“Raising a generation of heroes able to navigate the complexity of connectedness.”

Routes for Youth, a California nonprofit agency organized in 1985, is a respected innovator of unique peer-based education and violence prevention programs for challenged teens. Routes For Youth offers two unique and unduplicated programs that provide strategies and opportunities for young people to positively affect their peers: The highly successful Sonoma County Teen Court and the powerful seminar series of the Root System for the growth of youth and their families. For over 15 years, through the premise that teens listen to each other, we have positively impacted the lives of thousands of young people in Sonoma County.

Teen Court is a diversion program grounded in the framework of restorative justice. The weekly court sessions are staffed by trained youth volunteers, presided over by adult attorneys, and juried by active participants in the program. Youth are referred from schools and the county's Juvenile Probation Departments in this voluntary leveraged program. Teen Court aims to achieve a balance between the legitimate needs of the community, the juvenile offender, and the victim in a process that results in greater community protection, individual accountability, and an overall reduction in juvenile crime. Teen Court defendants discover for themselves the value of appropriate consequences through required service as a jury member. Youth avoid juvenile records and discover the significance of community involvement as well as leadership opportunities.

The Root System adds a family component to our existing programs through the design and implementation of a series of powerful and rigorous seminars for youth and their families. The Root System seminars require active individual and group participation to foster a common language and shared sense of learning. Strong bonds are formed through a series of workshops that focus on core principles of trust, accountability, intention and choice. These intense and highly effective sessions result in plead.

 

Parent Council is a powerful personal and family seminar focusing on growth and development.Time In / Time Out is a group seminar that provides the youth with stimulating lectures, participatory exercises, and feedback, encouraging them to take a closer look at their role in the lives of others, develop better communication skills, a greater feeling of self worth and a clear understanding of self. SQUIRES, a program developed by San Quentin Prison, is an opportunity for youth offenders to meet with prison inmates and see, touch, smell and feel where involvement in criminal activity can il is an opportunity for parents to experience and understand the key concepts and core principles that we are sharing with the youth.
Stay Safe is An interactive seminar designed to encourage youth to be more accountable for their actions; especially in relation to drinking, driving, and stress management. The seminar is facilitated by Routes For Youth staff in conjunction with leading Sonoma County alcohol educators. Seminars often include youth guest speakers whose lives were significantly impacted by choices involving alcohol and driving. Together the group explores the statistics and facts concerning the impacts of alcohol - on the body, the mind, and the community. We then examine the resources and programs in our community that are available to help youth in need. We discuss myths of alcohol use, and the correlation between stress and substance abuse. We help each other come up with realistic strategies for dealing with stress, and use improvisational theatre as a forum for exploring safer alternatives to dangerous situations youth often find themselves in. The seminar closes with a quiet time in which we process the experience, and sample some stress reduction techniques - like aromatherapy and coloring. Stay safe fosters a safe and open environment where youth can share honestly about their experiences and conceptions of substance abuse - and consequently, sincerely open themselves to realistic alternatives.

Completion of Teen Court requires full participation from the youth and at least one parent. Parents, who have already gone through a seminar and who are committed to assisting others, staff the session. Our facilitators and staff provide an environment full of possibilities -— individual results are up to the participants.

TEENS TEACHING THROUGH THEATER

Teens Teaching Through Theatre (T4) is a peer-based educational theatre group.  T4 is a unique program housed under the non-profit Routes for Youth. T4 has been Creating and performing dynamic and original educational theatre in Northern California since 1985. Over 30,000 youth and adults have been positively affected by the performances and over 96 scripts have been produced.  The youth involved in T4 learn about issues affecting themselves and their peers from local community partners.  The original productions they create teach teens alternative ways to handle difficult and confusing situations they encounter.  Teens Teaching Through Theatre makes a difference in the lives of both the cast and the community who beholds their performances.

Our 2006 Touring Season:

Looking Beyond The Rainbow

One vicious crime.  One death.  Ten perspectives.  Take a journey through time with this group of “friends” as they attempt to uncover the truth.   Not all of your homies are your friends, and sometimes actions born out of ignorance and hate set into motion a chain of events that will change lives forever.  “You can never really know what someone is capable of…”

I Love You, I Hate You!

These honest and hard-hitting emotional scenes, monologues, and spoken word pieces will make you question just what a relationship should be. Take a seat, hold on tight, and explore the true momentum of violence – in our pasts, and presents.   Dating isn’t easy, but not all love should be tough!

Youth interested in being a cast member should contact Carnelius Quinnat the Routes for Youth office.  Annual auditions take place in September, but actors are admitted on an ongoing basis.