Division of Youth Services focusing on practical skills

Officer Jason Reed with the 32nd judicial circuit juvenile division, serving Cape Girardeau, Bollinger and Perry Counties, knows how important life skills are.

Reed has been with the department 15 years, and has seen firsthand the difference between knowing and not knowing how to perform tasks such as sewing or gardening.

That's what he's doing on a sunny, windy Wednesday morning at Cape Girardeau's juvenile facility, at 2137 Rust Avenue.

He's taking two juveniles through the motions of gardening, showing how to space holes, how deep to dig them, how to ease the young plants out of their plastic containers and tease the roots so the plantings will take hold.

Squash, collards, tomatoes and more are going into the raised beds behind the building, but they're just the beginning.

Deputy juvenile officer Jason Reed, right, gives instructions while gardening with youth Wednesday, June 10, 2020, at the Cape Girardeau County Juvenile Justice Center in Cape Girardeau.Jacob Wiegand ~ jwiegand@semissourian.com

Plans are underway for a community garden on the west side of the campus, near the parking lot. Landscaping blocks have been delivered and are waiting to be stacked into formation, so members of the community can come take their pick, Reed said.

The former juvenile facility on Merriwether Street in Cape Girardeau had a massive garden, Reed said, with fruit trees and berry bushes, and room for vegetables too. That garden was in place for more than a decade.

The community garden might not be ready until fall, he said, but in the meantime, he'll keep teaching gardening techniques.

Money for the gardening and sewing projects, among other purchases including more snacks and hygiene products to give to children who participate in the juvenile division's programs, came from an unexpected bit of money freed up indirectly by COVID-19.

The juvenile division receives grant funding each year to fund two officer positions and increase services required by state statute for referred children in the division's service area, said juvenile officer Randall Rhodes. Missouri Division of Youth Services contributed more than $147,000 for fiscal year 2019, to divert juveniles from long-term, out-of-home placement -- if those juveniles are placed in a facility or residential treatment, the average annual cost to the state is approximately $54,000 per year, per child. In-community programs cost a fraction of that amount.

"This has been a very challenging year so far particularly because of school closing and other COVID-19 related restrictions," Rhodes said. "Because certain programs had to be parked for the school term, our budget for after school tutoring programs and supervised community service work, had an excess of funds at the end of the budget year that had to be redirected for the purchase of equipment and online treatment services."

The money had to be used or it would be lost, Rhodes added.

So, in addition to gardening supplies and materials for the future community garden, 10 laptop computers for online tutoring, and sewing machines were purchased for mask construction and sewing classes.

"A police report is the gateway for our deputy juvenile officers to start providing services and supervision for children that need that type of direction. After the report is received, various services from informal adjustment contracts to court supervision can be provided," Rhodes said.

Since 2016, when the juvenile facility at 2137 Rust Avenue opened, officers have hosted first-aid and computer coding classes, cooking events and volunteer work with thrift shops, among many other activities for both youth in foster care and those who have been referred to the juvenile office for delinquent events, Rhodes said. "This summer is starting a little slower, but at least we now have the equipment from this grant windfall to facilitate projects for many years to come."