When young people are called to the office of Alison Uhlenberg, her goal is that she never sees them there again.
Uhlenberg is a juvenile court counselor who makes lifechanging decisions about how the state will respond to young people who have broken the law.
As the Juvenile Justice Division's intake duty person in Chatham County, Uhlenberg can direct a case to court or to the community.
A charge against a juvenile — less than age 16 — is a “complaint,” which becomes a “petition” if it is referred to juvenile court.
A court, too, can send an offending youth to corrective resources in the community; it can also commit the juvenile to confined treatment in a youth development center.
Often, a juvenile's offense doesn't rise to the level of confinement, and more effective alternative responses are available in the youth's town or county. At that stage of the process, Uhlenberg diverts the juvenile from court proceedings and places him or her into hands of program providers, ranging from a peer-review process to mental health services.
Uhlenberg said the process is part of Juvenile Justice's therapeutic model for responding to juvenile delinquents.
“The model is good, in that we need to think of the children as children, and they don't need to be treated like adults,” she said.
Law enforcement officers draw up and present complaints to Uhlenberg, usually in person, giving her the opportunity to talk with them about the complaints. She sometimes helps the officers with the necessary paperwork.
Uhlenberg's next step — to be taken within 15 days of receiving the complaint — is when the youth is called to her office, along with a parent or guardian. She gathers as much information as possible, including socio-economic factors, family functionality, the youth's behavior at home and school and mental health history.
The North Carolina Juvenile Offender Information Network (NC JOIN), a statewide database on youths in the juvenile justice system, gives intake counselors access to assessment tools that help them decide whether to divert complaints or forward them to court. The assessments consider the needs of the youths and families and the youths' likelihood of re-offending.
In the last fiscal year, Uhlenberg processed 204 complaints, a large majority of them coming from the schools. She diverted 105 of them.
If she diverts a complaint, Uhlenberg becomes responsible for monitoring the juvenile's progress. Youths already under probation supervision are monitored by their juvenile court counselor.
The youth is likely to enter a program funded through the local Juvenile Crime Prevention Council. Among the JCPC programs available in Chatham County are Teen Court, Family Advocacy, community service and psychological evaluations. Court adjudications often send youths to JCPC programs, too.
“Overall, JCPC programs are doing a great job,” Uhlenberg said.
Unlike a juvenile court counselor for a youth on probation, Uhlenberg in her intake counselor position is not required to provide supervision that is direct, “unless it needs to be.”
“I maintain monthly contact with the agencies that I refer children to, with other people involved and with the parents,” she said. “I make sure they're being compliant, make sure they're going to their mental health appointments or doing their community service. I may have meetings at school regarding the child's behavior.”
Uhlenberg said one of her biggest challenges is helping people outside of Juvenile Justice understand the therapeutic model approach to responding to youthful delinquency. Often, other people involved, even parents, expect more confinement.
“What happened 15 years ago, or even five years ago, is not what's happening now, and there's a lot of frustration from parents and other people that that's not how we do things, and that we need to try these things first until we run out of options,” she said.
Uhlenberg has a helpful nature, which she said led her to choose to earn a bachelor of science and master's degrees in criminal justice.
After working in the state juvenile justice system in Michigan, where she earned her post-graduate degree, Uhlenberg returned to her native North Carolina and became a youth counselor at the now-closed Samarkand Youth Development Center in 2006. She worked at Samarkand for about eight months in a pilot program of a new model of care adopted from the Methodist Homes for Children.
Afterward, Uhlenberg was named a juvenile court counselor in Chatham County, next door to Orange County, where she grew up in Chapel Hill. She has had intake duties in Chatham County since 2007.
She believes her work makes a difference in people's lives.
“I like helping people,” she said. “I like seeing the changes that families and children can make.
“Hopefully, we don't work with the families forever. I'll say to them, ‘If I see you in Food Lion or Walmart or I'm on business at school and you say hi, or if I get a phone call about how you're doing, or if I get an invitation to your graduation, that's what I want to see. I don't want to see you back here.”
Uhlenberg's soul is restless if she's not helpful.
“I can sleep at night knowing they are getting something from what I do,” she said. Uhlenberg often feels the face of poverty staring hungrily at her, and she does something about that, too.
Her heart sees too many Chatham County families struggling to get enough to eat. Last summer, she began using an online community “chat room” to solicit food donations for hungry people in the county. She posted requests for surplus produce that people might gather from their private gardens.
Soon, three people were regularly leaving tomatoes, peppers, squash and other vegetables at her office door. She has since added canned and dried foods to her request.
Uhlenberg and a co-worker divvy the produce and foods into bags and deliver the food themselves to needy families. At least 15 families are being served.
Uhlenberg's “e-gleaning” project has led to social gatherings that fostered cultural activities and other learning opportunities for the families' children.
Her eyes glistening, she said, “I do it, because the kids need it.”
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Contact: George Dudley
Phone: (919) 733-5027