Engage

Dave The Horn Guy ministers to incarcerated youth

2009-11-11T11:29:00.003-05:00

Dave The Horn Guy recently ministered to incarcerated youths in Florida as part of a Breakaway Outreach initiative. Dave is a musician's musician, who owns lots of horns and isn't afraid to use them in amazingly entertaining ways. Dave has performed for The Tonight Show, NBA, MLB, NHL, and churches and schools all over the country. Check him out on America's Got Talent below:

New Motivational Mentoring eWorkbook

2009-06-10T10:28:00.002-04:00

Motivational Mentoring 101 is an eWorkbook for training volunteer adults to work with youths who are going through the struggles of adolescence. MM101 is a simple proven system of strategies, concepts and ideas for motivating at-risk or troubled teens. For more info, visit www.motivationalmentoring101.com.

New ATV racing video resource from Breakaway Outreach

2009-04-27T17:30:00.003-04:00

Breakaway Outreach has finished a new outreach video featuring ATV racing champion Quinn Michael.

Quinn Michael had a life-changing experience while incarcerated over fifteen years ago. After giving his life to Christ in a jail cell, Quinn went on to become a two-time ATV racing champion in the Extreme Dirt Track Nationals.

Read more and watch the video trailer here.

Rock N' Bowl to send at-risk youth to summer camp

2009-03-12T13:53:00.004-04:00

A Perfect Game: You Play and the Kids Win!

It doesn't get any better than that. Bowl for Kids in Crisis is a fundraiser for Breakaway Outreach with proceeds going directly to their summer camp program for children of prisoners and other at-risk youth. These funds are significant in helping Breakaway Outreach build friendships and develop year-round mentoring relationships initiated through a summer adventure camp experience.

With this years theme as Rock n' Bowl 80's Style, the event is sure to be "totally tubular"... costumes, music, team photos, individual and team prizes, and much more! Bowl for Kids in Crisis is for the entire community; anyone can sponsor or bowl.

Super Bowl Outreach Kit

2008-12-31T16:36:00.003-05:00

A great way to reach out to at-risk youth in your community is to host a Super Bowl outreach event. The 2009 Power to Win Halftime Homepak is the perfect resource for your Super Bowl outreach party. The kit includes a video testimony featuring 9-Time All-Pro Derrick Brooks of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and some Christian sports magazines to give away. Check it out here >>

When Church Kids Go Bad

2008-09-18T13:17:00.003-04:00

When Church Kids Go Bad: How to Love and Work with Rude, Obnoxious, and Apathetic Students

You may have an amazing program and be well connected to your students, but that doesn’t always guarantee a problem-free ministry. Whether it’s the guy in the back of the room who’s always causing trouble, or the girl in the corner with a look of indifference, disruptive and apathetic students can hinder the effectiveness of your ministry. But you don’t have to let discipline problems drive you out of youth ministry (or out of your mind!).

Read more...

Breakaway Outreach Volunteer Featured on 700 Club

2008-06-17T08:53:00.004-04:00

Breakaway youth worker Regi Harris on the 700 Club:

Regi has volunteered with Breakaway Outreach for about ten years now, serving as a youth mentor, event speaker, and sports outreach coordinator.

Regi is a former All-American basketball player who made a series of critical decisions starting in college that eventually landed him in a Florida prison. He has a powerful testimony of overcoming addictions through the power of Christ. Regi also serves as athletic coordinator for Breakaway's summer adventure camp for at-risk youth.

Check your local listings to get programming times for your area.

Read more about Regi’s story here…

Pro wrestler talks to juvenile offenders in new video

2008-06-12T15:18:00.005-04:00

In a new video resource for juvenile centers, former pro wrestler and NWA Hall of Famer Nikita Koloff (a.k.a. "The Russian Nightmare") tells his story of growing up as a welfare fatherless child in the projects of Minneapolis with dreams of becoming a pro football player. Nikita challenges youths in a juvenile center to put their faith in Christ.

Find out more here...

Youth Workers as Cross-Cultural Missionaries

2008-05-05T11:24:00.003-04:00

In a recent article, Connie Neal describes what it's like crossing cultural boundaries to reach kids for Christ.

That’s our job as youth workers and volunteers, being cross-cultural missionaries to teens. There’s no way we can adequately do that without going beyond the church walls physically, but we must also understand and use their culture in order to make the gospel relevant. That requires us to go beyond the philosophical walls the church often builds in a sincere attempt to keep Christian kids safe from the world. Case in point: Harry Potter.

