TJJD News & Announcements

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Ayres Halfway House youth participated in a rewarding community service project, “Christmas for Seniors” on Dec.15, 2017. Volunteer Council Member Glenn  Faulk organized the project and raised almost $2,500 from generous community sponsors to provide lunch and Christmas presents for 54 residents at the Newell Retirement Complex. Ayres youth assisted in setting up, serving the seniors, eating lunch with the seniors and cleaning up. Santa made an appearance and brought smiles to the face of everyone in the room.

SAN ANTONIO – Ayres Halfway House youth participated in a two-day Ministries Of the Third Cross Retreat on Dec. 17, 2017. Members of the MOTTC group treated the youth to uplifting fellowship, music, and worship. The retreat members volunteered their time to cook for, serve and lift up our young men in an incredibly powerful way, that even brought the shyest youth out of their shell. At the end of the retreat the group members surprised the youth with Christmas gifts for each young man in the house.  All youth in the program participated and even lead prayers and songs. Many MOTTC members asked to sign on to volunteer with our agency to mentor in the future. It was a wonderful experience for all and they have already began the process of returning for a full, four-day retreat in the summer.

Youth on parole helped wrap presents for disadvantaged kids. SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Several San Antonio parolees, who attend the George Gervin Youth Center, participated in gift wrapping with the Elf Louise project. The Elf Louise Christmas Project was established in 1969 and is dedicated to providing a little bit of joy to Bexar County’s less fortunate children. The program is community-based and 100 percent volunteer supported, which enables thousands of youth to receive toys for Christmas. The youth that attend the George Gervin Youth Center are graduating December 16th with their high school diplomas and building trade certification. We are very proud of their hard work and commitment to accomplish this goal and give to youth in their community in this manner. The Elf Louise project has been going for nearly 50 years.

EDINBURG, Texas – Twenty-four youth volunteered to participate in a three-day Epiphany weekend retreat at Evins Regional Juvenile Center this summer. “This is a remarkable number of youth that decided to stay for the whole program”, said Evins Chaplain Luis Alvarado. Community Relations Coordinator Fidel Garcia added, “When you see this number of kids saying, ‘I like what I see and it keeps me focused and entertained while,’ that is a good thing.” Epiphany weekends are non-denominational retreats for the youth and are scheduled twice a year. The days are long, usually 12 hours of in-depth spiritual programing combined with music, singing, skits, meditation, scripture reading, board games, arts and crafts, and lots of different types of snacks and food throughout the retreat. Eighteen-year-old Andrez who participated for the first time, said, “I think it was wonderful. People showed me they cared about us. These people don’t even know us and they showed us love. When it was over, I ...

BROWNWOOD, Texas – The three-hour blood drive was a huge success with 15 donors and 19 units of blood collected for the United Blood Services. Sean Richey with the United Blood Services stated, “We are very pleased with how giving everybody is and how smoothly the drives run at Ron Jackson.” Debra Mathis of the Texas Community Farmers Market displayed fresh and dried fruits, trees, plants, vegetables, and jellies. Rebecca Morelock from Bake Artisan Goods offered artisan bread and more. Krista Behler of Crossed Oaks Design exhibited handmade signs. Aaron and Lark Terry, owners of Arrows and Oaks, offered goat milk soaps and lotions. And Cricket Wireless provided a variety of phone plans and accessories. The vendors said that it was more successful than they expected and that  they would love to come out and bring more vendors for the October blood drive. The Pairing Achievement with Service (PAWS) program demonstrated the TJJD youths' training abilities and the dogs’ learned s...

MART, Texas – On Monday, July 24, the City of Mart notified the TJJD McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility (MCSICF) that the town’s water pump station was out of service.  The Mart facility immediately began instructing staff to pick up water from the warehouse for their areas on campus. The city advised the facility’s maintenance supervisor, Jimmie Jenson, that it would take approximately six to eight hours to repair the water pump. The following day, it was clear the problem would not be resolved so easily, and 18 portable toilets and handwashing stations were delivered to the campus for staff and students to use. On Thursday morning, the facility was blessed with much needed relief. The Texas Baptist Men Disaster Relief program (TBM), a unit sponsored by the Austin Baptist Association, delivered a portable trailer equipped with four showers and five washers and dryers. The City of Riesel Water Department supplied the facility with approximately 7,500 gallons o...

