Youth Services
Success stories abound in Community Services programming!
Community Services continues to serve the community through well established programs such as Substance Abuse and Violence Prevention, Project Uplift, and Deaf Services. We also continue to see substantial success and growth in newer programs such as Individual and Family Counseling, ReThinking Drinking, and Chance 4 Change.
ReThinking Drinking is a restorative justice program for youth referred for underage possession of alcohol. Youth and their parents participate in the program which helps them take responsibility for their actions, recognize the harms that were caused by their choices around alcohol, and find ways to repair any harm that occurred. Some success stories include:
An 18 year old young man had started isolating himself from his family by spending time drinking with friends or engrossed with computers. The family had began planning an anniversary party for the youth’s grandparents, but he did not want to help prior to participating in this program. As part of the repair of harm to his family, he used his talents with computers to create a DVD with a 45 minute presentation of photos, video clips, music, and text about his grandparents from their wedding day through the 50 years of their marriage. During the completion interview when program staff viewed clips of the DVD, the young man mentioned with sheepish pride that even his grandfather was moved to tears while watching the DVD at the anniversary party.
Another success came from a young woman from a small town outside of Des Moines who had been caught drinking during a state sports tournament. She wrote an insightful article for her local hometown newspaper about the experience of participating in the ReThinking Drinking program. An excerpt from the article follows: "I walked into the classes thinking it was going to be a lecture about how you shouldn’t drink as a teenager, but right away the instructors informed us that they weren’t there to lecture us about underage drinking. They knew we were already aware that it is against the law. Instead, they helped us realize some pretty interesting things about the harms of underage drinking to ourselves, our families, and our community" She then explained in detail the harms she caused and how she planned to repair those harms.