1. Preferred Name, Title and How Many Years You’ve Worked with CIYJ
Tanya Banks, Superintendent (Ferris School). I’ve worked with CIYJ since 2013.
2. What is the most challenging aspect of your role? What aspect is the most rewarding? (Feel free to address either or both questions.)
The most challenging aspect of my role is making sure that we provide meaningful services to our youth to change their way of thinking and helping the community understand the population that we work with. As a level 5 facility, there are many misconceptions about our youth, the work being done and the services provided in our facility. I’m always proud to speak about the great work that our staffing team does. Our goal is not only to work with the youth but also to better engage our families. This is also the most rewarding part of the job. Witnessing a youth make significant changes and progress while they are with us makes me proud. I am grateful that I have a dedicated team of staff who are committed to the work that we do. We try our best to focus on progress, not perfection and celebrate our small successes.
3. Looking back over the past two decades, what do you consider to be CIYJ’s most impactful contributions to the youth justice space?
I believe the most impactful contribution to the youth justice space has been CIYJ’s recognition of our youth’s accomplishments. For CIYJ to recognize our youth on various platforms such as Kids Got Talent, Barbara Allen-Hagen and the Russ Jennings scholarship is so critical. We have some pretty talented youth in our care, and they are deserving of positive recognition. Therefore, when CIYJ decided to offer these opportunities to our youth, I believe this was very impactful.
4. Can you share a particularly poignant success story, milestone, or impactful moment that CIYJ has achieved during your tenure with us?
I’m always proud to share that Ferris School is the six-time champion of the Kids Got Talent group competition with CIYJ. Our music program is one that our youth strive to participate in. Although many of them make music outside of the facility, we challenge them to make clean music with positive messages. When it’s time for us to work on our submission for the competition, we never really know how truly talented our youth. Fortunately, we’ve had some talented youth in our program for six years straight. One year when CIYJ held the awards ceremony in Boston, I asked Kim Godfrey Lovett if we could bring the winners with us to perform at the dinner and she agreed. I then had to think of a way to convince my boss (and the Courts) that it would be a great idea to allow us to travel from Delaware to Massachusetts with several residents from a level 5 facility to perform. Luckily, I’ve had a great leadership team who listened and supported my idea, even though it was out of the ordinary. This was a success story for us as a facility because it was a proud moment for our residents, for staff and for our leadership team.
5. What message would you like to convey to our supporters, partners and advocates as CIYJ celebrates this significant anniversary?
Initially when we first started working with CIYJ, I had no idea how impactful and resourceful they would be. However, I was quickly able to see how beneficial it is to work with CIYJ. There are so many ways that CIYJ supports the work that we do in juvenile justice. CIYJ assists us in using our own data to be a better facility for youth and create a better work environment for our staff. The data helps us improve our services for youth while they are in our care and better prepare them for reentry. It also allows us to better engage and support our families who aren’t always familiar with navigating the juvenile justice system. Additionally, the data helps us work on creating a better work environment for all staff. Once we were able to determine that we aren’t in competition with anyone but ourselves, we were able to use the data to be better overall as a facility.
6. What inspired you to pursue a career dedicated to youth justice?
I’ve always been interested in a career within the criminal justice system. I previously spent time working in adult correctional facilities. However, when I started working with youth, I found that I enjoyed working with our population more. This work is challenging yet rewarding. To be in a leadership position in which I am able to work with great staff, collaborate with community agencies and provide services to our youth inspires and motivates me daily.