A.D. Ibarra
-Eagle Pass
In an extension of what is being heralded as an effective and visionary form of addressing the needs of troubled youth in this or any community, the Border Hope Juvenile Rehabilitation Center is working in coordination with the EPISD DAEP to look for ways to positively impact the lives of our troubled youth.
Bruce Ballou, Probation Director for Maverick, Dimmit and Zavala Counties, met with Mario Escobar, DAEP Director and a committee of educators and presented ideas of ways to both give students opportunities to learn and extend lessons in all major content areas as well as providing key community service projects to benefit our elderly, our poverty-stricken population and even their own families while garnering community service hours and invaluable hands-on learning experience in a variety of ways.
What is being discussed are three different projects: A community garden which will will grow crops to distribute at the local food distribution center; opportunities for the students to assist our elderly in filling out applications at the local food pantry; and construction projects which incorporate the carpentry gear found at the Border Hope facility.
"We want to find ways to do community service," stated Escobar, "Through service learning, and most importantly, How can we incorporate what they are doing into the TEKS."
Ballou outlined his service learning plan as having three major components: community service, education and credit for juvenile probation time.
"We know what it is to teach at-risk youth," said Ballou to teachers gathered at the meeting, "We feel that our three projects are three great things we can do with kids."
He added that they have acreage for the planting of crops, equipment to clear out the land such as tractors, shovels and hoes and in no uncertain terms added that hard work makes people think.
"Residentially, we will be open soon, but we need to figure out what we can produce," clarified Ballou, "40% of people in this community are at poverty level or below, we can put back some by doing this."
They want students to have a sense of ownership in this project, therefore they want them to name the project, make decisions while sitting in class, discuss what is needed, do the planning, do the math and then put it all together when implementing it all.
"All in all we want to create quality learning projects and quality learning opportunities," he concluded, "Then they can come back and write about what they did," which will put it all in perspective and effectively close lessons that will help people now and help them even more in their futures.