We must find useful inroads to kids’ hearts and minds, then build bridges from their culture, back into the Bible, and ultimately into a personal relationship with God. In these endeavors, consider the possibility that Harry Potter could be a godsend!

You may be ready to toss this aside if you’ve already set up camp in anti-Harry territory. I know you’ll get flak, but I urge you to think this through. Here isn’t the place to get into the debate over whether or not Christian kids should read Harry Potter.

As cross-cultural missionaries, we cannot afford to be out of touch with the most influential body of literature to impact any generation of youth in the history of publishing.

We must know why these books have captured the hearts and minds of this generation (as well as many members of older generations). We must know what the Harry Potter phenomenon reveals about the heart-hunger kids today have for the supernatural. We must know how to use the emotional response kids have to these stories so we can connect with them. Lastly, and most importantly, we must know if there are any redemptive analogies in Harry Potter that can be used to do God’s bidding. Indeed, there are and they are rich.

Read the full article here...

Kids and Media Consumption

2008-05-05T11:16:00.000-04:00

Kids between 8 and 18 spend over six hours a day consuming media, and thanks to multitasking (surfing the Web while listening to music), they take in 8 1/2 hours worth of media entertainment and information during those six hours.

Until more kids learn to live without sleeping, it seems that most won't spend more than six hours a day consuming media. "We are approaching (or have reached) a ceiling on media use," say the report authors. But with multitasking on the increase, the intake of more and more kinds of media during that sixhour window is expected to continue growing.

Consuming media isn't the only thing kids do, but it takes up a significant chunk of their daily lives. Here's a look at how much time young people spend on some of the more important activities that fill their days:

Watching TV = 3:04
Hanging out with parents = 2:17
Hanging out with friends = 2:16
Listening to music = 1:44
Exercising, sports, etc. = 1:25
Watching movies/videos = 1:11
Using a computer = 1:02
Pursuing hobbies, clubs, etc. = 1:00

Media is a great leveling influence, and there's amazing uniformity in the consumption patterns of all kinds of kids. The only significant differences are that boys seem to like video games more than girls and African- Americans like TV more than other groups.

NC Takes New Approach to Youth Justice Issues

2008-05-02T15:16:00.000-04:00

DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. – Therapeutic treatment is a core concept state juvenile justice officials want to use in plans to build 15 new youth development centers across North Carolina.

Read the full article here...

The Urban Take: Old School, New School Youth Ministry

2008-05-02T09:08:00.002-04:00

Efrem Smith tackles "Old School, New School Youth Ministry" approaches.

"New school urban youth ministry must focus on a relational approach that goes beyond teaching information about God via Christian education alone to encouraging an intimate relationship with God. This approach is especially needed in a time when inner cities face more hardships, especially broken families, than ever," says Smith.

Read the full article...

National Youth Workers Convention

2008-05-02T09:04:00.000-04:00

Investigating Teens, Pop Culture, and Spirituality

2008-05-02T08:57:00.000-04:00

In an age of Matrix movies and Harry Potter books, it doesn't take a sociologist to prove that spiritual themes and images appear frequently in popular movies, TV shows, and music.

So how do teens deal with the spirituality in pop culture? Read more...

Florida Gang Members to Face Harsher Penalties

2008-05-02T08:38:00.000-04:00

TALLAHASSEE, FL – The Florida Legislature today approved House Bill
(HB) 43, tough anti-gang legislation, championed by Attorney General Bill McCollum and sponsored by Senator Jeff Atwater (R-Palm Beach Gardens) and Representative William Snyder (R-Stuart).

"As Florida fights a growing gang problem, we must give our law
enforcement officers and state prosecutors the tools necessary to win that battle," said Attorney General Bill McCollum. "This legislation provides them with those essential tools, and I appreciate the commitment the Legislature has demonstrated to keeping our neighborhoods and communities safer from gangs and gang violence."

“I am pleased we have been able to move significant penalties to
deter gang violence and gang crime,” said Senator Jeff Atwater, who
sponsored similar legislation (CS/CS/SB 76) in the Florida Senate. “This
problem has been particularly acute in Broward & Palm Beach Counties. This is a good step in getting this statewide problem under control.”

