By Diane Hines
Houlton Rotarian
HOULTON — On June 15, the Houlton Rotary Club held a full meeting with a visit from exchange students, a new member induction and two guest speakers from the Department of Corrections.
GUEST — Amy Hocking, left, president of Houlton Rotary, is photographed with guests Kelly Nightingale, Juvenile Probation Officer stationed in Houlton, and Gary Sanfacon, Juvenile Probation Officer of Caribou.
To begin the meeting many “happy dollars” were given by the members, mostly in honor of local high school graduations and other events such as the World Cup Women’s Soccer in Moncton.
Dana Delano introduced this year’s exchange students and one parent who were his guests: Stephanie Jacobs, her daughter Hannah and their guest from Italy, Sofia Iaselli, along with Keagan Fitzpatrick who will be going soon to the Netherlands and returning with his exchange student. Hannah will be going to Italy to spend two weeks with Sofia and her family.
Craig Bean and President Amy Hocking performed the induction of the pastor of the Court Street Baptist church, Dennis Ashley as a new member of the Houlton Rotary Club. Mike Clark gave Dennis a Rotary coin and explained its significance.
The guest speakers, hosted by Diane Hines, were Kelly Nightingale and Gary Sanfacon, juvenile probation officers, otherwise known as community corrections officers. They spoke about their roles and responsibilities for the Department of Corrections and also introduced new initiatives from the agency.
Nightingale outlined the process when a juvenile is arrested and the time frames as to whether there will be no further action, an informal adjustment, or court appearance and possible jail time. She spoke about the reintegration process if a juvenile does serve time in jail. Some of the new initiatives are “trauma informed correction.”
YOUTH PROGRAM — Exchange students Hannah Jacobs of Houlton High School, Sofia Iaselli of Northern Italy and Dana Delano, chairman of Houlton Rotary Youth Exchange Program.
In fact, Maine has become a role model in the nation for their work in trauma information. She described the coordination of various agencies to provide mentoring for the juveniles in the corrections system and invited Rotarians to seek more information from her office and invited anyone to consider the mentoring program. Mentors are needed.
Sanfacon mentioned the names of two other officers working in the County and informed the Rotarians of his experiences working in Houlton in the past and now his work in Caribou. He described the effective treatments and new processes for the JCCO’s and their roles and missions. He said that most youth, up to 75 percent are diverted and do not go to court. The diversion process protects youth for the rest of their lives. The JAIDI process endeavors to hold youth accountable. The philosophy is basically having the right youth in the right place at the right time. He had discovered in his work a disproportionate population of minority youth being detained, or in other words “racial bias.”
Sanfacon is working to correct these numbers and the officers are working with the Micmac community, the Wabanaki Nation, Fish River tribes, the Maliseets of Tobique and the tribe in Edmonston to examine this situation.
He also spoke about the Restoration of Justice Institute and its philosophy to bring victims to wholeness and peace to communities. This work is locally based. The issues that are focused on are poverty, ACES scores, trauma and untimely deaths affecting the youth. The healing initiatives involve work with tribal elders and Ally trainings for non-natives. Gary invited anyone interested to attend these gatherings and to inform the “triage” of any other tribes represented in Aroostook County.
WELCOMES NEW MEMBER — Craig Bean, Houlton Rotarian, left, welcomes new member Dennis Ashley, of the First Court Street Baptist Church to Houlton Rotary, along with Amy Hocking, President of Houlton Rotary.
