Sharing Our Progress

It's been a great year at Chesapeake Juvenile Services. As a new leader in this position, I learned to navigate the journey with the assistance of a staff willing to change. We brought a new perspective to our students and that was to EMPOWER them to Build Up, Level Up and Rise Up as they were motivated to be better citizens in their communities. One of the ways we did this was implementing our Master Mentoring Program (Meaningful Engagement Needed To Orchestrate Rehabilitation). The Chesapeake Sheriff's Office, under the leadership of Lt. Jeremiah Harrell, brought deputies twice a month to share with our students. They discussed topics that ranged from "where do I go from here," "how to be a good father," and “making better choices” to "how can I change my life,” to name a few. These topics were suggested by the students. We also had Barber Shop Proprietors, Carlos Tanner and Pastor Karl Wilkins, to Mentor by way of cutting our students’ hair during “Barber Shop Talk.” They volunteered their services and barbers from Upper Echelon Barber Lounge in Chesapeake, VA and Cut in His Image in Suffolk, VA. Both these groups were engaging, informative, and inspiring. Our students benefited greatly and it developed a stronger bond between students and law enforcement as well and the knowledge they gained regarding becoming a barber. Our last gathering ended with food, fellowship, fun and games! We are looking forward to partnering with the Chesapeake Sheriff’s Office again next year.

Written by Renita Davis-Kelley

Chesterfield Juvenile Detention Center

The students at Chesterfield Juvenile Detention Center spent time paying homage to 107 HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in the U.S. They created original work with craft sticks, straws, construction paper, colored markers, and even pipe cleaners to produce a collage with fun facts, and illustrations about an HBCU of their choice.

Through their research the students were able to identify a few of the following facts: Russell Wilson, NFL player’s grandfather was the President of Norfolk State University, Thurgood Marshall, First African American Supreme Court Justice, graduated from Lincoln University. Additionally, Albert Einstein visited Lincoln University to lecture students in physics and to receive an honorary degree. Howard University has often been referred to as “The Harvard of HBCUs.” North Carolina A&T State University graduates the most black engineers in the nation.

This project allowed the students to fully engage in the culture and lifestyle of an HBCU.

Written by

Renita Davis-Kelley

Chesterfield Juvenile Detention Center

National Financial Literacy month is recognized each year in April to raise public awareness of the importance of financial literacy and maintaining smart money management habits. The students in Chesterfield Juvenile Detention were able to increase their knowledge in managing personal finances effectively. This included budgeting, saving/investing and understanding credit. It also allowed them the opportunity to hand pick their vocabulary to show understanding and increase their confidence in handling money and planning for the future.

Written by

Renita Davis-Kelley

Chesterfield Juvenile Detention

Nail Technician, Carpenter, Barber, Chef, Teacher, Ultrasound Technician, General Maintenance Repair Worker and a Long-Distance Trucker were a few of the career choices that our students became excited to research. Our students participated in an Interest Inventory provided by the Virginia Wizard that led them to support their research of careers that matched their interests. The final product was to produce a career ladder that served as a roadmap to assist them in planning and implementing activities that would help them reach their career goals.

By Randi Metcalfe, Technology Teacher

As the morning of Earth Day began, there was a sense of excitement in the air, not just from the buzzing bees, but also from the students at CCCA. Today, our unified goal was to learn how we can take care of our world every day.

Taste buds tingled as students formed an edible Earth with Rice Krispies and fondant. As their delectable treats were enjoyed, the students created posters reminding everyone to take care of our planet. Additionally, words came alive as poems honoring our Earth were read and discussed.

In the gymnasium, the students learned that while it is important to take care of our Earth, they must also take care of themselves. Students stretched as tall as trees and moved like branches in the breeze. Today was a special day for our Earth and CCCA students. On this special day, the students discovered something truly magical—that when we come together with open hearts and a shared purpose, anything is possible.

Stop the Violence & Pass Your SOLs

Throughout the school year, we dedicated each quarter to exploring methods for enhancing our teaching practices and improving our well-being and mental health. We focused on creating engaging pathways for student learning while fostering an environment that is socially supportive for all students. Our objective was to teach more joyfully, (Teach Happier This School Year) with the ultimate goal of improving the mental health of everyone involved.

Students at NNJDS partook in an Anti-violence, NNPS’ Youth Development/educational Pep-Rally.

Students completed a “Critical Conversation” activity where students devised a critical conversation activity focused on applying critical thinking skills and collaborative effort to address various issues impacting their community. Initially, each student responded individually to the first question, reflecting on the social issues affecting their community. Subsequently, they engaged in group discussions to explore potential solutions and assess whether these challenges rendered their feelings of helplessness or hopelessness.

Critical Conversation Questions

What are some of the social issues impacting our communities?

What can we do about it?

