Help for Troubled Teens, Step by Step

The most important movement in law enforcement this decade has been toward “community policing,” a comprehensive approach that reinforces traditional activities such as traffic and criminal enforcement with an emphasis on prevention and problem-solving. This means getting involved in community issues heretofore not considered within the purview of police functions, such as family dysfunction due to drugs, gangs and teen sexual relationships.

To that end, the Parent Project was developed by three professionals from the Pomona / Ontario area of California, along with a clinical psychologist from UCLA. It is a 10- to 16-week curriculum designed to address children’s destructive adolescent behavior.

The driving force behind the Parent Project is retired Sgt. Ralph “Bud” Fry, who was a law enforcement officer for the city of Pomona for 18 years. He saw first-hand the damage to families caused by drug use, gang involvement and teen sexual activity. Working with clinical psychologists and a professional educator, Fry developed a program to address the concerns he and other law enforcement professionals see every day.

The Thousand Oaks police department agrees with Fry’s vision. Rather than standing pat with the traditional method of referring parents to a community organization or to professional help they may not be able to afford, the Thousand Oaks police department began teaching the Parent Project in 1998 through its COPPS (Community Oriented Policing and Problem Solving) Unit. The program is also offered in Camarillo and Ojai.

The Parent Project provides a step-by-step curriculum to give parents strategies and hands-on approaches to deal with the problems of alcohol and drug abuse, truancy, gang involvement, practice of the occult, teen violence, runaways and suicide. Parents are referred to it by patrol officers, youth officers as part of diversion programs, juvenile probation, school officials and the court system.

Part I is called “Laying the Foundation for Change.” It consists of six activity-based three-hour sessions, one per week. Parents learn how to identify, prevent and intervene in the most destructive adolescent behaviors and criminal activity.

Part II is called “Changing Behavior and Improving the Parent/Child Relationship.” It consists of 10 topic-focused parent support group sessions. Each session is designed to provide parents with practical and emotional support as they continue the process of change in their homes. These two-hour sessions also include activity-based parenting skill components.

For many parents, especially single parents, emotional and practical support is not available to them at home. Using a highly structured model, the Parent Project helps to establish ongoing self-help parent support groups throughout the community. Parents involved in the program are linked with a community policing officer in their area.

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The Parent Project has been very well received in Thousand Oaks. Senior deputies Ed Tumbleson and Harold Hanley of the COPPS Unit taught the first Parent Project class in April 1998. Since then it has been taught four times a year in English, and a Spanish version has been added. More than 100 parents have participated.

It is extremely rewarding to be able to provide effective long-term solutions to the parents in our community. We have seen parents of gang members and parents whose children have been using hard-core drugs bring their children back into their families. The reality is that parents have the most influence and power to help their children, and thereby help to change the communities in which they live. The Parent Project shows them the way.

For information on the Parent Project, call Sgt. Glenn Sander of the Thousand Oaks COPPS Unit at 371-8378. You may also contact Senior Deputy Jody Keller-Smith at the Camarillo police station, 388-5131, and Deputy Arnold Anderson at the Ojai Police Station, 646-1414, for details.