By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
A little bit of paint and a positive message can brighten up someone's day. Youth with the 20th Judicial District's Juvenile Services have stayed busy with a variety of community-based projects. Community Case Manager Laura Mason said one of those projects was painting Kindness Rocks.
"Stone Sand Company donated two five-gallon buckets of rocks," she said. "The kids painted pretty much every single one of them. They took some home. They scattered them around the block. It was a good time. They really enjoyed it."
Other projects include CPR training with Dean Nuss, and learning financial literacy with BMO Bank. Youth will also help with Great Bend High School's Haunted High this Sunday at 5 p.m., and they have learned retail and other skills while working at the Catholic Charities Thrift Store on Main Street in Great Bend. Upcoming events include a make, bake, and take pizza class, as well as a safe-driving class with assistance from the Barton County Sheriff's Office. Juvenile Services Assistant Director Mike Daniel said youth are also seeing results of a mentorship program recently implemented in the district.
"We've helped kids find jobs and help them build profiles on Indeed, and teach them how to navigate some of that," he said. "One of the things that's been impressive to me is how good some of these kids are with technology. Once they figure out how to do that on their phone and they get their profile built, I've been very surprised and impressed with how well it works sometimes. They apply for a job, and within a couple of minutes, they get a response back asking when they want to do an interview."
The mentorship program also includes cognitive-behavior-based activities that teach youth how to make better decisions to achieve the outcomes they want.