From left, Children, Youth and Families Department Cabinet Secretary Monique Jacobson, Bianca Padilla, and CYFD Deputy Director, Nick Costales,, at the presentation ceremony.

By Mary Alice Murphy

Bianca Padilla, Juvenile Probation Office program coordinator in Silver City, recently was honored at the Children's Law Institute conference. She received notice: "On behalf of the Children's Law Institute and the Supreme Court of New Mexico we would like to inform you that you have been selected as the winner of The Juvenile Justice Excellence Award."

The reader will soon learn why she received this honor.

She recently attended a CLI workshop and made a presentation titled, "How to Grow Roses in Concrete."

Padilla noted in her presentation that the participants in the workshop, whether judges, attorney, law enforcement, protective services worker, juvenile probation officers, community providers or youth advocates, had the commonality of having troubled youths in their communities.

Before they become delinquent, these youths are often identified as "at-risk."

She said they require ongoing educational support to remain and succeed in school, are less likely to transition successfully into adulthood, have had and continue to have chaotic home lives, express little hope for their future, experience a high incidence of abuse, and have limited options and access to services and resources.

"These youth are 'roses trying to grow in concrete," Padilla said. "It is not their choice as to what family they are born into. We may not have much influence on their home environment, but we can still help them grow by assisting them to meet their basic needs to become the best version of themselves."

She pretended to give everyone a magic wand and asked each to write down three things they would change in their community to help address the problem. She said the items would be addressed later in the workshop.

Padilla then started listing some of the things that Grant County has put into place to help at-risk youths and their families. "We hope to inspire you and encourage you."

She presented four key points: the comprehensive continuum of youth services in Grant County; the program's evolution; outcomes, successes and barriers; and how to build/strengthen the continuum in each of the participant's communities.

The foundation of Grant County continuum has four pillars to its foundation: building relationships, developing existing natural partnerships, leveraging the JPO and sustainability, with efficient use of resources.

She said the continuum continues to evolve and mature. Three new pieces have been added in the past few years in response to identified common community needs. They include the need to break the cycle of abuse and dysfunction in multi-generational families. "At one point, we had 14 adjudicated clients, all first-cousins, on probation at the same time."

They also determined the need for competency development and job-skills training among the youth, and the need for alternative education and educational support services.

The Strengthening Families Program focuses attention on communication, conflict management, and activity-based familial engagement. It delays the onset of adolescent substance abuse, lower levels of aggression in youth, increases resistance to peer pressure, reduces youth conduct problems in school and improves parenting skills.

Another part of the continuum is the Community Youth Building Program, which allows community leaders and volunteers to participate in restorative practices and provide informal mentorship to youths. The youths construct within the community meaningful projects that teach competency skills, create a sense of ownership among the youths and a sense of appreciation from the community and develop marketable job skills for youths. She gave credit to Gary Stailey who manages the program now, and is the retired JPO coordinator.

The youths have worked in 21 different worksites across Grant County, and about 70 unduplicated mentors have interacted with the youths.

A win-win partnership has been established among the schools to create the JPO School, which was started to provide credit recovery for students suspended or expelled. An agreement was reached with collaborating partners to add a "provisional expulsion," which temporarily transfers the student from the school's campus to the JPO School, without dis-enrolling them. After implementation of the provisional expulsion, no middle school or high school students were fully expelled for the fiscal year 2014-15 school year.

Thirteen students diverted from full expulsion maintained credit with a 3.08 grade point average. Sixty-nine short-term suspended students maintained grades and credits. Seven middle school students transitioned to high school and increased their math skills by two to three grade levels.

"As we are able to break unhealthy cycles in our community, we begin to start new healthy norms and traditions," Padilla said.

The youths have an increased value placed on education, quality of life will be improved and it increases the family's options.

"In FY2014-15, we served about 1,329 unduplicated youth. It translates into 46.4 percent of youths in the county aged 10-18, at a cost of $125 per youth," Padilla said. "We also served more than 155 unduplicated adults through our programming of Personal Responsibility and Family Parenting Circles.

"We are focused on serving the prevention and early intervention side of the spectrum," she continued. "When we started, we were averaging 110 new delinquent referrals per month. We now average 18 new delinquent referrals a month. Only one to two youths per year are committed to a juvenile correctional facility compared to the pre-1997 number of 12 to 18 per year."

She said many of the youths have built lasting relationships with community members. The public is safer, and law enforcement is having less contact with juvenile offenders.

Padilla noted that substance abuse among youths in the community has not decreased. "Now we are adding new partnersG