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January 2019

The Justice Journal The Voice of Pinal County Juvenile Court Services

Pinal County Juvenile Court

Sponsors

Youth Matter ~ Celebrate Youth!

On November 2nd, over 200 youth and adult participants attended the

Youth Matter ~ Celebrate Youth! event hosted at Redemption Church in

Casa Grande. The event was facilitated by the Youth Empowerment Partners ,

a group who follows a positive youth development approach and focuses on

promoting youth voice and action, addressing health and risk reduction,

through social-emotional learning opportunities and creating leaders for tomorrow today!

Presentations included a powerful and engaging speech by Pinal County Attorney,

Mr. Kent Volkmer who challenged the participants to practice kindness. Juvenile Court

Division Director John Fuery and his team provided an interactive workshop for partici-

pants on “Real Colors”, a creative way to assess ones key personality traits.

Fuery and Donna McBride, Program Administrator II were part of the planning commit-

tee for this event. Staff who assisted in the training included Mark Amada, Jessica Ortega,

Josh Larson, Sarah Woelfel and Debra Aguero, as well as Stephanie Meyer from Adult

Probation. The day wrapped up with a great lunch, resource sharing by numerous youth

serving agencies and great performances by Zarco Guerrero and the United Dance

Company.

A special thanks went to Pinal County Juvenile Court, Redemption Church (Pastor Roy

Edwards), Arizona Complete Health, Casa Grande Elementary School District, Apache

Junction Unified School District, Pinal County Attorney’s Office, Casa Grande Alliance, Coolidge Youth Coalition, Coolidge

SADD Chapter, and the Apache Junction Wellness Partnership.

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POSITIVE CHANGES HAPPENING FOR CASA GRANDE TEAM !

By Stacie Blackburn

Over the course of the past several months the Casa Grande office has been amidst transition and change. Our office is on the brink

of starting the specialized caseload.

Debra Aguero & Adriana Carrasco are our high-risk caseload team, supervising juveniles who are moderate or high risk according

to the Arizona Youth Assessment System (AZYAS). Our high-risk team is focused in the City of Casa Grande with 13 juveniles

currently assigned, the caseload is capped at 15. Our high-risk caseload will depend on community support, family engagement and

partnerships with community agencies.

Denise Hillman will be expanding her role as she will lend oversight to the high-risk caseload through weekly staffings and MRT

groups.

Monica Villa Bustamante, our low risk officer, will be supervising all low risk juveniles as identified by the AZYAS in Casa

Grande, Arizona City and Eloy with a possible expansion to Coolidge.

Our office welcomed Martin Espinoza as our new Juvenile Intensive Surveillance Officer. Martin is teamed up with Sarah Woelfel.

Both bring an immense amount of knowledge to their new roles.

Jennifer Ortega & Charles Maduma will continue to supervise a standard probation caseload with a slight expansion of their areas.

During the changes Brandy Bjorklund worked diligently behind scenes with Liz Ontiveros for a smooth shift of the caseloads from

one officer to the other.

What I have observed over the past several months is that we have people who step up to help each other without a pause, people who truly care about the juveniles and the families they work with, who go above and beyond to make sure a family has what they

need to be successful.

Everyone on our team comes with their own area or areas of expertise, making our team even stronger!

SPECIAL

THANKS!

The Administrative Special-

ists had fun surprising the support staff ladies with some small

gifts to let you know that we appreciate you and all that you do.

Thanks to Donna for her extra treat also.

Thank-you to everyone who helped set-up and clean-up for the

annual holiday potluck. We couldn’t have done it without every-

one’s help. Everyone joined in to make the Christmas party a

big success. And thanks, Lorraine, for the extra help!

We hope we left enough goodies for our Detention officers who

couldn’t attend! Ho ho ho!

Darlene, Laura, Barbara & Cayla (Santa’s helpers)

The Justice Journal

A quarterly publication of

Pinal County Juvenile Court Services.

Editor: Donna McBride

Ideas for Stories?

Submit to Donna McBride

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PROBATION UPDATES By Sheley Beck and Rebecca Lauchner

Kids at Hope Update

Beginning in 2017 our department began an active Kids at Hope awareness

program. To do that each office was provided a Kids at Hope recognition

box where staff could submit “Treasure Hunter” token cards recognizing

their peer’s actions that reinforced the Kids at Hope philosophy.

Submissions were drawn quarterly and staff were presented with Harkin’s

gift cards at our probation units meetings. We would like to formally rec-

ognize our Kids at Hope winners!

Apache Junction and Florence Region:

Scott Schnee, Jessica Ortega, Brendan Moroney

Florence/Court Unit:

Aaron Weissenborn, Andy Silvas

Casa Grande Region:

Debra Aguero, Charles Maduma,

Jennifer Ortega, Brandy Bjorklund

Staff aren’t the only participants in this endeavor. Youth housed at the

Youth Justice Center were also encouraged to create their own K@H themed posters that staff then voted on to be the back drop

for the boxes each quarter. Youth with the winning poster submissions are also recognized with Kids at Hope journals and/or

t-shirts. Great Job everyone!

Evidence Based Practice Series

Beginning in January 2018 the Intervention Services Division management team began facilitating the 18-month Mark Carey

BriefCASE series curriculum for all field staff. Classes were designed as a one hour per month interactive series to support staff

in their education and implementation of evidence-based practices. Modules include such timely topics as Identifying the Driver,

Identifying Thinking Traps, Addressing Skill Deficits and Using Incentives and Rewards to Encourage Pro-social Behavior.

Staff are assigned homework, encouraged to practice and report back on their experiences and often leave the sessions with

learning tools in hand to utilize in the field. The series is anticipated to be completed in June of 2019.

