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As this illustrates, participants may be exposed to 10 (and. with
staff replacements, sometimes 12) individual staff members. For" a
program that is run on a four-week basis. this appears to introduce
a great number of different personalities withb most likely, slightly
different philosophies and modes of interacting with young peop Ie.
The c01:1sis tent staffing c anp onent was es~ential, it was fe It, to
evaluate \'lhich method, if either, could be found to be of .greatest
benefit to the youths the program serves. Hithout this test, proponents
of the rotation system 'can continue to claim that this experience
is valuable as an introduction to the variety of individuals
one has to learn to c ope with in the "rea 1 wor ld. " The argument that
what so-called delinquents may need is strong, sensitive adults with
whom they have time to form a trusting relationship has not been put
to the test. It is understandable. on the other hand t that staff
members would not want to work four consecutive weeks in addition to
their normal work-load. The question should ideally be resolved on
the basis of what is in the best interest of the youths being served
by the program.
Parent participation in the youths' session also was not tried.
Many parents only with difficulty were able to attend the family meetings
twice weekly. To implement this component would have meant
either eliminating the family counseling or requiring parental attendance
an additional evening. Neither option was viewed with much
favor. Many parents did, however, suggest joint meetings that would
be of a counseling nature. (See Chapter VII.) Such an experimental
group needs to be examined more closely.
Staff members for the most part made programming decisions
for individual sessions. None chose to experiment with the use of
small groups. The idea for this was for staff to divide t~e large