BBBS mentoring activities elucidate the rationale for performing those activities that connect youth and older non-familial adults together in meaningful and productive relationships. The programs entail chapters in various cities and counties so as to mentor and inter-generate a common platform to address specific developmental needs of at-risk children and youth irrespective of racial or cultural groups. This paper analyzes the local chapter of Anchorage Alaska and explores design and effectiveness of mentoring and intergenerational programs held in the chapter.
Alaska municipality in 2008 announced partnership with employees and businesses to support community efforts. BBBS of Alaska is now considered as one of the most successful youth mentoring programs nationwide which also conducts ‘Amachi’ program aimed at providing mentors to children who have one or more parents in prison. While conducting one-to-one relationships, BBBS ‘Amachi program is the result of dedication and partnership between secular and faith-based organizations that work in one direction to provide emotional and physical mentoring to children of imprisoned parents (Amachi, 2009). Children of prisoners are identified by various faith institutions and local human service providing agencies and are then matched with caring and needy adults. Besides running the model program, Amachi provides training and technical assistance to the newly established programs nationwide and even provides custom support to the newly hired staff.
Many people believe that Amachi is a diversion program which is well known for the use of discretion handling juvenile cases informally by either giving a warning, releasing juveniles into the custody of their parents, or referring them to a social agency. Non serious acts of adults are considered in such mentoring programs where they are filtered out of the system, adults accuse of serious behaviors, such as rape, murder, and robbery, are referred to the juvenile court system by the police. “Alaska BBBS have been under constant pressure from private and public agencies, juvenile court judges, class-action lawsuits, physicians, and various other stakeholder groups to be held accountable for the effects of their services” (Massinga & Pecora, 2004). Such belief and debate over why black youths are overrepresented in juvenile institutions may has continued for the reason that it is not quite clear whether this over representation is due to the black youths’ involvement in more serious offenses or discrimination in the juvenile justice system. Since the rate of incarceration is greatest in the United States with 7.2 million people behind bars, therefore such programs are not adequate to serve such children who are in need of psychological fostering (Incarceration, 2009).
However research suggests that diversion programs in Alaska that used to be available have disappeared, leaving the juvenile justice system with fewer options and thus contributing to the high rate of incarceration of blacks and other minorities. This is the reason for why contemporary social and legal research witnesses that there is no more prevalence of diversion programs. On this behalf one would easily categorize BBBS ‘Amachi’ program as a prevention program that believes in one-to-one mentoring to improve a child’s self concept towards education and peer relationships. Blatt (2000) points out that children in the juvenile justice system are not taken proper care of because of limited facilities in the detention which are often not communicable with adults who are incarcerated (Blatt, 2000, p. 6).
Community based and site based mentoring programs offered by Municipality of Alaska improves youth and make them capable of making their own decisions and this is because of the confidence Amachi has given to the youth in terms of better education, health and public safety guidelines (VolunteerMatch, 2009). The programs are not limited to incarcerated children and also involves disabled and psychological disordered children who require custom attention of their mentors. Therefore BBBS services can create juvenile jealousies among other social services sector, particularly those who racially discriminate. This can lead children to suffer as juvenile offenders in the adult court, however the pragmatic realization that children convicted of serious crimes in the adult court will return to society as relatively young men and women lends powerful support to the goal of rehabilitation as the dominant rationale for juvenile sentences. For instance had I decided to deny Amanda youthful offender treatment and sentence her to the maximum term permissible for the crime of robbery in the second degree under the juvenile offender law, she would return to society before she was 20 years of age with a felony conviction on her record.
The theoretical solution of dealing with territorial jealousies and suspicion is the prevalence of strong foundations that does not act independently of each other, but with coordination and collaboration. This way foundations may legitimately have different approaches to juvenile justice reform, but through the same model of justice system that work for the purpose of bringing together core objectives of the same model. A consortium can pool resources and talent to create a formidable fund which will in turn support a movement against territorial jealousies that will be influential enough to effect meaningful reform.