Are we helpless or hopeless? (Explain in detail)

Of the issues you’ve selected, which are the top issues impacting our communities (Desegregated data compiled and grouped, see images)

Within these conversations, a range of social issues emerged, including poverty, education inequality, racial discrimination, drug use & abuse, gangs, guns, violence, access to healthcare, along with an array of other topics. As they delved deeper, they brainstormed actionable steps to tackle these issues, emphasizing the importance of community involvement, advocacy, and policy reform.

Despite acknowledging the magnitude of these challenges, they remained optimistic about their ability to effect change through collective action and organized/safe protest. In particular, they thought of ways to improve their education and circumstances in Newport News and Hampton. Students then conducted a debate on each topic to demonstrate the need for equitable resources, mentorship, and addressing systemic barriers to academic success while being educated in a transient juvenile detention school setting.

After all of these meaningful discussions, classroom debates, and SOLs steadily approaching, the related arts team ( Monica Anderson &Coach Barker) decided to do a Pep Rally. The Pep- Rally was designed in a way that students had an opportunity to partake in a peaceful protest, discovered ways to STOP the Violence within their communities, display their talents, participate in a basketball game and other activities, win prizes, and listen to motivational music played by the DJ.

Youth Development Programming One of our community partners Kechmore Kids participated, provide giftcards to students, and shared some positive insight.Newport News Juvenile Services, also participated in the different events, and encouraged students to do well on SOLs, and Stopping the Violence.

Written By: Mrs. Monica Anderson

Newport News Juvenile Detention School

Advanced School Counseling Ed.S.

Post-Dispositional Transition Teacher

Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center

Enrichment: Breakout EDU

Written by: Ritchie Brown, MT-BC

It’s the end of the school year, summer is around the corner, and Enrichment season is finally upon us! Each year, the teaching team at Fort Collier Academy within Northwestern Regional Juvenile Detention Center creates experiences for the residents that we hope they’ll enjoy and learn from. Sometimes the residents are hesitant, and other times they go above and beyond our expectations! This year, we had a group of residents who did exactly that when we introduced Breakout EDU.

For those of you who don’t know, Breakout EDU takes logic or education-based puzzles and challenges students to accurately complete the puzzles in order to get the code for a lock. While this doesn’t have to be a time-based challenge, our residents thrived when they were aiming to beat their previous record or a record set by a different group! After working through a few boxes, and even creating a box for the teachers leading the experience, one of our groups divided up and created Breakout boxes for one another to solve! It was great to see how creative our residents could be and how proud they were of the puzzles they’d created. Many discussions were had about teamwork, trusting your teammates, communicating respectfully and clearly, being willing to ask for help, and working through frustrations. It was a great way to wrap up our school year!

During the Summer Enrichment Program, the students studied the Titanic. They started by buying their tickets to board the Titanic, which was located in the gym. On the second day, the students received their ticket from the White Star Line ticket company. Next they studied the construction and design of the ship. They learned how the First, Second, and Third class accommodations differed from one another. Other things that were studied about the Titanic were the foods served, games and entertainment activities, creating a model ship, and the heroes on the Titanic. The students participated in the “Escape” game to figure out how to unlock a treasure box and escape the Titanic before it sank. Later students were given a survivor list and they got to find out if they indeed would have survived the sinking of the Titanic. For the final culminating activity, they completed a Waterfall Booklet where they recorded facts of interest to them about the Titanic.

Article and picture by Mrs. Llewellyn, Special Education Transition

The students at Rappahannock Juvenile Detention Center (RJDC) attended several enrichment sessions centering on the ideas of poetry, specifically the concept of black out poetry and how it could be applied to other writing styles and formats. Each student was given two sheets of local newsprint and allowed to utilize either the front or the back of the entire page. Blackout poetry asks students to black out all of the words that they do not wish to utilize, thereby leaving unblemished the words that they plan on using in their poetry. This activity acts as an expression of artistic expression, as well as freedom to utilize and play with words in various forms. The students then presented their work to their classmates and spoke openly about the concepts and content that they chose to write about. This open and honest communication, linking young men and women who are incarcerated through poetry allowed them the freedom to play with words and their various meanings, thereby evoking thought-provoking conversations in my class with other students and other members of staff. Subsequent to black out poetry, the students wanted to use the concept presented above to craft poems about themselves, known as “I Am” poems.

Please see below for a sample of student work that I included with their permission:

I Am Poem

I am resilient

I hear noise

I see the world

I want to succeed

I am resilient

I pretend I am free

I feel safe

I touch concrete

I worry about the future

I cry inside

I am resilient

I dream of freedom

I am resilient

For this Summer Enrichment activity, Mrs. Passaris (Electives teacher) and Mrs. Aranda (Special Education) worked with students to make pillows. Mrs. Aranda described the project this way: "We helped students measure and cut 20" x 20" squares. They then took 4 x 4 corners out, and used a ruler to draw out their tassels on the edges. Then they cut their tassels. They secured them by cutting a little slit to wrap their tassels up and through! It ends up looking like a small braid. The students seemed to really enjoy them, and several students made them for loved ones. For instance, some made them for their children, parents, or siblings. It was really sweet hearing them talk about it, and they were all so proud of themselves when they finished!"