Youth Services
Programs for At-Risk/Troubled Youth
Employee & Family Resources provides multi-cultural, multi-lingual services for non-majority population youth and their families, in school, home and community settings.
Project Uplift
Project Uplift focuses on at-risk and high-risk youth and families, providing them with case management services in a variety of languages (including Spanish, Tai Dam, Laotian and Bosnian). Through this highly individualized, client- and family-centered program, Project Uplift case managers work with the youth, their parents, juvenile court officers, and social service providers to develop individualized action plans that target various life and learning skills. Youth and their families receive specialized assistance in such areas as educational goals (it. grades and attendance), career/vocational planning, legal advocacy, communication skills, family relationship development, interpretation and access services, positive social competencies, and so on.
Based on wraparound case management principles, Project Uplift connects high-risk youth to available community programs and services determined needed in the individualized plan. Where language is a barrier, the Project Uplift case manager provides interpretation or translation services as necessary. In situations where needed services do not exist in the community, Project Uplift staff may advocate for the development of the service, or, if within their competence and training, offer the service directly to the youth, a parent, or the guardian (depending on the nature of the problem or need).
Project Uplift also offers relationship building and positive parenting techniques related to adjusting to new cultural values and norms. Immigrant and refugee families often face problems with their school-aged children because of language barriers and cultural differences. Because children are much more quick to become acculturated, parents often struggle with their own authority and influence, and fear the loss of cultural identity for their children. Project Uplift case managers—typically from the same culture—provide translation and interpreter services for school meetings, correspondence, and the like, to aid parents in understanding their changing children.
Project Uplift case managers take pride in making every effort to assist youth and families in achieving success and self-reliance in the community and their homes.
For more information about Employee & Family Resources services for Youth, please contact Monica Wilke-Brown at 515-471-2335.
Rethinking Drinking
The Rethinking Drinking program provides an opportunity for first time offenders to avoid an arrest and potential prosecution on the charge of Underage Possession of Alcohol in exchange for their participation in a five-hour interactive education class. Law enforcement officers can offer a referral to the program in lieu of issuing a ticket (arrest) at the scene of the offense.
The class was designed based on restorative justice principles and focuses on youth taking responsibility for their decisions to drink, identifying the harm/impacts of their decision, and identifying ways to repair those harms. Throughout the sessions, youth receive information and data about alcohol use, especially use by youth under the age of 21. They are also asked to examine the series of decisions that lead to their contact with the police and their subsequent referral to the program.
Youth are required to attend classes with a parent. Sessions are facilitated by trained facilitators and are held on two evenings- 2 ½ hours each. At the end of the sessions, each youth signs an agreement to do 3-5 things that will help to repair the harm that their offense caused to themselves, their family and/or the community. Successful completion of the program is achieved once the youth has completed the items on their agreement and verified completion with the program coordinator. If they do not successfully complete all conditions of the program, their case is forwarded on to the Polk County Attorney’s office for prosecution. For more information contact Monica Wilke-Brown at 515-471-2335.