EL PASO, Texas – Schaeffer House youth were inspired to work with Seed For His Harvest Ministries and New Harvest Christian Academy for their Youth Global Service Day project. This academy serves as a school for children under a faith-based foundation and also serves as food distribution location held every month. Students, staff, and volunteers prepare bags of various food items and then hand them out to families who are in difficult economic situations. This location was in need of a paint job, so Schaeffer youth jumped straight to work. The youth painted rooms, and brightened up the area with various color schemes and cleaned up the area. They also assisted in the food distribution that day, carrying food items for people and preparing the bags of food. The youth’s work made a difference for the organization, for hundreds of El Paso-area families, and for all the students at the school!

BROWNWOOD, Texas – The 2017 Earth Day project at the Brownwood Halfway House was a study on Monarch Butterfly Conservation. Staff and the young ladies discussed the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly and the importance of butterflies to the eco-system. Three staff and five youth traveled to a Mullin farm to harvest milkweed and look for caterpillars and/or eggs. While enjoying their time outdoors, they found three caterpillars and dug up several plants to transplant at the halfway house. The caterpillars were placed in a mesh cage and are being supplied fresh milkweed every few days until they undergo metamorphosis. So far, one caterpillar has already transformed into a chrysalis! Also, with the help of groundskeeper/horticulturist Charlie Hubbard, milkweed seeds have been planted in a wildflower patch next to the halfway house. Once the butterflies are born, they will be released to this wildflower patch. This also creates a habitat for the butterflies for years to come. Mr. Hu...

AUSTIN, Texas – The Texas Juvenile Justice Department served as a lead agency in Texas for the twelfth consecutive year and convened a coalition of 23 partners for the 28th Annual Global Youth Service Day (GYSD). Youth Service America hosted the global event, held during April, and it is now the largest service event in the world and celebrated in over 100 countries. During GYSD, children and youth address the world’s most critical issues in partnership with families, schools, community and faith-based organizations, businesses, and governments. Our state-operated facilities were joined by eleven county juvenile probation departments, and seven public school campuses across the state, to implement a total of 72 service-learning projects focusing on issues like kindness/tolerance, poverty, hunger and homelessness, bullying, violence and safety, public health, environment, pollution and beautification, literacy, and human rights. Nearly 1,200 youth logged a total of 5,246 hours of se...

DALLAS, Texas – Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is about learning the needs of your community and giving your time and energy to help others. Youth at the Cottrell House and youth on parole in Dallas County decided that they wanted to understand 1) how the homeless population in Dallas is receiving help and 2) what makes cancer so difficult to cure. Youth decided that they wanted to work at two different locations to help the homeless — City Square and at the Bridge, which is the largest homeless shelter in Dallas. They also wanted to visit UT Southwestern Medical Center to learn about cancer. When youth arrived at City Square, they were amazed that there was an actual shopping pantry for homeless people. Youth received a tour of the pantry and were shocked that the pantry had a freezer that held frozen foods which has meats and vegetables for the homeless. Youth met homeless individuals at the entrance, grabbed a shopping cart, and began to help the homeless choose foods off the s...

DALLAS, Texas – Giving to others to create smiles was the purpose of youth at Cottrell House making Christmas ornaments to donate to the children at Scottish Rite Hospital. The youth at Cottrell House wanted to make Christmas special for young children that were unable to spend Christmas at home. Volunteer Shellita Garrett was excited to work with youth to help them design special Christmas ornaments to put smiles on the faces of children. When other volunteers heard about the youth plans of donating ornaments, they were excited to assist. Shellita supplied paints, glitter, and clear Christmas ornaments. The youth supplied the creativity and designs for each ornament. Once all the ornaments were completed, the Iron Guardians took the ornaments to the Scottish Rite Hospital so that the children could smile. Cottrell House youth did more than just create ornaments for children; they learned that working together for a greater good is powerful. They had so much fun that they wanted to c...