Week 10- March 11

This week I mediated a very important case in terms of my progress as a mediator in RJ. I was able to bring together several people in one room to facilitate some great discussion. My co-mediator was a veteran in the field, and I am thoroughly happy and honored to have been a part of the process. The next steps in this case are to track the youth through their agreement. Unfortunately, I will be stepping down in my role as Restorative Justice Program Intern, and becoming an intern at the Division of Youth Services, beginning next term.

Although I am not going to be an intern for RJP, I will be helping out CDR with their Peer Court. Do to unforeseeable circumstances, the coordinator who was set to do the job had to step down. I, along with another intern from CRES, will be tackling this program with full force. One set back for me is that I will be in the UK from 3/20/13-4/6/13. The majority of my work will begin there.

I am so happy to have had the chance to work for such a wonderful organization. CDR is doing some really great work in community, family, parent/teen, and RJ mediations (now facilitated dialogue). I appreciate every moment I have had there as a learning experience. So many of the volunteer mediators have been doing this work for some time. I am grateful to each person who I have worked with, and I hope to work again with them in the future as a professional in whatever field I decide. I cannot wait to start my journey into learning more about the juvenile corrections setting. I think CDR has helped me gain a greater sense of why people should want to help youth before they get to prison, and in a more restorative fashion.

Week 9- March 4th

This week I have been trying to finalize the upcoming mediation I have with two offenders and 4 victims. The mediation will consist of at least 15 people, including significant others. I am worried that we won't find a place to mediate to accommodate this many people. I hope that DYS will allow us to use on of their rooms, given that they are the ones who are overseeing this case so closely, and desire it to be completed in three month's time.
The nature of this case is a sensitive one. I imagine that the youth will be very emotional, as well as the parents and the victims. I have been completing over-the-phone intakes with the victims, and all of them seem to be very eager to do this RJ process. I am glad so many adults in this county understand the need to help prevent youth from going down the wrong path. Furthermore, these particular youth are great kids, who have never done anything quite like this in their lives. I hope I am able to keep my cool under all of the stress that comes from an emotional meeting.
I think that the shape of the room/set up of the tables play a large part of how the mediation will enfold. It is important for everyone to be at the same level. Therefore, to have the youth be sitting in a place where it makes them look like outcasts of the group is something to avoid. Similarly, as a mediator, we don't want to be sitting at a table that might look like we are an authority in the room. I hope that we can make it more of a circle. My last intake before the mediation on Monday is with a very important victim in this case. I anticipate much discussion about restitution and apology letters. I worry that the intake will not go well, and perhaps then the mediation will be emotional contentious. I am trying to be positive, though!

Week 8- February 25th

This past week I have made sure to contact those individuals from the mediation I could not last week. I have set up an intake with one of the families for this upcoming Monday night. I am hopeful that they will be interested in continuing the process.

I have also helped in finding mediators for two new cases we received in the past two weeks. We have a shortage of male mediators to work on RJ cases. Generally speaking, it is ideal for youth RJ to be balanced with one male mediator and one female mediator. This way, the youth (regardless of the gender) feels more comfortable with the dynamics of the meeting. Similarly, it is important to think about age in mediations. CMS is a volunteer-based non-profit, but it does help to try and find two mediators with somewhat different ages. Youth can sometimes relate better to one or the other.

I am also working on the DYS monthly report. It should be very nice to have closed some cases this month, and make room for the new ones. Another excited part of the upcoming week will be the Annual Peace by Piece Gala. I am so happy to be a part of this organization who constantly strives to make a difference in the community. I am also excited to honor Jane Gordon with an award for her outstanding work in mediation and conflict resolution over the years.

Week 7- February 18th

This week I worked really hard on getting my RJ mediation together. I have been playing phone tag with nearly every party involved, and there are about seven! Contacting the victims is hard when it comes to  doing intakes over the phone. It is necessary to leave about an hour for each phone call, because intakes  generally take longer than most other calls. In this case, it is particularly important for me to make sure the victims have a good sense about what RJ is, what it does for the youth/victims involved, and what the expectations are. So far, the victims I have spoken to have been very interested in what RJ is about and are excited for the opportunity to help the youth take accountability for their crime.

I am eager to mediate with Carolyn, she is a great mediator. I want to absorb as much as possible from her during the mediation.  I have also signed on to observe another case now, and I am eager for that to take place, so that I can learn from another seasoned mediator. I hope that before I leave, I feel comfortable to move to another city and begin mediating without feeling like I am not skilled enough. CMS has given me the opportunity to hone my skills, while working on very interesting and socially helpful work.

Week 6- February 11th

This week I signed on to be a mediator in a case involving a very dangerous use of a pellet gun on a highway. It is quite an interesting case for me, in that there was present danger to the parties involved. Also, I will be working with a mediator who is very skilled and knows so much about victim offender mediation as well as working with youth. I cannot wait to do the intakes next week. I am also thrilled that a majority of the victims are wanting to participate in the mediation process. It is sometimes hard to get victims on board with this process if they do not buy into restorative methods. Eugene has been pretty receptive so far in my time in this position, though.

We are also happy to close a few more cases this month. DYS will be very happy to know that we are applying the needed pressure on the offenders to complete their agreements in a timely fashion. I have signed on to be an observer in a separate case involving a mediator who I really want to observe. He is also very great with juveniles and parents. Sometimes, the hardest part of a VOM with youth can be the parents who do not let their children speak for themselves. Other times, parents are wanting their children to fully take responsibility and deal with the experience on their own. I enjoy working with parents such as these.

