Friday, January 4, 2013

WINGS: The Transformation of Delinquent Girls


Maybe they’ve been beaten, molested, or witnessed severe violence.   Maybe they’ve suffered abandonment or neglect or seen parents go to prison.  One way or another, they are troubled girls, and they’ve gotten entangled with the law:  drugs, shop lifting, major theft, maybe assault or battery.  One-third have committed felonies. On average, they’ve been arrested eight times, convicted four.  Worse, they’re young – as young as 14 – and they’re all either pregnant or already mothers.    So now they’ve been sent to WINGS, the only Florida juvenile detention facility where girls 14-19 can stay with their babies.
The girls will stay here for an average 9-12 months.   They will go to school, learn life skills and have intensive counseling. They will keep their babies with them after they’re born, learn how to nurture and care for them, and in the process they will break the cycle of crime, violence and poverty they grew up in.  When they leave, they will be transformed.  Eighty-nine percent will leave delinquency behind them to become successful, responsible mothers and citizens.  

“Juvenile justice is starting to get that they’re in the business of treatment, not punishment,” says Karen Marcus, LMHC, CAP, Executive Director of WINGS.  “[The courts] recognize that the girls are not adults and that kids don’t just behave this way because they’re bad.”  
They are girls like Monica*, abandoned by her mother at age 5, then again by her grandmother at age 15.  Between the ages of 15 and 18, Monica lived in 20 different foster homes, ran away repeatedly, smoked a lot of weed to dull her pain, let her grades fall from A’s and B’s to D’s and F’s, and got arrested for burglary, grand theft and criminal mischief.

Like Monica, the girls often suffer from substance abuse, eating disorders, underlying mental illness, and gang affiliations.  They are inept at solving problems and have poor values.  Yet most are resilient and can blossom in a properly constructed environment.  Consequently, their detention focuses on understanding the trauma they experienced and providing the therapy and education they need to change.
The WINGS Campus
The WINGS facility, which looks like anything but a jail, occupies a sprawling landscaped campus in Homestead, FL, that can accommodate 20 girls and 12 babies.  The campus houses a fully licensed daycare center for  children up to age 2, school rooms, counseling and treatment rooms, and two dormitories – one for the girls while they’re pregnant and one for those who have already given birth.    They live two to a room, which they decorate themselves.

Two Girls and Their Babies Share a Room
A typical day at WINGS begins at 6:00 a.m., when the girls get up and dressed, do chores, get baby ready for the day and have breakfast.  They’re in school until 12:30 or 1:00.  After lunch, they go outside for recreation, followed by afternoon activities, which might include Healthy Start, trauma group, a field trip offsite.  By 5:00 they’re back in, showering and getting babies ready for the night. Dinner is at 6:00. Quiet time, maybe phone calls to family, follows.  They’re in bed at 9:00.
Rules are strict and demands restrictive.  Buildings are locked (though rooms within buildings are not), and supervising staff must know where the girls are and what they are doing at all times. The girls must ask permission before entering or exiting a room. Items that could be used as weapons – even everyday objects like pencils --  must be checked out and returned to a central location by a predetermined time.  In concert with the basic principles of behavior modification, everything the girls do is rewarded or punished: the way they speak, the way they relate to each other, the way they perform everyday activities.   There is a complex system of rank, each with a set of requirements that must be met in order to move up, and points, which are earned for meeting or exceeding expectation as they go about their tasks.  As the girls rise in rank and accumulate points, privileges mount. 

While demands are severe, support is consistent and unfaltering.  
“The staff never gave up on me,” said eighteen-year-old Jackie[*], one of two girls looking forward to release in January.  “They just kept reinforcing that I needed to change.  They said, ‘you can do good or you won’t.’ But they never left it alone. Having that kind of support and having all the resources – we had so many groups. It’s like they genuinely cared and they just showed us the right way, and it makes you want to change.”
One secret to WINGS success is this transformative combination of strict and demanding expectation together with unwavering, caring support.  The second is each girl’s personal prescription for growth and development. Every girl begins her stay at WINGS with an individualized plan she must complete before she is released. This plan covers medical care and health education, mental health counseling, academic education, and parenting education.

Beyond attending all medical appointments for herself and her baby, her medical plan might include, learning what to expect from her medical appointments and how to voice her concerns, developing the skill to advocate for herself and her baby with healthcare providers, actively participating in planning for her release by identifying the professionals she will see.

