Project BeCOMe
RCA x Oasis.org
Academic Group Project
A behavioral progress tracker for incarcerated at risk youth being admitted to a new institution of justice called the Oasis Secure School.
Context.
The ministry of justice has partnered with Oasis who has experience in community building and working with at risk youth. They are building a value driven secure school with focus on relationships, discovery and community. More school, less prison.
They need support from us on building a functioning blueprint, new roles of staff, how it will all come together and see if we can enhance it.
Discovery.
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The approaches are focusing on intervention and prevention rather than welfare and rehabilitation. They are rigid, abusive and overcrowded.
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Involving the design of environment, parents of the youth and even longer, stricter training programs for staff.
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It gets difficult to control the kids, they get locked up longer and some don't get as much free time outside their cells like others, which causes the children to be more violent. As a result, the center becomes unsafe for the staff and the children.
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An ex-prisoner remarked on how important the relationship with staff can transform the experience for an inmate.
A counselor suggested that there is progress but it isn’t marked or tracked or shown to the kids.
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The activities and planned interventions at the secure school are the responsibility of individual staff members that come together every once in a while and speak about the child and the next steps.
The policy is robust, wordy, and effective but still a checklist. it falls short of creating a holistic environment for restoration.
The touchpoints may only present themselves at times of onboarding or incidents.
Insight.
The institutions of youth justice are institutions intended for positive behavior tansformation but the current environment and staff does not support. The secure school takes care a bit of the latter.
As a person/incarcerated youth goes through these institutions, there is a transformation, but it isn’t recorded in any way, and hence never made transparent to the person as well.
Opportunity.
Opportunity.
We can see that Oasis has great plans, which are to be carried out by specialized professionals, but they indeed miss something where all their activities come together.
And for that what if we imagine a universe where we create a progress indicator that makes their activities measurable and more transparent to the kids and the staff. The progress indicator also helps the kids to justify their holistic growth and increase chances of rehabilitation.
“ How might we create a progress indicator to help mark the transformation of the children in institutions and support their reintegration back into society by showing their holistic progress through various touchpoints in the institutions as evidence against the stigma of a criminal record.”
Service Proposition.
Since the time at the secure school is meant to be for transformation, the well proven COM-B model of behavioral transformation is applied to develop a tool that is co-created by the staff and the student.
To use the motif of a traffic light, the red light the student feel at the beginning of their time at the institution goes through a yellow transformation using the progress tracker across their journey and in the end the portfolio provides them a green light to rehabilitation and empower them to feel greater sense of belonging.
Reactions from the stakeholders.
"We track our own progress to see how much we grew, that really helps us along with what the coaches tell us"
— Excluded Kids at K-Sports
"The portfolio created by the students themselves is real great idea. It gives them ownership and reflect on what staff say about them"
— Staff from Belmont Park School
"If the child can see themselves differently and see a future beyond offending through the portfolio which they create themselves, rather than a passport"
