served a year - in the back of my
mind I was thinking possibly hundreds - she told me eight to 13. And
no youngsters are accepted into the program who have committed violent
crimes. It's terrific we have the court. But look how many youngsters
it's able to serve and at the fact that those perhaps most in need,
those with a history of violence, are screened out.

We simply have to do more.

I know there's state money out there. Are there any local social
service agencies interested in responding to requests for proposals
(RFPs) for state money? Would Children Youth and Families Department
(CYFD) in Grants, a state organization, be interested in helping
coordinate efforts to apply for grants? Let's get some start-up money
and build something innovative - not the same old programs that kids
have little interest in. Let's expose kids to art and literature, to
skilled trades, to government, to science, to wilderness treks, to
sustainable economics and to international youth organizations
committed to youth development. If you think kids won't be interested,
or don't have the courage or educational skills to take on anything
unfamiliar, you don't know kids. If youngsters are stimulated, if they
feel they belong to something, if they have an outlet for their
energies, they'll learn the skills they need to learn and thrive.

If we don't act, or if we just keep doing the same things we've been
doing, we'll simply double the size of the police blotter and
drug-dependent kids will continue to have to run afoul of the law
before they have a chance of getting help from our community.

If anyone out there is interested in pulling together and starting up a
treatment-education-activity center for our youth, call me at the Beacon:
287-4411. Let's begin. Let's make 2005 a year committed to our youth. Let's
add to what the community already offers. The juvenile substance abuse
problem is solvable, the center is achievable, if we come together with our
various talents and expertise.
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MAP posted-by: Derek