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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 8, 2004 Janssen switches roles By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings After 10 years working as the juvenile officer with the Ashland Police Department, Jan Janssen has changed gears. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings Jan Janssen volunteers to drive three Helman Elementary School boys to school each day, and meets with them weekly for breakfast. Janssen has altered her focus from working with youth offenders to acting as a probation officer for the Ashland Municipal Court and community counselor who reaches out to area youth before they commit crimes. "[The change is] not particularly dramatic, because it's a continuation of her municipal court work," Ashland Police Chief Mike Bianca said, explaining Janssen will do some follow-up on adult cases and youth traffic cases for the court, as well as working with kids in the pre-offender phase. "She can get referrals from the school, from parents and from police officers about kids in trouble before they offend. She can help them." The declining youth caseload in the city, along with the need for Janssen's expertise in other areas of law enforcement and crime prevention, led to the switch. "One thing we noticed is we were running out of kids in Ashland," Bianca said. Prior to September, Janssen had been running the youth diversion program in Ashland. First-time youth offenders who had committed minor crimes were sent to Janssen, who would help the youth find a suitable solution to what they had done, such as community service or apologizing. "What I tried to do was always be sensible and talk with the kids and the parents about how we can make this right again," Janssen said. "We don't want them to serve time, not a little kid." However, now those diversion duties have been shifted to the Jackson County Juvenile Department to give Janssen more time to work with kids before they commit crimes. Janssen meets with students several Ashland schools on a daily or weekly basis, speaks in Catalyst classes at Ashland High School, is involved with the Ashland Homeless Alliance and the Ashland Diversity Alliance to speak on youth issues, teaches a diversion class with Ashland municipal Judge Alan Drescher once a week and helps direct a program that helps high school students with good attendance patterns to get a part-time job during school hours. "Jan has the knack to form trusting relationships with so many kids," Bianca said. "It's kind of phenomenal. It's really her gift. In some cases, she can form a bond with a kid no one else can reach." DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange web conferencing Online Casinos Community Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams