The first program we came up with was
Girls Moving Forward, a pilot program that provides weekly trauma counseling and transportation to 10 girls from the juvenile courts. This program was funded by H.E.B. and the William Stamps Farish Fund. You can read more about it
here.
The next program concerned the challenge for many clients to have their records successfully hidden, to help them access better jobs and housing. This was
Clear Path Forward, the brainchild of our Board Chair Deborah Keyser and funded by the Texas Bar Foundation. I wrote a blog about that you can read
here.
Finally, we have a big one we're working on: Men and Women Moving Forward. This is a 32-week pilot that will provide trauma counseling to 40 STAR Drug Court clients in same-sex weekly group sessions. We are excited to partner with Positive Recovery Center to provide the counselors who will run the groups. We’re still seeking funding for this cutting-edge program. Once it’s funded, STAR Drug Court will be the first trauma-informed court of its kind in Texas.
With all this program development going on, we figured we needed someone qualified to run the programs, track their outcomes and develop new programs. Thanks to Houston Methodist and the Fondren Foundation, we received the funds to hire just such a person.
After receiving over 100 applications and interviewing dozens of people, we still weren’t able to find what we were looking for: a high energy, creative person with real experience creating and running programs. And then it hit me in the shower (where I get all my best ideas): How about Stephanie Belton? I wonder if she’s available.
Stephanie was our Public Relations Officer at the Harris County District Attorney’s office. She was the brains and brawn behind the hugely successful “Make it Right” program, that assisted citizens with open traffic warrants. This was a massive undertaking involving the coordination of multiple venues, hundreds of volunteers and literally thousands of attendees. She also created and executed the “Law and Order” program in which hundreds of high school and elementary school kids got to spend the day hearing from many prosecutors about their job and the criminal justice system.
Prior to joining the DA’s Office, Stephanie worked for the Houston Texans program for 6 years, where she was heavily involved in creating community outreach programs. She did similar work at the Houston Housing Authority, in addition to handling communication strategies and social media. She is from Dallas, BUT she came here to attend the University of Houston. The rest is history.
Stephanie has a passion for our mission, the energy and brains to execute our programs, and extensive contacts in the community to promote them. I can’t wait to see what she’ll accomplish as part of the Justice Forward team.
