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The JAKE program is offered to youth from 11 to 17 years old who are referred by the state attorney's office. Most referrals are for 15, 16, and 17 year olds. The participants are required to attend nine out of ten structured meetings and to complete 20 hours of volunteer service in their community. The program seeks to instill good decision-making skills, build confidence and develop an understanding of the importance of life choices and the effects those choices have on an individual's future.
JAKE participants are organized into groups of about 20 kids who meet twice a month, for one hour. The meeting materials are part of the Boy Scouts "Venturing Program," with a focus on topics such as making decisions and respecting yourself and others. The participants also are taken on trips to visit a jail and the courthouse, where a judge, attorney and juvenile justice official speak to them about the realities of the legal system, jail, and probation, and the way crime affects communities, families and society.
Each class spends one full Saturday at Camp Flaming Arrow, participating in Project COPE—for "Challenging Outdoor Physical Experiences." There, they work together on a range of relationship- and confidence-building activities, including a rappelling tower, a "trust fall," a rope swing, and other problem-solving challenges.
Alexandria was nervous about attending JAKE. "The first day I was shaking," she says. "I thought they would treat me like I was not intelligent. But after the first day, I knew it would be a good experience."
She particularly liked the Project COPE day at camp. "We worked as a group and learned each other’s names. That’s when the program began to settle – after we knew something about everybody," she recalls. "Everybody knew why everyone was there, and we were all completely comfortable with each other. It was the best experience of the summer! The program was the best thing that’s happened to me in a while."
So far, the program is showing impressive results. Of the 269 youth who have graduated from JAKE during its two-year existence, only 8.4 percent have had another brush with the law. The participants can choose to continue with the Venturing Program after they graduate from JAKE, as their program fee has been fully paid. In the Scout sign-up and registration, they are not identified as JAKE participants, so their privacy is protected.
Alexandria has stayed in touch with the JAKE coordinator, Angela Yarbrough, and also with a Florida Court of Appeals judge whom she met at one of the JAKE meetings. She is an enthusiastic supporter of the program and approach. "Honestly, out of the group of my friends who were arrested, three of us went through the JAKE program," says Alexandria. "The friends who didn’t go through JAKE went back to their same ways. JAKE gives you a different mindset. You don’t realize it, but your brain is being tapped into. I’d fight for this program. It put me back on track 100 percent."