What's New at YFS

A Loving Father

Alex* went to the highest level detention/residential treatment facility for juveniles in Oklahoma, the L. E. Rader Center, for stealing a car while he was high on methamphetamine. After being released from Rader, the client was referred to Youth and Family Services while on probation with the Office of Juvenile Affairs. A counselor worked with him and his family for about 2 years. Alex came from a very bad family environment. Alex has been clean and sober for about 4 years and now has a family of his own. He has had the same job since he was 18 and he is now 21 years of age. This client maintains regular contact with his counselor just to let him know how he is doing – the counselor has become a stable part of Alex’s life, which is something he didn’t get from his family. Recently, Alex took on some extra work mowing lawns just so he could have enough money to have a birthday party for his son. Alex didn’t ever have birthday parties when he was growing up and it is important for him to give his children the things he never had. The success in this story is not just that Alex is clean and sober, but the most important accomplishment is that a cycle of bad parenting, abuse, and neglect has been broken and Alex’s kids will grow up knowing what it is like to have a loving father.

*Names have been changed to protect confidentiality and privacy.