Community Connections

LGBTQ Youth Fact Sheet

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:32:52 -0500

LGBTQ youth are resilient, powerful, skillful community builders and are becoming
advocates for themselves.

Prepared by the LGBTQ Community Center
www.gaycenter.org

FACT SHEET

REPORT: Heroin - A Growing Problem

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:01:23 -0500

Report on the growing number of heroin related deaths in Dane County. The WKOW report also covers treatment available in the area. Connections Counseling in Madison has been successful in helping area youth and their families in the recovery process - most notably those with heroin addiction issues.

READ THE ARTICLE

Intervene - A blog for concerned parents

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 21:46:47 -0500

About This Blog

Welcome to Intervene. We are a community of experts, parents and caring adults concerned about our teens’ alcohol and drug use and have come together to share our insights, inspiration, guidance and help.

Collaborative Systems of Care

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 14:27:42 -0600

Wisconsin's Collaborative Systems of Care go by many names: the Coordinated Services Team Initiative (CST), Wraparound, the Integrated Services Projects (ISP), and "Children Come First". All of these approaches have been designed to respond to individuals and families with multiple, often serious needs in the least-restrictive setting possible.
They are not specific programs or services, rather; they define a process that is based on family and community values that is unconditional in its commitment to creatively address needs.
Creative services are developed by a client-centered team that support normalized, community-based options. Each team develops an individualized plan, which incorporates strengths of the participant and team to address needs. Participants are equal partners and have ultimate ownership of the plan.
*See WCSOC Website for more information:
Wisconsin’s Collaborative Systems of Care (WCSOC)

WCSOC Website sponsored by:
White Pine Consulting Service, Inc.

Bill of Rights for Youth in Juvenile Justice System

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 13:54:08 -0600

Strength-Based Bill of Rights for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System

1. I have the right to be viewed as a person capable of changing, growing and becoming positively connected to my community no matter what types of delinquent behavior I have committed.
2. I have a right to participation in the selection of services that build on my strengths.
3. I have a right to contribute things I am good at and other strengths in all assessment and diagnostic processes.
4. I have a right to have my resistance viewed as a message that the wrong approach may be being used with me.
5. I have the right to learn from my mistakes and to have support to learn that mistakes don’t mean failure. I have the right to view past maladaptive or antisocial behaviors as a lack of skills that I can acquire to change my life for the better.
6. I have the right to experience success and to have support connecting previous successes to future goals.
7. I have the right to have my culture included a strength and services which honor and respect my cultural beliefs.
8. I have the right to have my gender issues recognized as a source of strength in my identity.
9. I have the right to be assured that all written and oral, formal and informal communications about me include my strengths as well as needs.
10. I have a right to surpass any treatment goals which have been set too low for me, or to have treatment goals which are different than those generally applied to all youth in the juvenile justice system.
11. I have a right to be served by professionals who view youth positively, and understand that motivating me is related to successfully accessing my strengths.
12. I have a right to have my family involved in my experience in the juvenile justice system in a way that acknowledges and supports our strengths as well as needs. I have a right to stay connected to my family no matter what types of challenges we face.
13. I have the right to be viewed and treated as more than a statistic, stereotype, risk score, diagnosis, label or pathology unit.
14. I have a right to a future free of institutional or systems involvement and to services which most centrally and positively focus on my successful transition from institutions.
15. I have the right to service providers who coordinate their efforts and who share a united philosophy that the key to my success is through my strengths.
16. I have the right to exercise my developmental tasks as an adolescent; to try out new identities; to learn to be accountable and say I’m sorry for the harm I’ve caused others – all of which is made even more difficult if I’m labeled a “bad kid.”
17. I have the right to be viewed and treated as a redeemable resource and a potential leader and success of the future.

- Developed by Laura Burney Nissen, Ph.D., MSW, CAC III, 1998