“With more than 1,000 gangs and an estimated 65,000 active members in our State, our law enforcement leaders tell us they need this legislation to effectively combat this growing threat,” said Representative Snyder.

“This bill will help police officers, Sheriffs, and prosecutors throughout
our state fight the scourge of gangs in our communities.”

Expelled: Ben Stein takes on Darwin in new film

2008-04-25T09:56:00.000-04:00

Ben Stein, the lovable, monotone teacher from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "The Wonder Years" is back in the classroom in a major motion picture coming to theatres nationwide April 18th.

But this time, the actor will be on the big screen asking one of life's biggest questions: "Were we designed, or are we simply the end result of an ancient mud puddle struck by lightning?"

That's right. Evolution – and the explosive debate over its virtual monopoly on America's public school classrooms – is the focus of the film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed."

Marvin Olasky of World Magazine says the 100-minute documentary should be "rated R not for sex or violence but for being reasonable, radical, risible, and right." (It is rated PG for thematic material, some disturbing images, and brief smoking.)

In the movie, Stein, who is also a lawyer, economist, former presidential speechwriter, author and social commentator, is stunned by what he discovers – an elitist scientific establishment that has traded in its skepticism for dogma. Even worse, say publicists for the feature film, "along the way, Stein uncovers a long line of biologists, astronomers, chemists and philosophers who have had their reputations destroyed and their careers ruined by a scientific establishment that allows absolutely no dissent from Charles Darwin's theory of random mutation and natural selection."

"Big Science in this area of biology has lost its way," says Stein. "Scientists are supposed to be allowed to follow the evidence wherever it may lead, no matter what the implications are. Freedom of inquiry has been greatly compromised, and this is not only anti-American, it's anti-science. It's anti-the whole concept of learning."

As "Expelled's" official website asks: "What freedom-loving student wouldn't be outraged to discover that his high school science teacher is teaching a theory as indisputable fact, and that university professors unmercifully crush any fellow scientists who dare question the prevailing system of belief? This isn't the latest Hollywood comedy; it's a disturbing new documentary that will shock anyone who thinks all scientists are free to follow the evidence wherever it may lead."

National Youth Gang Symposium

2008-04-23T11:58:00.000-04:00

Victims, schools, communities, and the criminal justice system have all felt the negative impact of youth gangs and violence. A national symposium sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will offer the latest strategies, interventions and community collaborations that have shown effectiveness in addressing youth gangs...

Read more...

Budget Cuts Could End Successful Juvenile Crime Fighting Program

2008-04-23T11:35:00.000-04:00

Orange County deputies are at the state capitol fighting for a program to reduce juvenile crime and keep communities safer. Orange County's Jam Unit was the first in the nation to target hardcore juvenile offenders on probation to make sure they were obeying the law.

The state, though, is cutting funding for the unit despite its proven success at keeping kids from reoffending. The state funds nearly half of its budget or $650,000. If the funding is cut, it could have a big impact on juvenile crime.

Source: WFTV.com

Boot camp to become girls juvenile facility

2008-04-23T11:31:00.000-04:00

STUART — A former juvenile offender boot camp will become a jail for girls with mental health problems who commit crimes throughout South Florida, Martin County commissioners unanimously agreed Tuesday.

"This is one way we can make an impact on future crime," said Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder as commissioners allowed the state to turn the former boot camp into the Girls Intensive Mental Health Commitment Program. "This is some of the wisest money we can spend."

The juvenile facility, next to the Martin County Jail, will hold 30 girls convicted of crimes from South Florida, said Rex Uberman, assistant secretary of residential services for the state Department of Juvenile Justice.

The girls in the program will have mental health issues requiring them to be kept out of regular juvenile jails so they can get treatment, he said.

"If you look at the characteristics of these young women, they are often victims of abuse or neglect themselves," Uberman said.

Crowder ran the former boot camp for boys, which was regarded as one of the best in the state, for years. He closed it in 2006 because of a lack of state money.

The state will pay about $500,000 to repair the building and renovate it and will pay all the costs of running the jail, Uberman said.

Uberman said the new jail probably will open after June. The state will hire a private company to run the facility.

Source: The Palm Beach Post

Lawmakers uncertain how to overhaul juvenile system

2008-04-23T11:28:00.000-04:00

State legislators said yesterday they were outraged - but not surprised - by a Department of Juvenile Services review that revealed more than 100 examples of caseworkers who have failed to contact the young offenders they are supposed to be supervising.

