‘Parent Project’ for dealing with out-of-control kids

Starting on Tuesday, April 5 (in English) and Wednesday, April 6 (in Spanish), Sonoma Valley Youth & Family Services will offer The Parent Project, a 10-week program for parents of strong-willed, out-of-control children and adolescents, aged 11 to 18. Parents learn how they can best influence their child’s choices through behavioral interventions that begin at home. The course addresses the most difficult adolescent problems such as gangs, substance use, truancy, sexual acting out, running away, family conflict, defiance, and basic respect.

Classes will be held weekly at the Boys & Girls Club, from 6:30 to 9:00 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. To register, email your contact information to [email protected] with “Parent Project” in the subject line. For further information, contact the Youth & Family Services office at (707) 732-1507.

The Sun’s Sarah Ford recently sat down with the head of SVYFS, Vanessa Rognlien, to find out more about the program.

Tell me about Youth & Family Services.

It’s a partnership between the Sonoma Police Department and the City of Sonoma, started in 1997. There was recognition that there needed to be a pathway to keep youth from entering the juvenile justice system. If youth go into the juvenile justice system, they’re more likely to enter the justice system. Also, when students are suspended from school they’re more likely to enter the juvenile justice system. So this was a partnership. Our mandate is to work with youth and families within the Sonoma Valley Unified School District boundaries, but the kids don’t necessarily have to go to district schools.

What is a diversion program?

We divert them from juvenile justice – we’re not sending them to juvenile hall. We hold the citation, and the student makes an accountability contract with our case manager, who sits down with them and the parent or guardian, and finds out what’s going on at school and at home, what are the specifics of the offense, what the family needs, what the student needs.  Then we tailor a program, a contract, for this youth to help them self-correct, and find some community connections, and help them to build more belonging in the community.

You partner with the Ropes Course. And who else?

Yes, we partner with the Ropes Course, also with RISK (Resources, Information, Support, & Knowledge), the Ecology Center, Teen Services, and other community agencies. So if a student comes to us and says, my biggest problem right now is grades, then we might say OK we’ll help you find a tutor, and some of your community service hours can go towards getting your grades up. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go out in the community and pick up trash. We want to help them figure out ways that they can build where they need to.

We have an online program called Compass that the student goes through, and they figure out their values and beliefs, and then they write a personal narrative – it really helps to write that, and take disparate parts of yourself and put it in some kind of form, and take control over it. So they’re learning some self-actualization tools, like how do you set a goal, how do you get to the goal, how do you do some self-discovery.

Are there interviews with the kids on their own?

We do the initial intake with the parent or guardian, and then we have weekly check-ins just with the student. And if we have a student who has a learning difference, they don’t have to write a narrative piece, if that’s not going to be what works for them. They can come in, and sit down with the case manager, and talk to her. This is not an academic exercise, this is personal growth. And then at the end of the nine modules of the Compass program, they choose two short-term, attainable goals, and we help them reach those goals.

We also have the Epoch program, on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. The students go through it, and it’s all about implicit bias. What are your implicit biases, how do you recognize those in somebody else, and how do you talk to somebody about their implicit bias without being confrontational?

So those are the two online pieces, giving them tools. And then we have the community service, which can be really tailored. And we help if there are any other needs – such as a tutor, or mental health supports, which are hard to find right now, but we have different partners.

We work to support the whole family, and address the needs of the student while holding them accountable and providing immediate consequences for their actions.