On Dakota reservations, in the Kentucky backcountry and in the inner city, juvenile substance abuse is under attack.

This time it's not coming from a law-enforcement crackdown, or from tougher restrictions on underage drinking.

The leaders are not using strict punishment or other reactive measures. They are building relationships and drawing upon the communities' positive assets to surround troubled youths not with reminders of past discretions, but with hope, encouragement and with a genuine interest in their future.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has launched a new initiative that seeks to reduce the significant number of teenage criminals who abuse drugs and alcohol. Its new asset-based treatment plan, being piloted in 10 communities around the country, aims to put these troubled youths on the track toward a healthy and successful life. The program is called Reclaiming Futures.

The goals for Reclaiming Futures, according to Bridgett Jones, Reclaiming Futures' deputy director, is to combat the problem of youth substance abuse, lower the relapse rate for the abusers, and also to save money.

Juvenile justice professionals say it's much less expensive to provide treatment to an individual than to pay for his stay in prison.

Reclaiming Futures chose the pilot communities after processing 237 applications, reviewing more extensive proposals from a smaller group, and conducting site visits with an even narrower bunch. They wanted a diverse set of communities, so they could test their theories under differing conditions.

"It was a deliberate attempt to have a broad spectrum of communities," said Jones.

Based on their willingness to change and their community involvement, among other things, Reclaiming Futures settled on their 10 locations. They include Chicago, Anchorage, Alaska, Southeastern Kentucky, and Rosebud, S.D.

On the Local Level

In the Chicago program, which focuses its attention on the city's largely African-American Lawndale neighborhood, Donald Robinson, the local Reclaiming Futures project director, is creating a way for juvenile justice leaders to know, as soon as a youth appears in court, if he or she is a substance abuser. And if they identify a problem, they prescribe a pro-active and pro-social response.

Robinson said typically a youth's substance abuse problem is not identified until after he or she passes through the court system, usually by a probation officer.

"That doesn't work," Robinson said. "We want to catch kids before they get worse.
We want to, in the court system, screen them for substance abuse."

Then the court, the youth and the family meet for a "wrap-around" planning meeting if early screening shows indications of substance abuse, Robinson said.

"This provides an opportunity for the family to discuss their problems," he said. Once the group creates a method to help the youth, "the family is going to drive that plan," he said. That plan has a lot to do with community support and a focus on the positive things that the youth can offer.

If the teen has a talent as a singer, for example, he might be connected with someone who can help him pursue that talent. At the same time, the youth's family will be included in the process, along with the court. He will get attention from all directions.

According to Maureen McGlone, the Reclaiming Futures project director in Anchorage, Alaska, the treatment that an individual receives depends completely on his or her personality, talents and interests.

"Do they want to learn carpentry? Do they want to learn culinary arts?" said McGlone. Reclaiming Futures helps to match the troubled youths with "natural helpers" that can focus the child on his interests rather than on the pressures that make him break the law.

In Reclaiming Futures' New Hampshire location, the goals are much the same.

"We'd like to be able to know when a kid comes into the program if they have a substance abuse problem," said Maria Gagnon, the New Hampshire project director.

And once the problem is identified, a group of "natural helpers" are assigned to work with the teen. In each of the six cities and towns in New Hampshire where Reclaiming Futures is present, a groups of 15 to 20 individuals-parents, kids, religious leaders, judges, probation officers, and more-from all sectors of that community are available to help the youth succeed by encouraging him to pursue his talents, or checking up on his progress in school.

"What we're hearing form the parents and the kids is the frequent monitoring...and interaction with the judge is really making a difference," said Gagnon.

According to Gagnon, the asset-based model has been working.

This new method of treatment is based on research done at Northwestern University by John McKnight and John Kretzmann called asset-based community development (ABCD).

The ABCD Method

"Good substance abuse prevention...has a lot to do with young people being turned on with something," said Bob Francis, who was a consultant for Reclaiming Futures and created a model called Community Supports for Youth to help them implement the ABCD research.

It's not a "deficits pathology perspective," which has always been used in the past to treat young criminals, said Francis. It's about discovering the skills and interests of the teen, and then enhancing them.

One of the four goals listed in Francis' model states: "Move from a deficits based approach to working with young people toward a way of identifying each young person's gifts and talents and utilizing those talents to help them overcome their problems with drugs and alcohol."

The challenge, according to Gagnon is to bring together all the various groups that can help the youth. For example, rather than only having a court deal with a teen criminal, the new plan involves many other parties in the court process.

"The court has done a really good job at inviting the community in," Gagnon said.

Gagnon told the story of one girl who was a heroine user. She ended up in juvenile drug court-which was recently created in New Hampshire-where she and her family would have to report on a weekly basis.

At first the girl tried to fake her drug tests. But, according to Gagnon, because of the natural helper team wrapping itself around her, she began to turn her life around.

Her grades started to climb. The football coach at her school, who took a liking to her, had her baby-sit for his child. This past spring she graduated from high school with honors and will study art in college in the fall.

Natural helpers often invest themselves deeply into the lives of the youths in New Hampshire, Gagnon said.

According to Gagnon, early on in the treatment when the girl told the judge she planned to get a job at a Hooters restaurant, "the judge said 'absolutely not, I would not allow my daughter to work at Hooters.'"

The girl retorted, "'you're more like my dad than a judge.'"

And that's just the kind of involvement Reclaiming Futures has in mind.

Resources:

To learn more about Reclaiming Futures, visit their website at http://www.reclaimingfutures.org.