A Des Moines area school district has launched a program focused on diverting students from committing minor offenses before concerns escalate.
The Human Empowerment and Restorative Diversion (HERD) program launched last month with the goal of providing more youth intervention services to students in the Southeast Polk Community School District.
Program director Eli Suddarth said HERD is geared towards fifth through 12th grade students in the district who are identified as potential offenders or have committed a misdemeanor.
“If we could reach them earlier on and provide them a little bit of additional support, mentoring, behavioral help, even academic support if they need it — having mentors here for academic help as well — that can help prevent, hopefully, a later incident from occurring,” Suddarth said.
Five students have joined the program since it launched.
Once a student joins, a personalized plan is developed and they meet with a mentor weekly throughout the year. Through these meetings, they can access free meals, educational support and guidance from their mentor.
“A lot of the interventions we’re applying have a lot of educational research that back them up, to help with behavioral growth,” Suddarth said.
He said the program can help students with a range of needs, whether they’re struggling with alcohol or drug abuse, behavioral issues or a lack of resources.
One of the first students that joined the program wasn’t breaking the law, but the Altoona Police Department was frequently called to their home.
“And so, we were referred to their family by local law enforcement, by Altoona Police Department, and did their intake and identified this person is somebody who simply benefits from a little bit more pro-social time,” Suddarth said. “Some time with peers, but also grown-ups who are willing to just come alongside and support that person and help them grow.”
He said by addressing students’ needs now, HERD can help get them on the right track before a situation or offense becomes more serious.
The initiative is also meant to expand the resources already offered at the school district, Suddarth said.
“But because of the number of students in public school, we just realized that teachers, school counselors and local law enforcement don’t always have as many tools as they need to be able to meet all of the needs that students might have,” he said.
Sgt. Roger Drown supervises the Altoona Police Department’s community outreach team. During a HERD program kickoff event, Drown said their team can only address one part of the youth intervention process.
“We deal with the crisis, we get it diffused, we stabilize the situation, we hand a family a list of resources to contact and then our role there is done,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you, as a police officer, I’m ill-equipped to get into the weeds with whatever situation this family may be facing, but I also feel a responsibility to guide them to the right resource to help that family.”
Drown said the HERD program meets that need by providing students with long-term guidance.
Community volunteers, like teachers, officers and counselors, are serving as the mentors for the program, as well as volunteers from Caring Hands Outreach Center, a community center in Altoona.
Suddarth said other community organizations also want to get involved. As the program continues, students are gaining access to things like gym and recreation center memberships. The city’s library also wants to support the effort, as well as ISU Extension and Outreach, which wants to provide educational support.