The goals of BBBS and the juvenile system are almost the same with some exceptions on the medical ground. Youth advocates understand and emphasize upon the need for more effective diversion of youth to mental health programs conducted in BBBS, in lieu of juvenile justice processing. Therefore children suffering from mental disorders would benefit the most from BBBS because of the reason that the opportunities of receiving proper treatment available in BBBS is not present in the juvenile system. Another reason to prefer BBBS upon juvenile justice system is that youths with psychological disorders who are arrested on minor or first time offenses are likely to be better served by receiving mental health services in BBBS than by entering the juvenile justice process because of the love and care they receive from BBBS. However, for youngsters who are to be taken to juvenile justice system, lacks many remedial treatment like lack of emergency mental health services (Grisso et al, 2005, p. 34), which need to be improved for this will facilitate contiguous response to crisis conditions that are prevalent among teenagers such as risk of suicide, prevalence of symptoms before they reach critical levels, and high risk consequences or alcohol or drug dependence (ibid).
It is found out that juvenile justice programs are not efficient for rehabilitation development as it is noted that youths suffering from mental disorders under juvenile justice programs are required to seek correctional adjustments. On the other hand, youths in BBBS does not have to seek any medical treatment, as it is part of their program. When youths with mental disorders are delinquent, their delinquencies are often related in some way to their psychological weaknesses or disorders. Thus juvenile justice programming must include better resources and clearer plans for addressing youths’ mental disorders as part of their rehabilitation.
The fundamental characteristic of BBBS programs that may prevent juvenile delinquency is that they judge children as children and not adults. Amachi program is a project on mentoring that has taken its own course as various ideas about what mentoring might mean are escorted by potential members of BBBS struggling to understand whether their ideas were ‘legitimate’ or not (Corriero, 2006, p. 6). Those who joined the group whether teachers or students became more and more open, empowering themselves to decide what ‘counted’ as a worthwhile perspective to share about mentoring theory and practice. All the members of the program go along with children as if they are part of the real family and become navigators who support each other while learning from one another in exploring meaningful ideas and practices of mentoring within a range of relationships, programs, and activities.
BBBS offers a vast and intricate range of child welfare services in an informal manner to help the child build his/her confidence and has emerged to help meet the needs of vulnerable children and youths. Unlike other welfare services, BBBS is not limited to provide assistance in preventive programs such as child guidance clinics, various outpatient and in-patient psychiatric settings, juvenile delinquency services, day care, and various types of educational and out-of-home care programs. BBBS provide assistance on a one-to-one mentoring basis which could allow anyone to spend a suitable amount of time with his/her desired child. This also grooms the inner capabilities of children, while at the same time protecting them from physical and psychological harm and promoting their development into adults who can live independently and make their own decisions. The characteristic that makes BBBS unique is that it does not plant in the minds of children any racial discrimination, and mentors them to love every color of human kind. Other public and private child welfare agencies do not bother to consider such issues and don’t even offer a on-to-one relationship due to which the psychological knots embedded deep within the personalities of children are never untied.
The outcomes for youths in care and foster care alumni needs municipalities to exercise more caution because youth outcomes are affected by variables outside the control of those providing services (Massinga & Pecora, 2004). Although up till now, no inherent weaknesses are observed but there is a threat of adolescent pregnancy in the program since teenage pregnancy is a high-risk experience for both mother and child throughout United States and is prevalent in among all social voluntary programs among children. Pregnant adolescents are much less likely to rely on their elder ones for obtaining prenatal care than their older counterparts. Further escalated by problems like complications in childbirth, low birth weight of their children, and increased risk of premature birth are among the health risks to the adolescent and her child. Lack of family and spousal support, poverty, inadequate health care, lack of information about child development and parenting, a scarcity of other needed supports and resources, and the challenge of assuming parenting roles while still maturing herself all serve to constrain an adolescent mother’s ability to adequately meet her child’s as well as her own needs. These are the risks associated by the voluntary programs but since BBBS considers each and every aspect of children care, the risk gets minimized when children are trained and educated to cope up with every problem of their lives. Child welfare service which is also provided by each state’s juvenile court system, does not allow the state agency to place a child in foster care without the court’s approval.
References
- Amachi, 2009.
- Blatt Susan Mcnair, (2000) A Guidebook for Raising Foster Children: Bergin and Garvey: Westport, CT.
- BBBS, 2008.
- Corriero A. Michael, (2006) Judging Children as Children: A Proposal for a Juvenile Justice System: Temple University Press: Philadelphia.
- Grisso Thomas, Vincent Gina & Seagrave Daniel, (2005) Mental Health Screening and Assessment in Juvenile Justice: Guilford Press: New York.
- Incarceration, 2009.
- Massinga Ruth & Pecora J. Peter, (2004) ‘Providing Better Opportunities for Older
- Children in the Child Welfare System’, The Future of Children. Volume: 14. Issue:1, p. 150.
- VolunteerMatch, 2009.