Doing Time With Our Boys: Family & Community Engagement Strategies for Reaching Adjudicated Boys and their Families

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

Marina V. Gillmore, Full Circle Press and Educational Outreach CenterFollow
Bettye BlaizeFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Full Circle Press and Educational Outreach Center & The University of Redlands

Second Presenter's Institution

The Cambio Group

Third Presenter's Institution

N/A

Fourth Presenter's Institution

N/A

Fifth Presenter's Institution

N/A

Location

Plimsoll

Strand #1

Family & Community

Strand #2

Safety & Violence Prevention

Relevance

This presentation will address the importance that family and community engagement (strand V) plays in increasing the success of adjudicated boys and young men once they re-enter schools and communities post-incarceration. The presentation will also look at the ways in which juvenile justice programs (strand III) can be structured to meet the multi-faceted and deep needs of boys and young men during their incarcerations so that they are more successful upon re-entereing their schools and communities post-incarceration. In particular, the presentation will include research-based strategies that have been proven effective in increasing the academic, social, and emotional success of boys who have faced incarceration.

Brief Program Description

This interactive workshop will include hands-on applications to engage families and communities in serving adjudicated boys in their time post-incarceration. Participants will participate in a case study simulation that connects cutting-edge research from the fields of social justice, restorative justice, and trauma-informed care with solution-based strategies for working collaboratively to develop best practices and comprehensive programing that addresses the effects of incarceration on boys, their families, and their communities.

Summary

According to the Annie E. Casey foundation, "African American youth are nearly five times as likely to be confined as their white peers. Latino and American Indian youth are between two and three times as likely to be confined. The disparities in youth confinement rates reflect a system that treats youth of color, particularly African Americans and Latinos, more punitively than similar white youth." Additionally, boys are up to ten times as likely to be incarcerated than their female counterparts. Research also supports the need for more comprehensive, holistic, and long-range programs to ensure that boys who re-enter schools and communities after incarceration are able to be successful not only academically, but also socially and emotionally. This interactive workshop will take a critically reflective look at this core need and will address the question of how we can collectively engage multiple stakeholders, including families and community members, around holistic and comprehensive practices and programs serving boys during their time of re-entry post-incarceration. Using foundational principles from the fields of social justice, equity pedagogy, restorative justice, and trauma informed care, this workshop will particularly focus on strategies to meet the needs of some of our our most disenfranchised, underserved, and at-risk youth. Participants will engage in a case study simulation and roundtable and jigsaw discussions, among other hands-on activities, to help them create strategies that will work within the frameworks of their existing programs. The session will provide tools that programs can share with families to expand upon program work. Using recent national data, participants will leave with recommendations for best practices to enhance the future opportunities of the boys they serve, and will be equipped with strategies and resources they can use immediately with their youth and families.

Evidence

Using research from the fields of social justice, equity, restorative justice, and trauma informed care, this presentation will include over 20 practical and research-based strategies that service providers can being to implement immediately with the youth and families they serve daily.

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Marina Gillmore is an educator, author, and social justice thought leader who has built her career around working with youth and teaching, training, researching and writing about equity, social justice, belief and value exploration, and self-efficacy. She holds a doctorate in Leadership for Educational Justice and has conducted award-winning research on the underserved youth in urban environments. Her work as a scholar-practitioner in the field of social justice comes from her passion for deconstructing the complexities of injustices in our society and using the power of the personal story to incite deep conversations and transformations centered around how our perceptions and belief systems impact everything we do. A teacher at heart, Dr. Gillmore has taught extensively in traditional and non-traditional settings at the K-12 and university levels.

Ms. Bettye Blaize is a youth and family advocate, author, and mother of a son who spent over ten years in prison. Her recently penned autobiographical narrative, Doing Time with my Son: A Mother and Son's Enduring Love through Incarceration (Full Circle Press, 2016) is being met with widespread acclaim with practitioners and parents alike.

Keyword Descriptors

boys; incarceration; diversity; equity; family and community engagement; social-emotional competencies;

Presentation Year

2017

Start Date

3-6-2017 3:00 PM

End Date

3-6-2017 4:15 PM

Recommended Citation

Gillmore, Marina V. and Blaize, Bettye, "Doing Time With Our Boys: Family & Community Engagement Strategies for Reaching Adjudicated Boys and their Families" (2017). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 39.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2017/2017/39