Source: The Baltimore Sun

Juvenile System Not Equipped to Handle Females

2008-04-23T11:23:00.000-04:00

Girls in the juvenile justice system exhibit more risks than do boys for problem behaviors that may lead them to serious trouble, according to new research. Girls had more problems than boys in areas such as family and peer relations, physical health, mental health, traumatic events, and accountability issues.

The only area in which boys showed more risk than girls was in prior criminal offenses.

The results suggest that the juvenile justice system needs to devote more attention and resources to the problems of troubled girls, said Stephen Gavazzi, co-author of the study and professor of human development and family science in the College of Human Ecology at Ohio State University.

"The system has not been built to handle girls' issues," Gavazzi said. "Boys are usually detained as a response to public safety issues, whereas girls are more often detained because of problems in the home. But, by and large, detention facilities were built solely with public safety in mind and not for work with families."

Global Risk Assessment

Gavazzi conducted the study with Courtney Yarcheck, director of the Global Risk Assessment Device Project at Ohio State, and Meda Chesney-Lind of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The study will be published in the journal Criminal Justice and Behavior.

The study involved 305 youth who were housed in the detention facility of a large Ohio juvenile court. The youth were assessed using a measure developed by Gavazzi and his colleagues called the Global Risk Assessment Device (GRAD). The measure is an internet-based assessment tool that asks youth a variety of questions to determine the risks they face for further problems in life.

For example, GRAD asks how often they get into fights with adults in their homes, if they have friends who have been in trouble with the law, and how much trouble they have in controlling their anger.

Risk for Psychopathy

The researchers were not surprised that boys showed higher risk levels than girls in the area of prior offenses, Gavazzi said, and that girls had higher risks for family and parenting issues, mental health, traumatic events and health issues.

But it was surprising that girls exhibited more risk for psychopathy, which includes trying to manipulate others; accountability, or taking responsibility for actions; and peer relations, which involves having friends who are in trouble with the law.

"Girls are having trouble in areas often more associated with boys, such as having friends who are involved in delinquency," Gavazzi said.

Family-Related Offenses

"Our results may help explain the rather widespread notion among practitioners who work with troubled youth that girls are harder to work with than boys. The reason is that girls often have more numerous and more serious problems to address."

The problems that bring girls to the court system are often different than those of boys, at least at first, Gavazzi said. Girls in this study were more likely to be detained for family-related offenses, such as showing "out-of-control" behavior at home, or getting into fights with family members.

Boys, on the other hand, were more likely to be detained for more traditional criminal offenses, such as theft or assaults on strangers, according to the results.

Early Assessment Needed

"Girls are being affected by their families in a much more pronounced way than boys," he said. "In many cases, girls are being detained precisely because of the dysfunction within their families."

These results highlight several problems with the current juvenile justice system, according to Gavazzi.

For one, it shows how important it is to assess juvenile delinquents early to see the risks they face. Before GRAD, few assessment devices were available to help Ohio professionals determine what kind of treatment would be most appropriate for those teens ending up in juvenile court, and none were web-based.

Ignoring the Signals

"Assessment should drive treatment, and if we don't have a way to assess the many problems these youth often face, there's no way we're going to be able to help them access appropriate treatment," Gavazzi said.

The results also point to the fact that "we are doing a massive disservice to girls by giving them 'passes' early on in their criminal careers." Courts often ignore early offenses by girls because they don't take as seriously those crimes committed by females. The result is that when they do commit crimes that are too serious to ignore, they are in worse shape than boys.

"By not dealing with girls early on, we are not giving them opportunities to get services that are available to boys in the juvenile justice system," Gavazzi said.

Dealing With the Whole Family

But the juvenile justice system also needs to do more to meet the special needs of female offenders, he explained.

Juvenile detention centers were designed to handle people who have committed crimes – and these are usually boys. But girls are often in trouble for issues related to family issues, and need programs that deal with the whole family.

"Juvenile institutions aren't geared to do work with families, which is what girls often need the most," he said. "We can't provide the same treatment to boys and girls and expect that they are all going to be helped."

Source: Ohio State University News Release

Exposure to Gun Violence Increases Teen Violence

2008-04-23T11:20:00.000-04:00

Exposure to gun violence makes adolescents twice as likely to perpetrate serious violence in the next two years, according to a University of Michigan study. Researchers found there is a substantial cause and effect relationship between exposure and perpetration of violence.

