“Holy Ground”: How Faith Grounds Youth at MacLaren
At MacLaren, faith can be simultaneously vibrant and deeply personal. In some ways, that makes sense: a difference in identity can become another source of division or conflict. Yet in speaking with youth from different faith backgrounds, it’s clear that spirituality grounds their experiences of the justice system. As youth are removed from their communities, ...
Honoring Effort, Persistence, and Growth at MacLaren’s Lord High School
At MacLaren’s Lord High School, educators have begun a new practice: recognizing students of the month from among its roughly 90 high school students. Recognition is one of the school’s core values, developed cooperatively by school and MacLaren staff as part of a broader effort to build a shared organizational culture supported by a partnership with Breakfree Education. Students may be recognized for academic accomplishment, but they ...
Mentorship in Practice: Finding The Next Step Together
January is National Mentoring Month, and OYA celebrates the many mentors who support youth on their journey to become productive, crime-free adults. Much of this work unfolds in small moments, such as a November coffee between a youth and his mentor, Andre White. Mr. White arranged the coffee after the youth shared that he needed to start earning money. Mr. White then reached out to an organization that could help the ...
“People in the community that care”: Supporting Youth With Thanksgiving Boxes
For many justice-involved youth, the holidays can be complicated. Some come from families facing food insecurity or unstable housing. Others live in homes where resources are stretched thin, or where family relationships make large holiday meals difficult to navigate. For OYA’s parole and probation officers, supporting youth means paying attention to these realities – not ...
“Those Are My Kids”: Presenters Share Why They Joined One of OYA’s Career Fair
Returning to MacLaren for October’s career fair gave Enrique an opportunity to reflect on how his life had changed since he was a kid. Years ago, he was a youth there – making some of the same kinds of choices, facing the same kinds of consequences as the youth residing there today. He came back ...