Another very busy month has almost concluded. 

I am always looking for help.  I am seeing more interest from the kids to meet with me in and out of the facilities and my time continues to become more precious and limited as the demands continue.  We will be doing a week long "Vacation Bible" school type activity in July at the detention and residential facilities in July.  Anyone who has a "good" talent or can teach line dancing or anything else teenagers would enjoy doing give me a call at 316.616.5000. 

Contrary to popular stigma, kids in trouble are still just kids.  It is easy to over look the fact that many of these kids have never been taught acceptable societal behavior.  Our culture continues to set our kids up for failure and then punish them when they fail.  I am not suggesting that teens are not responsible for their own decisions, but, when social programs allow teens to assume adult lifestyles without the maturity to live as adults, failure and misery will result in the lives of our teens.  Please consider how you can make a difference in a teenagers life today.

I cannot believe it has been almost a month since I last logged on.  My apologies to anyone who has logged on this past month.

It has been an extremely busy couple of months.  The one aspect of working with the kids in the Juvenile Justice system, that I have been working to improve on, is staying in contact with kids when they get out of the system.  I am making contact with 3 to 5 kids every week.  There are three kids who I stay in contact with on a weekly basis and usually 1 to 2 different kids I take to lunch weekly.  I follow up with those same kids after our initial lunch.  For those of you who don't know, I give the kids a business card while they are inside the facility and tell them if they call me when they get out I will buy them lunch.  This gives me an opportunity to make an initial contact outside of the facilities and offer to help them in any way possible.  Another facet which is a result of meeting with kids when they get out, is meeting and getting involved with their families.  There are many needs out there and this is just one avenue to help not only the kids but also parents.

I will try to do a better job keeping the blog updated.  Keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I continue to build relationships with these kids inside the facility and out.  As always I can use more help. 

JJM Video  http://vimeo.com/37978968