WISH LIST QUAD-CITIES: Supervised delinquent day program Coats, clothing will assist troubled boys
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By Jennifer DeWitt | Monday, November 28, 2005 |
Kevin E. Schmidt/quad-city times Sixteen-year-old Max Dietz talks about what he has learned by being in the Supervised Delinquent Day Program, run by Family Resources at Annie Wittenmyer campus in Davenport.
Max Dietz and Marquies Morrow are young men with goals.
Max dreams of getting his GED and even going to college to get a master’s degree in video game design — his true passion.
Marquies knows he needs to finish his education, but he really can’t wait to get a job. His plan is to become a counselor so he can help kids who have been in trouble. Kids, like him and Max.
The two 16-year-olds are among 16 teenage boys involved with the Supervised Delinquent Day Program, run by Family Resources at Annie Wittenmyer campus in Davenport. The court-ordered program works to rehabilitate boys ages 12 to 17 who have already been in probation and tried in-home detention.
“Our goal is to keep them in the community and make sure they stay out of the residential program,” said Dave Tristan, the program’s supervisor. “For those who have committed their first crime, this is a wake-up call.”
For Max, the program has kept him out of any new trouble since he and another friend stole some computer games from a store. It also made him realize he was hanging with the wrong people. “I think I learned my lesson. This is the only place I want to end up.”
Marquies agrees, and credits the program with teaching him one thing in particular — to take responsibility. He now knows all his bad decisions, including a robbery that led him to the program, were decisions he made. Now he thinks about his future, one that involves staying off the streets and out of prison. “I want to be like the people here, who work with kids.”
But while the Supervised Delinquent Day Program can prepare these troubled teens to become respectable young men, Tristan said what the program can’t always do is help them with all their personal needs. Though the program requires they wear a winter coat when it gets 59 degrees or colder, many lack the very basics — like winter coats, hats, gloves, T-shirts and other necessities.
“They want to carry this hard-core image,” he said. But last year when his program was a Wish List Quad-Cities recipient, those teens were amazed at receiving the help.
— Jennifer DeWitt
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