Lecture series offers look at juvenile justice, mentoring

With the new term just kicking off, the School of Social Work at Portland State is lining up the first in a series of monthly presentations for spring quarter. The first presentation is a lecture by Dr. Juan Sanchez, the president and CEO of Southwest Key Programs. On April 11, Sanchez, who has 25 years of juvenile justice reform experience, will present a lecture titled “Where’s the Justice in Juvenile Justice?”

With the new term just kicking off, the School of Social Work at Portland State is lining up the first in a series of monthly presentations for spring quarter.

The first presentation is a lecture by Dr. Juan Sanchez, the president and CEO of Southwest Key Programs. On April 11, Sanchez, who has 25 years of juvenile justice reform experience, will present a lecture titled “Where’s the Justice in Juvenile Justice?”

The presentation will discuss the treatment of poor youth and kids of color in the criminal justice system.

“This unjust treatment creates a grim and devastating reality: broken youth, families and communities. These factors can result in unjust sentencing and unnecessary confinement when youth might be effectively diverted into community-based programs,” said Michelle Clinch, an online learning specialist in the SSW.

A subsequent event will be hosted on April 17 by Dr. Thomas Keller, director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Mentoring Research, director of the Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring and professor in the SSW.

His presentation, “Promoting Effective Youth Mentoring Relationships,” will focus on the relationship between youth mentors and mentees, and will examine new research and various practices attributed to successful mentoring and improving youth outcomes.

“I am very interested in creating linkages between the research and practice communities in the field of youth mentoring,” Keller said.

“I believe the topic of my presentation is important because mentoring is widely promoted as a strategy for supporting young people. Most programs rely on community volunteers with good intentions but perhaps limited experience,” he said.

“Research is beginning to show us what factors contribute to more positive mentoring experiences that also achieve greater results in terms of youth outcomes. There are many ways that programs can incorporate this knowledge into their program models and services, including the way they train and support their mentors.”

The lectures are part of the school’s Continuing Education program, whose mission statement, according to the program’s website, is “to meet the ongoing needs of the social work and other helping professions for high-quality, community-informed learning experiences that promote social justice, equity and social change; foster learning communities; engage in collaborative community relationships; and support culturally and linguistically responsive service systems.”

The department hosts workshops, like these events, which creates environments where people can gather and share ideas.

“I think that the Continuing Education offerings in the School of Social Work are valuable because they provide an opportunity for local professionals to learn about new ideas and research that is meaningful for their work. They get to consider different perspectives and approaches that they could use in providing services,” Keller said.

“These events allow us to highlight the work of our outstanding faculty and provide an opportunity to share current research and best practices with students and community members,” Clinch said.

More information on these and upcoming events can be found on the SSW website at pdx.edu/ssw.