Message from TYC Executive Commissioner Cherie Townsend
TYC Staff,
During the last two months I have made ten visits to TYC facilities and offices; half were announced visits and half were unannounced. I have been particularly impressed with:
Collaboration and Teamwork at Cottrell House, Dallas District Parole Office, Mart I and Gainesville State School;
Focus on Successful Re-entry to the Community at Turman House;
Creative Programming at Gainesville State School and Corsicana Residential Treatment Center and the
Dedication to Continuous Improvement at all facilities.
While I often see one dorm or department on a campus struggling to achieve our expectations and the best practices that are being established to produce better outcomes, I never doubt that TYC employees want to make a positive difference in the lives of our youth. Many of the youth that we work with have multiple and complex treatment needs as well as exhibit aggressive behavior. Where I have observed that we are most effective with these youth, there is always collaboration between dorm staff, rehabilitation and treatment services, education, medical and administrative services.
A great deal of our agency work is also focusing on collaboration. We have already started working with the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission on our collaborative strategic plan. The TYC was also awarded a $2.9 million dollar grant from the Department of Labor to support a collaborative initiative with the TJPC, Bexar County Juvenile Probation, and the Baptist Child and Family Services to assist the re-entry of TYC youth and youth on juvenile probation in Bexar County. We are also working with the Health and Human Services Commission and other agencies regarding the Medicaid eligibility of our youth. Yesterday we hosted training by Lindsay Hayes, a national expert on juvenile suicide prevention. This training involved representatives from several TYC departments and facilities as well as UTMB.
I am starting to observe a lot of people working together within TYC on behalf of individual youth as well as at the facility and community level. If we “begin with the end in mind” as Stephen Covey suggests, then all the work that we do must focus on teaching and reinforcing those skills, behaviors and attitudes that will be necessary for our youth to be successful in the community. The challenge is for us to do this no matter where we work within TYC.
Thanks for all that you do on behalf of TYC youth and your colleagues.
Sincerely,
Cherie