|
On
Friday, March 7, 2008, the Department of Juvenile
Services (DJS) celebrated the graduation of sixty
staff from the Gender Responsive Certification Program
of Girls. The group was divided into two groups. One
group met in Sykesville at the Maryland Public Safety
Education and Training Center and the other group
met in Annapolis at the Department of Agriculture.
This state wide program included staff from both residential
and community services.
The Department is very proud of this program. It is
the result of years of planning to improve services
to girls and eliminate the lack of female focused
programming. Because girls and women are the fastest
growing populations in both the juvenile and criminal
justice systems, we have to establish programs and
services that will be beneficial to them. During this
training, the staff completed more than eighty hours
of intensive training. With the assistance of DJS
staff experts in the field of girl services, local
and out of state consultants, University of Maryland
professors, as well as psychologists, we established
training that addressed the "Whole Girl."
The curriculum was designed to assist staff in becoming
gender responsive through the application of researched
based best practices and to understand the concepts
associated with the "Whole Girl." Our focus
and theme for the Department is "Growing Great
Girls." We know if we focus on the whole girl,
we will provide services that meet her needs in the
six domains, which are physical, sexual, emotional,
relational, spiritual, and intellectual.
This is just one example of how DJS is "Growing
Great Girls" in Maryland despite the challenges
they encountered in the past. We want to empower our
young women to become self-sufficient and depart from
the Department empowered toward excellence.
|
