Thursday, October 28, 1976 THE GRYPHON—Page Seven Delinquents Begin New Lives . . mm Home shows conforting attitude: The home ttself, upper left, the view to the garden, upper right, and the pony, all reveal the restful atmosphere of Outlooli. [Photo by Bulluck] A huge white house, a broken pane in an attic window disturbing the reflection of the trees, a large green porch surrounding the tin-roofed house like a box of Reynolds Wrap, an old barn filled with two brown and white Shetland ponies, a gray cat named Hawthorne and a bright blue hall all share one quality in the small village of Leggett, N.C. These qualities are all grouped into a program called OUTLOOK! OUTLOOK is a home for girls between the ages of 10 and 16 who are delinquents or predelinquents whose family situation needs a little change for the better. The home can house nine girls but at present is filled with only three. OUTLOOK has been running for about a year now, and according to Mrs. Sara Duryea, supervisor for the group home as well as a social worker supervisor, the program has helped ten girls start a better life. The home is “mothered and fathered” by Mr. and Mrs. Mike and Susan Webb under the direction and financial support of the Edgecombe County Department of Social Services. The name OUTLOOK evolved because of the need to tell the kids that the home wasn’t “the end of the line,” but an outlook on life. Girls from Wilson and Nash counties as well as Edgecombe County can apply for admission to the halfway house. The United States Division of Court Counselors decided that a home was needed for delinquent and predelinquent girls so that they could get good help instead of having to go to a training school where it seems that afterwards they continue progressively into deeper and deeper crimes, “and that they don’t need,” stated Mrs. Duryea. The girls who go to OUTLOOK are mostly runaways and the like. The girls have professional services available to them such as Psychiatric attention, medi cal, and legal care. The girls are put together in a group setting where the method of “peer pressure” can be used to help the girls. “Peer pressure,” stated Mrs. Duryea, “is the use of the girls ‘sisters’ to help each mm Texfi-K Rocky Mount, N.C. A Division of Texfi Industries Inc. An Equal Opportunity Employer other in an environment of care for one another. Each girl expresses that they don’t want a ‘sister’ to do something wrong because it might harm her.” This home requires the involvement of the parents, and admission is only allowed through parental approval. The girls are allowed to visit home once a month. The purpose behind the home said Mrs. Duryea is that “a great many young people more and more are breaking the law, shoplifting, running away and being truant from school. Many times it’s the home that causes the problems, and we want to clear up this problem through the girls home.” Mrs. Duryea also stated that many “parents are throwing up their hands and giving up.” The girls do household chores and everyone must share in the responsibili ties. The girls are taught that sharing in responsibilities is the only way to make things worthwhile. They go to the public schools and are en couraged to participate in extracurricular activities. The advisory board has 12 members including a law enforcement officer, citizens at large, a minister, a high school student, a juvenile officer, and other similar occupations evol ving around troubled girls. The home is partly financed through a social service program called “Title 20” given by the state, and the remainder of the tab is picked up by the Federal Government. The home needs volunteers, for it’is not as fully THE DENIM 209 S. East l/ain Street SHOP Rocky Mount, N.C. Anaconda Wire and Cable Division “An Equal Opportunity Employer” furnished as would be desired. Mrs. Dureyea summarized the home best when she said that at the home the kids “aren’t even considered as patients. They’ve just got to get their head on right with a large amount of love and firm hand telling them what they can and cannot do.” ROCKY MOUNT NEW CAR & TRUCK DEALERS ASSOCIATION ROCKY MOUNT, NORTH CAROLINA 27801 RAY BANDY DODGE CO. Dodge — Dodge Trucks BEL AIR CHEVROLET CO. Chevrolet — Chevrolet Trucks BONE INTERNATIONAL International Harvester flake B. CHIPLEY, INC. Lincoln — AAercury CREST FORD, INC. Ford — Ford Trucks DAVENPORT MOTOR CO. Cadillac — Pontiac FARRIS MOTORS, INC. American Motors — Fiat — Jeep PERRY VOLKSWAGEN, INC. Volkswagen — Subaru HOWELL BUICK CO. Buick O. B. SMITH OLDSMOBILE, INC. Oldsmobile DON’S DATSUN — VOLVO, INC. Datsun Cars & Trucks ROCKY MOUNT TOYOTA, INC. Toyota Cars i Trucks

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view