{"id":7525,"date":"2009-11-25T09:51:24","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T13:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=7525"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:41:46","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:41:46","slug":"uconn-students-delight-in-journeys-to-journey-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2009\/11\/uconn-students-delight-in-journeys-to-journey-house\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Students Delight in Journeys to Journey House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Students<\/a>
Students Ava Rowland and Shalice Culbreath display a t-shirt they received from Dunkin' Donuts in recognition of their volunteer efforts at Journey House. Photo by Ken Gwozdz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a double major in psychology and sociology and a minor in criminal justice, Tiffany Marrow has plenty of schoolwork to keep her busy.<\/p>\n

But Marrow, a member of the University\u2019s African American Cultural Center<\/a>, always makes time for the cultural center\u2019s periodic pilgrimages to Journey House, a residential treatment center for delinquent teenage girls in Mansfield.<\/p>\n

Marrow says she enjoys the quality time she spends with her friends at the Mansfield facility and looks forward to the times when they, in return, come to the University\u2019s Storrs campus to get a feel for the college experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we go there, there is a different activity planned and every time you get to meet different girls,\u201d says Marrow, a junior. \u201cI met this one girl there and we instantly took to each other. I like being there to reach out and help\u2026 I enjoy being a mentor and letting them know that I\u2019m here for them. For any of their needs about college and life, I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marrow is one of more than a dozen members of the African American Cultural Center who regularly participate in the Center\u2019s \u201cJourneys to Journey House\u201d program as part of the center\u2019s commitment to community service and outreach. Journey House residents and University students use the occasions as a bonding experience, mingling together and sharing laughs and stories as they participate in activities such as pumpkin carvings and Easter egg painting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis University’s most valuable resource is its students,” says Willena Kimpson Price, the cultural center\u2019s director. Price launched the \u201cJourneys to Journey House\u201d initiative three years ago with Ken Gwozdz, a retired East Hartford High School assistant director, who sponsors adolescent outreach and mentoring programs through an enterprise he created called \u201cProject Connect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Price and Gwozdz said the Journey House project was special from the start.<\/p>\n

“Every time you bring the two groups together for an event you don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to turn out\u2026\u201d Gwozdz says. \u201cBut every time I\u2019ve brought them together it\u2019s been successful\u2026.You don\u2019t think that the next one can be better, but it is. The kids just keep getting better and better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<p>Students<\/a>
Students from the African American Cultural Center decorate pumpkins with the residents of Journey House during one of their visits to the residential treatment center for teenage girls in Mansfield. Photo by Lillian L. Rhodes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Journey House is a13-bed residential treatment center for delinquent teenage girls located on the campus of Natchaug Hospital<\/a> that provides housing, academic instruction and support programs for adolescent girls between the ages of 12 and 18 who have had involvement in Connecticut\u2019s juvenile justice system. The majority of the girls living at Journey House also have had involvement with the state\u2019s child welfare system. The facility is licensed by the state Department of Children and Families. The mission of Journey House is to provide the girls with a safe and productive atmosphere, helping them transcend their individual pasts and elevate themselves into becoming productive young adults.<\/p>\n

Christy Calkins, Journey House assistant director, is a big fan of the UConn-Journey House partnership. These programs are \u201can amazing experience for the residents who are not able to go off-grounds,\u201d says Calkins. \u201cIt allows them to be able to practice social relationships with students who are just a little bit older and more mature but who have made choices that have landed them at UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calkins said the girls at Journey House look up to and admire the UConn students, who they find inspiring. One of the girls is now considering attending UConn as a result of the experiences she has enjoyed through the program, Calkins said.<\/p>\n

The success of the Journeys to Journey House program has spawned interest from other student groups and organizations on campus.\u00a0 Such groups as the Asian American Cultural Center<\/a>, Puerto Rican\/Latin American Cultural Center<\/a> and the Women\u2019s Center<\/a> have forged bonds with Journey House in recent years and the program continues to expand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outreach program connects students with troubled teens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[44],"class_list":["post-7525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-14 02:25:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7525"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37396,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7525\/revisions\/37396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7525"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=7525"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}