Week 5- February 4th

This week I was given information regarding a National Crime Symposium taking place in New Orleans, LA. I am eager to see if I will be able to afford going later this month. The key note speakers seem very knowledgeable in several areas in the field of RJ and juvenile justice. I would hope to make some connections there in order to broaden the scope of speakers we are looking for for the potential RJ Conference in the coming years. It is important to always see what news is trending in this field, as it is always changing. Also, new people with innovative ideas are always popping up.

I have also been trying to get mediators on a couple of new cases we have received. I would love to get these cases completed as soon as possible. DYS has been on top of us regarding getting the agreements fulfilled (or not) in a timely manner. Not to say that they do not understand the several issues that prevent us from doing timely work on a daily basis, but our problems are usually related to the youth being lazy. It sounds bad to say that, but usually the kids are just procrastinating. So for me, there is only so much that I can do to encourage them to hurry up their community service hours or restitution payments. Restitution is also tricky, given the economic downturn. Many folks do not have the extra funds to pay for the neighbor's window that their child broke on top of everything else in their lives. For me, I just try and make things clear about what will happen if they do not fulfill the agreement they created.

Week 4- January 28th

This week I was able to contact a few more offenders than I normally do whilst checking for updates on cases that we are still tracking. Usually, I have a hard time getting a hold of the youth once the mediation is completed. It is odd that they would be less willing to contact me during the stage of the process that affects them the most, the time when they do or do not complete the terms of the agreement. I know I always come back to the parenting, but it is such a factor when it comes to following through with the agreements. So many of the juveniles who do return calls appropriately and make the effort to get their agreements done on time, have supportive parents who are invested in their futures. I am often awed when I see parents who are MIA and do not care one way or the other about  their children's future, especially given that their children are already in the system. 

When thinking about my career goals, I would hope that as a PO, I would be able to help parents get a better idea of what to expect from their children's lack of cooperation (which translates into their own lack of cooperation). I know as a PO, the job description does not say advice-giver or psychologist, but I do think that many of the parents whose children are in the system are in need of some counseling. It is a shame that as a state and a country, we are not able to provide people with basic counseling to help people cope with the struggles of life in such a economically stressful environment. Those who are strapped for money are generally not worried about things such as counseling, instead, they worry about putting food on the table. This translates into a household that may or may not have the emotional support system appropriate for children.

Week 3- January 21st

This week we were able to close a few more cases. DYS has also sent over more cases for us too! This is very good news. I would ideally love the chance to mediate as many cases with different seasoned mediators as possible before I move away. Also, I really enjoy case developing, which is good considering my interest in juvenile probation as a career. It is important as a new mediator to get a well-rounded experience with many different mediators as mentors. So far, I have mediated with 5 different people, each one with their own extremely unique sense of style and structure during the mediation.

This week we I had to work a bit more from home due to my knee injury. It is hard to get around in general, but I cannot drive on my pain medication. While at the office though, I was able to discuss the potential opportunity to intern with DYS next term. I would love the chance to volunteer at that facility and see first-hand how processing works and all of the rules and regulations. I am so interested in the work that juvenile probation officers do. I think that there is a definite need for more POs to work with restorative approaches rather than retributive. Some are already doing more RJ focused work, such as sending their youth to do our program at CMS. Others do not agree with our methods here.

Week 2- January 14th

This week I had knee surgery and was unable to do any work out of the CMS office. I was able to reflect a little bit about the work I have been doing. I realize how much I want to work with kids one on one in a probation setting. I would ideally love to keep mediating RJ cases in addition to the work I would be doing as a probation officer, but I do not think that mediating RJ cases would bring me any income to go toward loans from school. In order to move into the field of juvenile probation, I would need to add more face to face work with at risk youth into my repertoire. I have gained so many skills while interning at CMS. First and foremost, the ability to call families and inquire about their cases, but also the ability to manage cases and track their progress. The skills I have learned in my time at CMS will definitely help me in being able to manage cases at the juvenile probation level.

I am extremely interested in helping youth learn from their experiences and gain a sense of self worth and motivation in life. Mediating cases with youth in RJP has given me an insight into how to better communicate with youth and their families. At times, when mediations get a bit more adversarial about damages and hurts, it has also been helpful for me to learn how to be around people who do not get along. I imagine the world of juvenile probation has to do so much with family dynamics and real life issues, and I look forward to that.

Week 1- January 7th

This week I came back to find several new cases in our program, which is great news! The Department of Youth Services has not been getting many cases that are considered worth putting through diversion, aka trespassing, graffiti, or other forms of criminal mischief. I created files for these new cases, as well as logged all of their information onto our online case manager. Our online case manager is a great tool to use because the mediators for cases are able to log on and check out all of the information on the case. There is a section where I can post to the DYS narrative exactly what has transpired since the beginning of the case. I am very appreciative of the mobility of the program. I am able to log on from anywhere and see all of the contact information for each case and make the necessary calls. In addition, I have saved all of the RJP documents from our hard drive onto our googledocs, so that I can print out any letters etc. that I might need.

I also needed to check in with all of the offenders/victims in our cases. I called all of them and tried to get updates, however most of the youth have not been able to get the community service and/or restitution payments they were supposed to complete. I think this has a lot to do with financial hardship over the holiday break. Time constraints around the holidays are also an issue for some people.

I also found out that one of the agencies in a certain case who were "victims" and supposed to be getting restitution from three offenders, has gone out of business. The $300 that the boys worked to earn was supposed to be sent to this organization, but now they are no longer intact. So I called DYS and requested that the money be sent to the City of Veneta, who was also a victim in this case, to be put toward graffiti clean-up. I think this was a worthwhile decision, and will help toward a better looking community.