You are only as good as the people above you.  Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention took this motto to heart with a three-day training session for ETEAM, Area Administrators, and Youth Development Center Directors in mid-June.  The training focused on strategies for successful implementation of the therapeutic environment and planning for the training of the rest of the Department’s supervisors.  Youth counselor expectations, professionalism, management learning theory, motivation systems, and coaching were some of the topics discussed.

The training of Department managers and supervisor’s comes on the heels of the completion of the Therapeutic Environment Training (TET) for staff at all five youth development centers.  The Department now has all five youth development centers implementing therapeutic environments.

Meanwhile, court services staff continue to plan the training structure for TET within court services.  The TET training within court services will incorporate similar tools as well as focus on developing a standardized service planning format within the training curriculum.  In addition, detention center staff and clinical staff have begun to modify the curriculum in order to address specific needs within the detention center setting.   The detention center training is focused on development of a curriculum that applies to a short-term custody environment.   Both court services and detention center staff are meeting in mid-July to finalize their planning processes.

The therapeutic environment training is a curriculum that delivers skills and knowledge, as well as assesses competency development.  It gives staff tools to create a therapeutic, teaching environment and will result in the implementation of an environment in which youth receive education and treatment in ways that promote the development of needed skills and life changes.