REDUCING STRESS - Children who go through the Juvenile Court System for Foster care services often have to wait in the hallway outside the courtroom and potentially rehear and relive the trauma of their experiences. Caddo Parish Juvenile Court is doing something new to lessen the stress. This week a Calming Studio was unveiled to the public, it’s a special room set aside at the Caddo Juvenile Court… it has colorful lights, projected interactive games and images along with calming sounds. During a noisy press tour, Lucinda Miles, a Trust-Based Relational Intervention Practitioner with Volunteers for Youth Justice explained more about the room.
"We are very aware that when children come back to court, those children experience trauma upon trauma," Miles explained. "They often experience triggers just by being back in the courtroom. So as a result they can come here first. And this amazing room provides a calming environment where they don't have to be stressed."
Caddo Parish Juvenile Court handles roughly 1/10th of 1 percent of all foster child cases in the United States. And the judge who presides over these cases is David Matlock. He says children undergoing the court process have significant emotional issues.
"This can be a very toxic environment and we're trying to change that,"Matlock said. "We want to minimize the effects of this process which can be very, very devastating."
Several philanthropic organizations, businesses, and concerned individuals provided funding for the space. The Calming Studio at the Caddo Juvenile Court has been open a little over two months and about 60 Children have used it so far. It is the only one of it’s kind in Louisiana, and already it has gained attention from other court officials throughout the state.
