Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Restorative Justice

We got another phone call from a parent today. She wanted to know if her son could come to us to put in community serice hours. I talked with her for several minutes. She seemed impressed and said she would bring him over on Saturday so he could get started. I said that sounded great. Then, I hung up and shook my head.

Don't get me wrong. I love it for kids to come here to help. We have had some of the neatest experiences from kids who come here to do community service! Furniture has been refinished. Purses have been made. Jewelry has been created and lots of good things have been accomplished.

But I have to wonder if there were more activities in the area if it would have kept some of the kids out of trouble. Most of these seem to be kids who are basically good but made bad choices. Many of those choices were made out of sheer boredom.

A church playground just opened a few months ago. It's a great place for youngsters but not for the kids we're seeing. The nearest recreation center is over 10 miles away or 20 miles round trip. The mall is in the next county as are the nearest fast food restaurants.

So I ponder the next questions...
What activities can we offer on an ongoing basis?
Who's going to do them?
How will we do them?

While I ponder, the phone rings...

No comments: