Arizona’s Coconino County Juvenile Court Services has been working with the Developmental Assets for a decade. The strength-based system focuses on positive outcomes for youth by providing training for staff, utilizing asset-building activities in its detention center, and implementing the Step Up program. Serving 1,300 youth each year, Coconino County Juvenile Court Services plays an important role in the community by offering positive, caring, structured environments dedicated to supporting some of the most vulnerable teens.
One of the most effective and enduring ways that the Development Assets have been brought into the juvenile justice system is through activities in the detention center. All of the staff members are trained in using the Developmental Assets, and as a result, the employees understand their roles as asset builders and are extremely comfortable leading these strength-based activities. The activities are well received by the teens, who enjoy them, talk about them, and ask for more. The staff members work to create an asset-rich environment around each young person who comes through the system.
Each youth at the detention center is paired with a mentor on staff. Right away, each young person is connected with a caring adult they can talk to, do activities with, and who will develop a positive relationship with them. These relationships help develop positive support systems for the youth, tying in both the Developmental Assets and the Step Up program.
The Step Up program is a juvenile justice model that focuses on attaining a set of outcomes for all youth in the court system. The outcomes the program wants each young person to strive for are:
- Structured, law-abiding living.
- Restorative accountability.
- Treatment and relapse prevention.
- Self-sufficiency.
- Positive support system development.
The program is used not only in the detention center but also when the youth are on probation. Probation officers are trained to use strength-based models and to focus on the positive attributes of the youth that they are working with, which helps the youth develop confidence and positive self-identity, and leads to positive shifts in behavior.
Through the Step Up program, youth in the detention center have the opportunity to be introduced to a Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) group mentoring program. BBBS volunteers come to the center weekly and lead fun, positive activities in which youth can voluntarily participate. After they have been released from detention and throughout their probationary period, youth have the opportunity to sign up for a group mentoring program through the BBBS. One young man started going to a local boxing gym with the mentoring program and enjoyed it so much that he went back repeatedly, even without his mentors. He got to know the people at the gym, and therefore acquired a number of informal mentors in the community. The key focus of the mentoring program is to give the youth significant opportunities to connect with positive and caring people, places, and activities outside of the juvenile justice and court system.
For more information on the Coconino County Juvenile Court Services and the Step Up program, contact Diedra Silbert, Prevention and Mentoring Supervisor, at dsilbert@courts.az.gov.
The Developmental Asset–building activities used in the detention center and more can be found in The Best of Building Assets Together: Favorite Group Activities That Help Youth Succeed, Jolene L. Roehlkepartain, Search Institute, 2007.
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