Specialized Caseload Pilot Program Update

We’re excited to share that we have had six youth graduates from the pilot program since its inception. The team, which in-

cludes a lead probation officer, probation officer, surveillance officer and therapist meet weekly to staff all the youth in the pilot

program.

The team works together to individualize case management plans for each youth and family. We recently implemented a more

formalized weekly staffing process to share updates on counseling to include: Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT) progress, life

skills and behavior coaching, graduated responses to behavior, current barriers and strengths and updates on completed/pending

Child Family Team (CFT) meetings and/or Family Support Team (FST) meetings. Additionally, we have implemented the use

of Fidelity Assessment Surveys, which both the youth and families are asked to complete upon exit of the program.

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Brenda Hewitt, Robin Hastings and Anthony Robertson are the three newest officers here at the Youth Justice Center and we are

delighted to have them! We are proud to introduce you to the new faces of the Youth Justice Center.

Brenda Hewitt, Detention Officer

Brenda lives in Florence but has lived all over the country, claiming Texas as her home state. She likes to

spend her free time with her family, playing the guitar and riding horses. After graduating from college,

she spent time working as a CASA volunteer within our department. For Brenda, the best part of her job is

“being able to connect with the youth and make a difference even if it’s only for a short period of time

while they are in detention”. One of her favorite quotes “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Robin Hastings, Detention Officer

Before coming to us, Robin retired from public service in Ohio where she served as the Deputy Director

of a multi-county correctional center. She is a morning person, claiming “Mornings, just as the sun is

about to rise when everything is so calm, a fresh new day with multiple possibilities.” She enjoys deco-

rating inside and out. Since moving to Arizona, she has been working on landscaping her yard. She does

not enjoy house work. In fact, she spends a considerable amount of free time looking for where she last

put down her coffee cup!

Anthony Robertson, Detention Officer

Anthony lives in Tempe, but comes to us from New York. He likes to spend his free time with his fami-

ly and watching football. He enjoys traveling and looks forward to one day being able to travel all

around Europe. Prior to working here, he worked at the Arizona State Hospital for over 13 years both

with juveniles and adults. For Anthony, the best part of his job is “being able to interact and have a

meaningful conversation with the youth”.

Claudia Jimenez

Congratulations on the promotion of Claudia Jimenez to Senior Probation Officer for the Apache Junction/

Florence regions. Claudia has been with Juvenile Court Services for close to twelve years, having worked in

both Detention and Probation. Claudia reports that the best part of her job is getting to share her knowledge

with her peers and collaborating with other agencies in the community to work towards improving outcomes for

youth. Claudia is an Arizona native that resides in Queen Creek with her 10 and 14 year old daughters. In her

off time Claudia is a Cross fitter, having participated in multiple team CrossFit competitions in the Valley.

Viky Mares

Congratulations on the promotion of Viky Mares to Probation Officer. She is currently assigned to the Apache Junction/Florence regions as a JIPS officer. Viky joined Juvenile Court Services in January of 2016 and has

served as a Juvenile Detention Officer at the Youth Justice Center during her tenure here. She graduated from Northern Arizona University with a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in December of 2014 and did

her internship with our department’s Volunteer Program.

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CASA OF PINAL COUNTY CELEBRATES NATIONAL ADOPTION

Two recess periods mandated

for fourth & fifth-grade students . . .

Governor Doug Ducey signed into law legislation that mandates Arizona public schools provide at least two recess periods per day

for students through fifth grades. It’s currently in place through third grade, and in 2019, the fourth and fifth graders are going to be

added to that, so starting in January the two recesses a day as opposed to the one recess a day

will be in place for all students up through fifth grade for public and charter schools. The

theory is we don’t want kids sitting for such a long period of time, it makes it difficult for

them to focus, and they need to have a break and get up, stretch, run around and play a little

bit. It helps them concentrate a little bit more and work on their studies when they go back to

the classroom refreshed after getting to play a little bit. The Legislature did not mandate to

schools how they have to take their breaks, so each individual school is allowed to work

with their schedule and work with their kids.

PINAL 40 Donates to CAB Literacy Program for Foster Children

Community Advisory Board Co-Chair Roy Edwards accepted a donation of $2,500 from Pinal 40 to assist with their literacy program. The donation will be used to purchase books for fos-ter children who are going through the adoption process.

Pinal 40 is a group comprised of community members with the purpose of promoting Pinal County, its youth and the industry of farming and agriculture.

Thank you Pinal 40!

Pictured with CAB Co-Chair Roy Edwards is CASA Unit Supervisor Donna McBride and Craig McFarland, Mayor of Casa Grande and Pinal 40 member.

On Saturday November 3rd, Pinal County Superior Courthouse joined courts and communities across the country to finalize the adoptions of nearly 45 children from the foster care system. This one day celebrates the joys of adoption and encourages more people to create or grow families through adoption.

Over 450 families, volunteers and staff attended the morning event. This annual event is part of a nationwide effort to call atten-tion to the more than 100,000 children waiting in the United States foster care system. Every year more than 4,000 adoptions are finalized as part of National Adoption Day, and communities host events to celebrate families formed through adoption. It is also a day to draw attention to the more than 22,000 children who turn 18 every year without having a forever family.

A coalition of local organizations participated in organizing this special day, including Pinal County Juvenile Court Services, Pinal County Clerk of the Court, Pinal County Attorney’s Office, The Shanker Law Firm, Arizona Attorney General’s Office, Court Ap-pointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program, Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) and Pinal County Superior Court. Over 100 court staff and community volunteers assisted Superior Court Judges Patrick Gard, Brenda Oldham, Larry Wharton and Dela-na Fuller to finalize the adoptions throughout the morning.

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