Jeffrey B. Bingenheimer, a doctoral student in health behavior and health education, analyzed five years of data from adolescents living in 78 neighborhoods in Chicago. Bingenheimer is lead author on a paper in this week's journal Science.

Using a statistical method called propensity stratification, Bingenheimer and coauthors Robert Brennan and Felton Earls aimed to establish a firm cause and effect relationship between exposure to gun violence and later perpetrating violence.

"We wanted to know whether these just tend to occur in the same populations or if one actually caused the other," Bingenheimer said. "These findings suggest there is a substantial cause and effect relationship between exposure and perpetration. Violence can be transmitted from person to person by means of exposure in the community."

Bingenheimer used data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, a longitudinal study that conducted extensive interviews with more than 6,000 young people and their primary care givers on everything from reading proficiency to family members with legal problems to delinquency in their peer groups. Bingenheimer used data from about 1,500 adolescents who were within six months of their 12th or 15th birthday at the time of their first interview.

The project is based at Harvard University, with involvement from Columbia University, Emory University, Johns Hopkins, and Pennsylvania State University, among others. Brennan and Earls are faculty members at Harvard.

Propensity Stratification

Bingenheimer said many researchers have looked at how violence begets violence. His use of the complex statistical approaches he learned from Raudenbush help make this paper unique.

While many investigations, such as clinical trials of new drugs, use randomized experiments to test effects, that is not possible in a real-life situation like examining the effects of gun violence. So instead they looked at information provided in questionnaires and used propensity stratification to simulate randomization as best they could.

Overall, Bingenheimer found that adolescents who were exposed to firearm violence were nearly four times as likely as unexposed adolescents to perpetrate violence over the next two years.

Elevated Rates of Violence

But exposed and unexposed adolescents differed on a wide range of demographic, socioeconomic, temperamental and other factors. These differences, rather than gun violence exposure itself, could account for the elevated rates of violence among exposed adolescents. Propensity stratification allowed Bingenheimer to control for the effects of more than 150 characteristics of the adolescents, their families and their neighborhoods.

Propensity stratification combines these variables into a single number, the predicted probability of being exposed to gun violence. If the association between actual exposure and perpetration persists among adolescents who had similar predicted probabilities of exposure, this is evidence of a cause and effect relationship, Bingenheimer said.

The study defined exposure to firearm violence as having been shot or shot at or seeing someone shot or shot at. It defined perpetrating violence as carrying a hidden weapon, attacking someone with a weapon, shooting someone, shooting at someone, or being in a gang fight.

North Carolina searching for reforms in treatment of youthful offenders

2008-04-23T10:12:00.000-04:00

According to an editorial, "North Carolina's treatment of youthful offenders is tough on the surface but soft in practice." The column suggests that two reforms would change that.

At the intersection of North Carolina's juvenile and adult criminal justice systems there's Trouble, with a capital T. Young offenders who've committed serious crimes as juveniles can get what amounts to a clean slate when they move into the adult criminal system. The public doesn't get the protection it deserves, and some youths miss out on a chance to turn their lives around. We can do better than this.

Read more...

Judge to rule on progress in CA juvenile justice system

2008-04-23T10:05:00.000-04:00

OAKLAND — The California Youth Authority promised three years ago to overhaul the state's juvenile justice system to better rehabilitate the youths incarcerated within its detention centers.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jon Tigar will decide this week whether the state has made sufficient progress on those promises to provide a safe, therapeutic environment.

In 2004, the Prison Law Office sued the State Department of Corrections' Juvenile Justice division over a range of issues, including medical, educational and mental health care conditions at the state-run centers. A stipulation agreement signed in January 2005 outlined six areas the reforms would be focused on, and an implementation timeline for each. Special monitors were hired to oversee the reforms.

"The Peacemaker" training in conflict resolution

2008-04-22T18:04:00.000-04:00

Tragic confrontations at schools throughout the past two decades are striking evidence that teens need help and training in peaceful conflict resolution. God knows each conflict a teen goes through--with their families, friends, and teachers--and he is in control. In this student edition of The Peacemaker, Ken Sande and Kevin Johnson show teens, youth leaders, parents, and pastors, how they can apply biblical principles to conflict situations, allowing for forgiveness and reconciliation instead of hatred or violence. With an approachable style that treats teens with respect, this much-needed resource can be used individually or as part of a small group or youth group study.

Read more...