David & Catherine:
A Drug Court and Reclaiming Futures Success Story

“David” is a 16-year old young man who was referred to Natural Helping by the Intervention Center after he was arrested for underage alcohol consumption at a house party. During the Behavioral Health Screening, it was also determined that David had past use/experimentation of various drugs.

For his introduction to Natural Helping, David’s Assessment Specialist told him about the program and that someone would be contacting him. Shortly after that, David’s mother received a phone call from the program and heard a little more information about Natural Helping and set up an orientation.

For the orientation, David and his mom met with Catherine, the Natural Helper Coordinator, and learned all about the program. They learned the focus would be on David and his family’s strengths and that as long as he was willing to keep an open mind and participate in the Natural Helping Program, that he would remain “unofficial” with Juvenile Court and not have a permanent record.

In order for David to feel comfortable about having Catherine ask questions for his strengths assessment, the two of them privately went off together to talk As to be expected, David was a little shy in the beginning of their conversation. He was in an environment that was familiar to him, but he had never met Catherine before and of course the program was new, too. Well, although he may have been reluctant at first, by the end of their conversation, he shared a whole lot of information about his life! Through their conversation Catherine learned that David was an extremely intelligent and mature young man. He had just a few close friends whom he valued, loved philosophy and history, and shared a tremendous sense of humor and optimism towards life. He realized that he could trust Catherine and didn’t hesitate to share things about several aspects of his life. By the end of their conversation, Catherine had a good understanding of who David was and began generating ideas on how Natural Helping who benefit him.

During discussions with the Project Director, it was determined that there was a Natural Helper who had been through the training and screening processes that should be a good match with David. Mark was a Natural Helper that had numerous attributes: caring, outspoken, lots of free time, a volunteer for several causes including youth. After discussing this with both David and Mark, everyone agreed that the two should meet and begin the Natural Helping Process.

Catherine scheduled to meet the two of them for breakfast and then met with David first that morning to share more information about Mark, his Natural Helper, and to see if David had anymore questions. David was optimistic about the meeting and curious about a few more aspects of Mark. After he was reassured about Mark, the Natural Helping program, and Catherine remaining his contact person during his involvement in the program, David was even more encouraged about being involved.

Mark arrived, Catherine provided the introductions, and the three of them sat down to breakfast. They enjoyed laughing and talking together for nearly two hours! There was a very comfortable feeling about Mark and David from the very beginning as the two asked questions of each other and shared information about themselves. And of course Catherine was able to enjoy sharing insights with both of them since she already learned all about each of them when they joined the program. Before they left breakfast, Mark and David planned their next outing together.

From that day forward, David has shared that he really likes being a part of the program. He and Mark have gone to see movies, eaten in different restaurants, bowled, and visited COSI in Columbus, Ohio. They have also spent time exchanging ideas about the future and what long-term hopes/dreams and short-term needs/wants they had and how to obtain these things. And Mark has shared that he’s amazed with David’s intelligence and that he didn’t realize how much fun being a Natural Helper would be. His thoughts on the success with David include establishing trust (if he says he’s going to do something, he always follows through), letting David do twice as much talking as Mark does, leading by example, and allowing David to have lots of input on their activities and schedule.

To this day, David and Mark continue to meet weekly and share new experiences. David has remained in the program even though the court has closed his case due to successful completion of his disposition. He says that Mark is a “good guy” and that he wants to continue learning and growing.