Each girl’s educational plan is based upon her academic level, which could be anywhere from 7th grade to 12th. Some have not been in school in years. Others require special education.   In general, the goal is to move everyone up one grade level, or, if they’re in high school, to obtain high school credits or a GED. Focus is on gaining competency in basic skills (English, math, science) as well as life skills (goal setting, life planning, budgeting, check writing), critical thinking and problem solving.
Depending on her history and diagnosis, each girl has specific therapy goals governing anger and other mood management, behavior management, control of anxiety and depression.  Placed in groups according to diagnosis, the girls work to process their history and address such issues as substance abuse or sexual trauma.  Each girl’s plan includes a family component incorporating, if appropriate, baby’s father. 

Group therapy takes place daily. Among other tasks, the girls write the story of their personal past, present and future.  In the process they explore how the trauma they experienced influenced the decisions they make now and the kinds of changes they want to make based on their new understanding. While group therapy takes place daily, individual and family therapy (and/or therapy with baby’s daddy) take place at least once a month, more often if needed.
Parenting education plans take on a more uniform shape. Healthy Start, through the University of Miami, provides a formal curriculum of prenatal care, childbirth and development, breast feeding, basic infant care, infant safety, and the like.  Equally, if not more, important is the role of the infant mental health specialist, who teaches the art of nurturing, which is difficult for all teenage mothers and especially so for this population.

Like most teens, the WINGS girls tend to be egocentric, impulsive, and lacking in sensitivity.  To compound these problems, most have had poor parental role models, little nurturing, and poor nutrition.  The infant mental health specialist helps the girls break this pattern.  While they are pregnant – when they are feeling frightened and vulnerable and are therefore receptive – she helps them see how their own childhood experiences harmed them and how changing the pattern will make life better for both them and their babies. They talk about the importance of eye contact and verbal communication with baby.  The girls learn about child development, appropriate expectation and constructive discipline. What does discipline mean?  Why don’t we hit our children? Why do we talk to our children?  What expectations are appropriate at different ages?
While they are pregnant, the girls must write three baby songs, and read and sing to baby.  Because research shows that teen moms tend to put their babies down and walk away, WINGS moms don’t wheel their babies in a stroller. They carry their babies in a sling or carrier to underscore the importance of holding baby and paying attention to her.  They develop patience by learning that crying is normal (not a reflection of their poor parenting) and how to interpret baby’s cries.   When the girls hold their babies and peer into their eyes, their attachment and communication are palpable.

Mama and baby
The transformation that takes place is best seen through the eyes of the girls completing the program.  Jackie spent eleven months at WINGS following an ugly period on the street and involvement with drugs.  She is sweet, poised and soft-spoken – a far cry from the girl who, by her own acknowledgment, arrived angry and combative.   Initially she resisted the help offered to her and had her time extended twice for bad behavior.  “I had the idea,” she said, “that this would be just like my two previous programs. That I could just do whatever I felt like it and go home, that I wouldn’t have to work on anything too deep, that I could get away with just talking about surface things.  I didn’t expect that I would actually change.”   But she ultimately gave in and focused on herself and her baby.

”I had a hard time with that,” she acknowledges.  “I wasn’t ready to think about everything in my past, but with nothing but time and a therapist who wasn’t going to let me clam up or talk about the weather, I ended up working on issues that, if I hadn’t realized I had, would have slowly led me to my grave.”

While at WINGS, Jackie completed her GED and has been accepted to a community college, where her four-month-old baby will receive free childcare. Jackie plans to become a paralegal and one day a lawyer.
Monica, now out of the program for 2 years, is mature and insightful about her past.  She has nearly completed her AA degree. Her two year old daughter is thriving, and Monica is in a healthy, committed relationship.

Graduation -- A Triuimphant Moment
WINGS,  a 501 (c) (3) not for profit organization, is an affiliate of the not-for-profit AMIKids, Inc., which specializes in rehabilitating troubled youth. WINGS operates with a staff of 31, including two teachers supplied by the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, a pediatrician and two nurses, a mental health staff of 7 (4 full-time), childcare center staff, and direct care staff, who supervise and coach the girls day and night.
Budget is just under $1 million, most of which goes to staff salaries.  Overhead consumes 15-20%.   Under contract with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, WINGS receives most of its funding from the State and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Because the babies are not in State custody, this funding does not cover the babies’ costs.  The childcare center receives some funding from the Teenage Parent Program (TAPP), which provides childcare financial assistance to students enrolled in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. But, says director Marcus, “There’s no way you could run your childcare on this allocation.”  To supplement government funds, WINGS relies on private foundation grants and tax-deductible donations. One hundred percent of these funds go directly to supporting program.

AMIKids WINGS South Florida
11000 SW 220 St
Miami, Florida 33170
Office: 305-256-6275
Fax: 305-256-6278
www.wingssfl.org

 

 



[*] Not her real name

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