Using RSVP volunteers in juvenile detention centers
Abstract
At-risk youth often can benefit from hearing how others have overcome adversity and turned their lives around. RSVP volunteers in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, provide support, wisdom and advice to youth in juvenile detention centers to help them make positive life choices.Issue
Juveniles in detention centers are often there for lack of role models and mentors in their lives. Experiencing the support of seniors may have positive repercussions in helping to turn their lives around.Action
Volunteers from the RSVP program in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, spend about an hour a week interacting with juveniles in a detention center. The youth and adults interact in small groups sharing personal stories, such as how families overcame adversity. At the end of the session, the juvenile completes an evaluation and can submit a written request for a one-on-one visit with a volunteer. This is where the real work is done. Oftentimes the juvenile opens up and reveals his fears and lets down his guard with the volunteer. In follow-up sessions, the youngsters set goals to pursue after leaving the detention center.
The juveniles are not required to visit with a volunteer but are "encouraged" by the center's director. Once in a while, the director will not allow someone to go if they are out of control at the time, although he has often remarked on the calming effect the RSVP volunteers have on the youth.
The format is kept relatively unstructured. The volunteers receive ongoing support and training from the RSVP program coordinator. The training sessions allow them to share strategies and concerns, and to participate in presentations on anger, gang awareness, oppositional defiant disorder, and adolescent mental health issues. A precise volunteer job description has helped identify the RSVP volunteers who can best work with the youth. Job description/responsibilities include:
- Stimulate discussion and informal activities among teens/pre-teens in a detention center
- Converse
- Play board and card games
- Act as appropriate role model
- Answer questions and impart knowledge and/or life experience as needed
- Maintain poise and positive demeanor in the face of occasional negativism or acting-out behavior
- Confront or re-direct inappropriate behavior in an effort to sustain the activity or discussion
Required qualifications/skills: Volunteers should be somewhat imperturbable, charismatic, and conversational. Tolerance and patience are desirable, but should be able to confront and possibly defuse minor behavioral problems. Able to advise, teach, or impart life experience without "lecturing" or "moralizing." Able to endure or address occasional indifference, rudeness, or suspicion. Should be capable of presenting "formalized" programs or sessions, as well as being adaptable to the needs or interests of the group.
Lessons learned:
- The RSVP volunteer role is clearly that of friend, confidant and listener.
- The program needed time to develop. Volunteers experimented.
- The ongoing support of the facility administration and staff is vital for continued success.
- Training is necessary, but good, solid volunteer screening is the first step, starting with a strong volunteer description.
- Volunteers with varied backgrounds add to the program's success. The RSVP volunteers include a former smoker with a laryngectomy and others who have dealt with drug and alcohol problems in their families.
- Crucial for success is a volunteer's ability to share experiences and to provide perspective.
Context
The program started in 1997. Twenty RSVP volunteers are active in the program and the detention center now welcomes volunteers two days each week.Outcome
Many of the youth have never had a positive relationship with an adult outside of paid professionals such as teachers, correctional staff, and social workers. The RSVP program gives them an opportunity to talk with a "grandparent" figure who may shake their hand (or show them the correct way to shake hands) and wish them well. Big, tough, street boys have been known to cry and hug the volunteers. They often thank the volunteers for coming and caring.Evidence
One of the staff's greatest challenges has been to measure the program's impact. However, approximately 25 percent of the juveniles request one-on-one visits with an RSVP volunteer.Posted On
April 24, 2001For More Information