Roger's Story

Names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of our youth and families. The story below reflects real outcomes from real participants in our programs.

“I want to give my peers the same opportunities I had.”

A Single Mistake

Roger was sixteen the first time he sat in the back of a police car. Honor roll the year before. Captain of the JV soccer team. The kind of kid teachers liked. But after his parents’ divorce, things had quietly come apart. He started skipping practice. He started skipping class. The night he was arrested for theft alongside two friends, he wasn’t the ringleader — but he wasn’t innocent either.

In the traditional juvenile justice system, Roger’s story might have ended there: a record, a court date, a label. Instead, his case was referred to Reach For Youth.

Finding The Circle

Roger was placed in The Circle — a restorative justice program sponsored by Teen Court. Instead of standing in front of a judge, he sat in a circle with his family, the people affected by his actions, a trained facilitator, and a jury of his peers. For the first time, he had to listen. He had to answer real questions. He had to face what he had done, not as a case number, but as a young person whose choices had hurt other people.

“I expected to be punished,” Roger said later. “I didn’t expect anyone to ask me what was going on at home. Nobody had asked me that in months.”

Accountability and Repair

Through the restorative process, Roger took real responsibility. He apologized to the store owner. He completed community service. He met regularly with an RFY case manager who connected his family with counseling. Slowly, the pieces started coming back together. His grades climbed. He returned to soccer. The shame that had swallowed him began to lift, replaced with something he hadn’t felt in a long time: pride.

Coming Back

A year after completing his case, Roger came back to Reach For Youth — this time as a volunteer. He now serves on the peer jury for The Circle, sitting across from young people who remind him of who he used to be. He listens. He asks the hard questions. He shows them, by his very presence, that one mistake doesn’t have to define a life.

Roger graduates next spring. He plans to study criminal justice with a focus on restorative practices. He says he wants to do for other kids what The Circle did for him.

“Reach For Youth didn’t see a criminal. They saw a kid who needed help. That changed everything.”