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There are six program elements that are the core for YESS. These elements are:
1. Safe School Environment
2. Violence/Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Prevention and Education
3. Mental Health Services
4. Early Childhood Prevention Services
5. Parent and Community Involvement
6. School Reform Policies
Now lets break these elements down one by one so that you understand how they impact school, community and families.
SAFE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
In order for students to succeed they must feel safe within their environment. Joliet Township High School is dedicated with safety committees that address the security needs within the school. They are receptive to YESS involvement. This collaboration led to the following accomplishments:
Will County Juvenile Probation Officers to be housed within the schools. These officers are forms of natural surveillance that provide support and accountability to students on probation. In addition, they are an added support for the deans and counselors.
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) training was held in September, 2005 by the Joliet Police Department. Tours of the campuses led to changes needed environmentally to enhance the safety of the campuses.
Building a team of Security Personnel with ongoing training and support. Two new Security Supervisors were hired by Joliet Township High School. Therefore, a new opportunity for further development.
RETA Security completed a security management plan with each campus. This reviewed the successes and needs of the campuses to ensure a safe school.
VIOLENCE/ALCOHOL, TOBACCO AND OTHER DRUG PREVENTION AND EARLY INTERVENTION
It is very important that students receive education and support for substances on all three levels: universal, intervention and treatment. In order to accommodate these needs, many opportunities for students are provided. There are clubs, support groups, educational groups, individual help and treatment options. Because of YESS, services are at no cost to the families without means to pay. Listed below are clubs, groups and community partners who are directly connected to violence and substance abuse.
Clubs – Each main campus has clubs for students to attend who want to promote a substance free way of living.
CENTRAL | WEST |
| CASA – Central Against Substance Abuse | No Name Club |
| Reality Check Skit Team | Fingerprints |
| TATU (Teens Against Tobacco Use) | TATU |
| Target |
Support Groups – Each campus has support groups that provide students an opportunity to receive education and way to cope on such topics as: anger management, grief and loss, substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, health and peer pressures. Specific YESS partners assist with specific topics, for example:
B.E.S.T. – Building Esteem Support Team provides 12 week sessions specifically on anger management. Students learn ways to manage their anger differently and find purpose in life.
Guardian Angel Home – provides groups to students who want to learn about healthy relationships, are experiencing violence or sexual assault. These groups discuss such areas as healthy boundaries, communication, instinct and understanding feelings.
Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center – educates students on substance abuse. It helps students to understand how substances influence them physically, emotionally and mentally.
Will County Mental Health Youth Services – conducts groups on anger management, peer pressures and grief and loss. They utilize their counseling skills to help educate students with the best ways to cope, communicate and succeed in school. There groups are psycho educational and not therapeutic.
Individual supports – Every student is an individual. Therefore, it is important that we provide a variety of options for students so that they do not fall through the cracks. Some students need the one on one attention. YESS partners who provide this are:
Guardian Angel Community Services will see students at the school who are victims of violence or sexual assault.
Provena will provide individual consultation to students.
These services are at no cost to the family and help eliminate such barriers as transportation. Parental involvement is very important. Parental consent is needed to access these services.
Treatment – Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center provides the opportunity for students to receive Intensive Outpatient Treatment. This is an intensive outpatient program for students who are using substances. It is a supportive and family involved approach. This is provided at not cost to families who cannot afford it.
MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
With YESS, Will County Mental Health Youth Services are integrated in the schools at the main campuses. They are becoming an important part of the Pupil Personnel Systems’ teams. Administration, teachers, counselors, social workers, parents and students are seeing the need for mental health services in the school.
The unique concept of mental health and YESS is the ability to provide services to students who are at risk of falling through the cracks. Whether it is due to money, time, transportation or level of illness, many teens are not able to access mental health services. These counselors are housed within the schools and will see students who range from needing someone to talk to get ‘over the hump’ to those with severe mental illness.
In addition, their assessment capabilities and links to the community allow the access to some mental health services quicker than before. This combination can lead to resources for students and families that may not have been accessed. A youth services counselor can be an advocate that some parents are not capable of being. These counselors know the system and because they do, can guide parents.
EARLY CHILDHOOD PREVENTION SERVICES
It is our goal to see that our students who have children 1) finish school and 2) become the best educators for their children possible. Joliet Township and YESS provide the following resources to assist these young parents.
Joliet Township High School Infant Child Care Center. This certified center provides quality child care so teen parents can stay in school. Every morning the teens must attend a class that focuses on parenting and life skills. In addition, the center provides field trips, banquets, picnics and guest presenters for increased exposure to outside career and bonding experiences.
Child Care Resource and Referral provides workshops for teen parents and their caregivers that focuses on learning through play. After attending the workshops, families take home the learning kits so that the play continues at home. Books are provided because reading is strongly encouraged with play.
Healthy Families Illinois is housed within the school. The Family Support Worker is an educator, resource and advocate. She works to build relationships with the young parents at school and in the home. The Florida based curriculum, Partners for a Healthier Baby, is used to guide the visits to enhance confidence in parenting.
B.E.S.T. – Building Esteem Support Team provide workshops to teen parents regarding life skills, consequences and managing anger.
PARENTAL AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Parents are the number one link for student success. It is very important that they be involved in the YESS initiative. In order to create a collaboration with school, community, students and parents, YESS continues to build the foundation. It took some time to get the logistics figured out. Now we plan to increase parent and student involvement by doing the following:
Shout Outs is a way for parents to get a positive message out to their teen.
Involvement in the Community Partnership Implementation Meetings. These meetings are monthly and would benefit with parental involvement.
Invite parents to become involved with the parent involvement committee. We need parents to be involved with how to get the messages of YESS out to families.
YESS is planning to host trainings, events and opportunities for families to get involved. Parents are an important component for success.
In order to increase community involvement, YESS took the focus of after school opportunities. Three organizations focus on this:
Joliet Park District is working with Joliet Township and YESS to enhance the Intramural Sports Program. Not all students make the team. The main goal is to provide additional athletic opportunities for students. This may be bowling, Frisbee golf, softball, and volleyball.
United Way of Will County provides community service opportunities to students. All students must have 40 community service hours to graduate. These opportunities are directly with organizations that serve others.
YMCA focuses on career and achievement. Their program is called the ‘Achievers’ program. The meet after school and focus on the 40 assets of development. From there, they look at career goals and ways to meet those goals. A field trip to colleges and graduation ceremony are ways to celebrate all of the hard work.
SCHOOL REFORM POLICIES
Nothing should ever stay the same. It is important that we continue to look at school policies to make sure that our schools are safe and supportive of student success. A primary link to student success is attendance. If a student does not attend, he/she cannot succeed. Most likely he/she will not finish school. Together with Aunt Martha’s, we will address truant behavior. A truant is a student who has more than the number of absences the school can allow. Parents are held responsible for their student attending. Because of this, Joliet Township wants to be proactive. With YESS and Aunt Martha’s Youth Services, we have Check and Connect Monitors in the school.
Check and Connect is a school completion program that is evidence based. These Check and Connect Monitors do exactly what their title states they do. They check on the student to make sure that they are in school. In addition, they will check on their grades and provide supports where needed. The second part is to connect with the student and family. Building a relationship is the key. Families are more likely to work to make change if they have a connection to someone in the school.
YESS and Joliet Township will continue to work together to provide services and address school policies in areas that affect students. We will assess students, personnel and families to help guide the direction and intensity of services. With those assessments we will evaluate the effectiveness.
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