Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (https://jjie.org/author/sarahzahedi/)
The wraparound model, a structured, creative and individualized team planning process, is far more accommodating to foster youth dealing with trauma and mental health issues than the traditional model of putting youth struggling with permanence into a group home, according to Lincoln Child Center CEO Christine Stoner-Mertz.
Through times of trauma and distress, often all a child needs is to be showered with love. It may sound corny, but for the estimated 100,000 children who are sexually exploited per year around the country, it can be transformative.
“I just figured since I was under 18 and I could do whatever and just end up in juvenile hall, I didn’t care,” Danielle Robinson said. “There were times I felt like I was going to change but that’s only because I was locked up. Once I got back on the street, I acted the same.”
But when she turned 18, things changed for Robinson — she served her last sentence in juvenile hall and had a daughter one year later.
LOS ANGELES — Beron Thompkins remembers his first encounter with the Los Angeles Police Department when he was a 12-year-old. He and his 14-year-old cousin were walking down the street in their south LA neighborhood when two policemen driving by asked them to pull up their shirts.
When high school sophomore Mykia Moore got into an argument with her best friend over a boy last year at Augustus Hawkins High School in South Los Angeles, the dispute quickly escalated into a physical fight.