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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 20, 1973)
Runaways largest category Skipworth, Looking Glass handle 1bad 9 juveniles Photos by Jacques Beteinoer By GALE ROHDE Of the Emerald About 39 percent of the 5.5 thousand juvenile referrals to the Lane County Juvenile Department in 1972 were for children’s offenses. The largest single category was that of runaways. Others were referred for truancy, possession of alcohol, being ungovernable, and curfew violations. These are offenses that are only defined as such for those underage. Two institutions, with different structures, are concerned with handling those guilty of so-called children’s offenses and are THE DOWn BEAT Featured Band All Week PATTERSON ALLEY »S» Pearl, Eugene Closed Monday . * D Andrea's is a long thin store a tew Jag short blocks from campus on ft Eugene's downtown mall. Since we i are only 6 feet wide, we are easy to ■ miss Try not to blink when you walk down Willamette between 10th & 11th Avenues P Basicly we sell clothing, fabrics,J some sewing notions and iewlery findings We aim to be different. The clothing is designed and hard made just for us or is consigned to us by local craftsmen In fabrics we have an extensive selection of , African, Java and Malaysian prints 8. panels We also have domestic i remnants, wools, jerseys and dyable, 1 fabrics for your batiks and tie dyes 1 1 Some of our solid color fabrics are wide enough to make bedspreads, and we have some plastic rain coat fabric perfect for your see-thru | shower curtain. There are 3 sales rooms. A front room thru which you must pass to | get to our back room where you will ! see stairs which lead to our upstairs] room. How we ever fit it alf into three small rooms, I don't know Sometimes it is hard to find what i you want amid the clutter, so if you! don't see it, ask. We keep trying tot find the things you need We don't Aa I have everything, but what we doyy have is either different or less ex i pensive. This is our aim, anyway, j ? Sure would I ike to have you come by." concerned with juveniles in general. They are Skipworth Juvenile Home and Looking Glass Family Intervention Center. Skipworth is the more formal of the two. It is not limited to merely children’s offenses, but includes the whole realm of law-violations committed by juveniles. It is county-supported, funded by county taxes. It is a branch of the Lane County Juvenile Depart ment, along with the counseling services and the juvenile court. Most of the juveniles referred there are brought in by the police, though there are self-referrals and parental referrals as well. It is a detention home — the place where juveniles stay while they await a court hearing. When a young person is arrested, the police decide whether to bring him to detention or to his parents. Usually if the parents can be located, if the young person is not dangerous, and if there is no danger that he will run away, he is brought to his parents. Otherwise, the juvenile is brought to a counselor who will decide whether or not he will remain in detention. If he stays, he will have a court hearing within forty-eight hours. Deborah Wames was eighteen when she started Looking Glass. She thought of the idea after having gone through detention for being a runaway. She felt that runaways were looking for a solution and that what they were doing was considered a crime only because of their age. It seemed unfair that runaways and others guilty of children’s of fenses should be unnecessarily subjected to the detention system. Although she felt that Skipworth was one of the best institutions of its kind in the nation, Wames felt that its hands were tied. After talking over her idea with her friend Paul Hurly and a psychologist. Dr. Ashton, the three of them worked closely on the idea for nearly a year before the house was actually opened. They also received a great deal of help from their board of direc tors, and a graduate psychology class. The house holds about seven people. Many of those who stay at the house are runaways, or in dividuals whose families are in a crisis situation, or people who just need to get away from an uncomfortable living situation for a while. But running away is not a prerequisite for using the ser vices of Looking Glass. It is a temporary shelter for most of those who come. Looking Glass aims to get them back into a viable place in the community, often back with their parents, otherwise into foster homes or group homes. Skipworth too, has a transient population. It holds about 29 people at a time, staying on the average about seven days. Conrad Guerry, a training coordinator for the Juvenile Department, described it as a safe and secure environment where the young people won’t harm themselves or others. He said that sometimes when they first came there, the kids were pretty upset or anxious. They were away from their friends and their families and they weren’t quite sure what was going to happen next. If what one needs is a struc tured program, Skipworth has it. The day is scheduled, with time allowed for school, as well as for free time and recreation. Everyone wakes at 7:30 a.m., cleans his or her room in time for breakfast at eight. Then at nine, those who need it §>tarr HmtltnU "is a center for human growth & awareness." Summer Catalog available: phone 937-2240 begin school. School hours are interspersed with other ac tivities. There is a half-hour break at 10:30, an hour break for lunch and free time, another hour for P.E. There is a large group meeting daily, at which they decide or discuss the activities that will be happening, and there is another hour of free time before dinner. Every evening Skipworth has some kind of optional program activity. On Monday nights there is a grooming class, on Tuesday there is a cooking class for be tween four and six people. On Wednesday and Thursday there are arts and crafts. There are also a few special programs, such as a summer camping program, and art instruction by an in structor from the Maude Kerns Art Center. Becuse of the nature of the institution, because many of those there have committed not merely children’s offenses, but offenses of a more serious nature; and because many of the residents did not come of their own accord, the residents are under some kind of supervision unless they are in their own rooms. They can’t go out of doors without staff members being present. There can’t be more than two in the gym without a staff member. Visitation hours are also limited. Visitation is on three days a week, and is limited to family members only. Looking Glass is less closely supervised; all of the residents are there voluntarily. It is con sidered more as an association of equals. Generally the houseparents and the kids eat dinner together and everyone takes care of himself for the other two meals. Residents are fairly free to come and go as they please, and to hring guests to the house. They are expected to be back by ten on week nights and by midnight on weekends. They are expected to be committed to working out a solution to the problem which brought them there in the first place. But neither Skipworth nor Looking Glass limit their ser vices to the residents. Most of the young people referred to the Juvenile department are released and a report is given to the intake counselor of the Juvenile Department. In 1972, only 1,295 out of the 5,570 referred were admitted to detention. The counselor will either just notify the parents of the report and offer assistance, or will ask the juvenile and her or his parents for an interview. Often from this, the juvenile is referred to another agency or is offered counseling services. The department has community service workers in a team, with counselors and police officers, working in the schools to catch problems and deal with them before they get more serious. There is a parent education group run by coun selors in parent effectiveness, and there are various family therapies. Looking Glass also does counseling; family, individual, and group. It gives school and job assistance, temporary shelter to those who need it; and it helps to place people in group or foster homes. “Kids are dealing with more these days,” Wames said. They are “14 going on 25.” If they run away it is not always the parents’ fault, it is just that the kids are going through a lot of changes, she said. Warnes started Looking Glass at 18 by having an idea, and by surrounding herself with capable and dedicated people. They are still going strong, but they rely on programs such as ESCAPE, and volunteers to a large extent. Right now they need qualified counselors and foster parents, preferably younger couples or individuals. They encourage those interested to volunteer their help.
