Hope and Healing

Hope & Healing

Beth Goad, Episcopal City Mission's Executive Director writes about a 2019 New Ventures grant for a new program to serve youth in St. Louis County’s juvenile justice system outside of the detention centers ECM currently serves.

The juvenile justice system in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area provides programming for court-involved youth, with rehabilitation as its primary goal. ("Court-involved" youth are not detained, but under court supervision.)

Juvenile court judges have more legal options to meet the rehabilitation and treatment needs of the youth 17 years old or younger. Educational and therapeutic programming may be provided by the juvenile justice system in the child’s community; or the child may be placed out of the home in a residential program. It is within some of these alternative facilities that Episcopal City Mission will expand its chaplaincy services to more “court-involved” youth and possibly interact with their families.

ECM met in the Fall of 2018 with the Delinquency Services Director of St. Louis Family Court to plan and implement a “Community-Based Chaplaincy Program.” They agreed to start a pilot program in early 2019 at a central location where ECM chaplains would offer a Grief and Loss Group and Delinquency Services staff members would recruit court-involved youth to participate. This collaboration with Delinquency Services will build on ECM’s existing partnership with the County Family Court.

The pilot program for the Community-Based Chaplaincy grief and loss group was introduced to the youth as a Hope & Healing Group. Thanks to the hospitality of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion, ECM was able to provide a “free” location for this program. And Holy Communion’s central location in University City made it a great place for the youth to meet.

The first session was held on March 26, 2019, but due to some coordination issues with recruiting youth, only one

young man attended.

However, ECM never gives up on a good idea! So, ECM and the Delinquency Services staff decided to restart the pilot program on April 16 and were blessed with seven young people (one girl and 6 boys)! All of these kids were transported to the group by their Deputy Juvenile Officer (DJO) and were coming from residential group homes. The group met once a week for five (5) weeks. All three ECM chaplains facilitated this pilot program, so they could all experience the first group. In the future groups, the plan is to have two chaplains at all group sessions.

We learned so much from this pilot program and some of these learnings are:

• The kids wanted to attend the group but were nervous about it. However, when they got to the meeting room and saw the ECM chaplains that they knew from Detention, they were less anxious.

• On an exit survey that the kids completed, six replied “yes” and one replied “maybe” to the question – “Would you participate again in a program like Hope & Healing?”

• The chaplains would like to add one more session (total of 6) to the group, so they can review with the kids again all the tools for coping with grief and loss.

• We believe the group size should always be between three and seven participants.

Our next Hope & Healing Group is projected to be held in July and will be held at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ferguson. Once again, thanks to the hospitality of another Episcopal Church!

Episcopal City Mission chaplains spend a lot of time with teens in detention and over a period of time, they get to know some of the kids on a personal level. While the teens eventually leave the detention center, some of them never leave your heart. I often wonder how some of them are doing; are they staying on the right track, were things resolved in their families, etc. Sometimes one of them will pop in my mind and I will say a prayer for them.

One afternoon, God allowed me to see one of the kids that I had spent some time with in bible study, talking and praying with at detention. I walked into a Subway that I often visit to order lunch. When I looked up to place my order, my eyes met the eyes of the teen behind the counter. We looked at each other and he said, “I know you.” I said, “Oh yeah. How are you?” I did not want to say anything about the detention center. He said, “I’m doing good.”

The smile on his face warmed my heart. He immediately began to share that after he finished his time, he caught up on all of his classes and that he had been working at Subway for a week. He was beaming with pride. I responded, “I am so happy for you and I am very proud of you.” He continued to beam with pride in his bright green Subway hat and t-shirt. He shared that he was going back to school in August and that he would be a high school senior. I said, “That is wonderful!” He prepared my order, I paid him and he responded with a thank you.

Later I went up to the counter and gave him my business card and told him to contact me if he ever needed help. He asked me my name and when I responded, Deborah Burris, he looked puzzled and said, “What did they call you?” I said, “You mean Chaplain Burris.” He said, “Yeah Chap, that’s what they called you.” and gave me another warm smile. I replied, “Keep doing good.”

As I walked back to my table to enjoy my lunch, the owner asked me if I knew the teen. I responded, “Yes, I know him. He is a good kid. Thank you for hiring him.” The owner responded, “Yes he is a good kid.”

I felt so blessed that God showed me that the seeds we sow to the kids in detention - encouragement, prayers, bible studies, games and time – will bear good fruit.

—ECM Chaplain Deborah Burris