The program is looking for donated materials and nonprofits with project ideas: "To donate supplies to the woodworking program at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department lockup in Mart or to request a project be done, contact community relations coordinator Katherine Davis at 297-8483 or email her at Katherine.davis@tjjd.texas.gov."Jesse Watkins, a former Waco Independent School District teacher and administrator who has enjoyed woodworking as a hobby for 25 years, is trying to reinvigorate the program at the Mart facility.
Two TJJD youth work on a child's chair.
He hopes to partner with organizations in the community to procure more scrap wood and gather ideas for projects the boys can complete and then donate.
Learning woodworking has the potential to teach the boys vocational skills that eventually could help them land a job, Watkins said.
But, more importantly, they learn virtues such as patience, perseverance and teamwork as they see a project through from start to finish, he said.
“They feel better about themselves because even though they are in a rough situation, they can still learn some good things, something that will help them in the future,” Watkins said. “It gives them confidence.”
Friday, January 11, 2013
Woodworking program launched at TJJD's Mart facility
The Waco Tribune Herald has an item today on a woodworking program at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department facility in Mart recently launched by a local volunteer. Reported the paper ("Building their future: Youth offenders learn woodworking skills, life lessons in lockup," Jan. 11):
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15 comments:
Just for the boys? I suppose the girls get sewing and cookery lessons?
Sexism alive and kicking in 2013, however great this project may be.
SW, TJJD separates youth by gender and the girls are in Brownwood. I don't know for a fact, but I bet if a volunteer there wanted to teach girls woodworking, they'd let them.
Blessings to this program, however small it is. Woodworking can indeed provide career opportunities since so many "mainstream" fields are effectively closed to persons with any kind of a criminal background, however small and unrelated to work.
Woodworking?
The state needs assemblers not craftsmen. Assemble picnic tables and garbage containers, not design and fabricate fancy chairs.
Mart, and other TJJD facilities, also have programs to teach welding skills, auto mechanics, horticulture, cabling, and HVAC.
This is in addition to fairly robust GED programs and the opportunity to take college classes online from Navarro College.
FleaStiff, craftsmen may become assemblers; it doesn't necessarily work the other way around. And the values underlying craftsmanship translate into other arenas. Hard to believe THAT'S what you want to kvetch about.
The fact is, these kids -- most of them -- do NOTHING while locked up except sleep and eat and annoy each other and staff. Giving them something to do with their hands, pretty much no matter WHAT is is, as long as it's legal, is a step in the right direction.
I know for sure some of them will want to get in these types of programs in order to get materials for tattoo machines, weapons, etc... and most probably won't get any economic benefit from whatever woodworking skills they learn at the school -- but at least giving them something even marginally proactive to do is a better option than letting them get away with wasting their time doing nothing day after day after day.
These kids needs more programs in school to teach them a trade that they are interested in or to peak their interest. Also, GED prep should be the main education they receive to get their GED. Most of all they need to learn that they must follow the rules to succeed in life. We all have to follow rules of some sort in our life time. As a retired TYC educator, I belive that hands on learning is the way to go here. You need the right people that can make this successful.
Grits, I really hope they do, and I really hope that it was just an off the cuff comment in the article. There is no reason at all why girls shouldn't have the same opportunities as boys in TJJD.
It is this type of progressive thinking that kids incarcerated have needed all along. Even the slightest skills learned can be taken with them back to our communities. This is fantastic and I hope it grows to other skills.
Grits, its nice to read something positive coming out of our youth corrections institutional division. When I was in Gatesville I took upholstery shop, worked in the kitchen, in the maintenance barn mechanic shop, and received my GED. It gave me some nice skills and the overseers were slightly more respectable than what you would find holding a dorm, running a school, or managing a caseload. I still have the foot stool I made in upholstery in my office. I’m restoring an old truck and the skills I learned from doing seat covers have been a plus. The GED allowed me to get into a community college and earn an Associate’s degree, thereby allowing me to get into a university and earn a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering. My GED with Jenson’s note “if he runs again tear it up” hangs next to my other degrees and accolades in my office.
Anything anyone can do to remind these kids they are human beings in a place that seems to do just the opposite by nature is a good thing. Please volunteer. The kids need to know there are responsible cool adults, who aren’t chumps.
Sheldon
The state operated programs (all of them for both sexes) have had vocational opportunities for youth since the dawn of time. This is nothing new for TJJD/TYC. To be successful they need to focus on their conditions of confinement which are certain to take a direction advocates and other stakeholders will take exception too in the near future. The question will be how far from morales v. turman and national best practice does the TJJD regime dare venture, not whether they are churning out assemblers or craftsman. It is great to see positive news but this agency had done this for type of training on a large scale for decades.
>The fact is, these kids do NOTHING while locked up...
Precisely.
No opportunity for achievement, relief of boredom or anything. Just put the animal in the cage at a certain time and take him out at a certain later time. No dignity. No individuality. No coddling. That is just what the taxpayers want.
Mart has on less in the cage as he is in ICU after receiving a severe beating from another youth assigned there.
There is woodworking at Ron Jackson for the girls.
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