The Colorado Division of Youth Services (DYS) will soon be using CIRCLE UP across all 10 of its secure youth residential centers, incorporating the film into its work with young people around accountability, the impact of their actions, and envisioning a positive future.
After Programming Administrator Jason Dagg facilitated meaningful circles around the film at three DYS sites, the response was immediate: young people wanted more.
“We delivered the CIRCLE UP curriculum to the young men in our system through a series of five sessions, delivered once a week for five weeks,” Jason writes. “So far we have delivered this at three separate program sites, and each site has had youth provide promising feedback.”
For one young man, the themes of the film moved from the screen into his own life.
At a parole hearing shortly after watching the film and participating in a circle, a family member of the person he had shot spoke. She told him, “I just really want you to find success in your life. I hope for you to do well.”
Later, Jason asked how he felt about what she had said. His response was striking:
“Man, I can’t believe it’s like the film we watched…now I have a responsibility.
In that moment, the young man recognized something that CIRCLE UP is designed to make possible: accountability can become the beginning of a different relationship with harm one has caused, the people affected, and the responsibility to make different choices moving forward.
As Jason reflected, the experience from the film had become real for this young man. Because he had already explored those ideas in the circle, the experience connected with values he was beginning to carry with him as he prepared to transition back into the community.
This is why we made CIRCLE UP: to create spaces where difficult truths can be faced, empathy can emerge, and young people can begin to see accountability and hope as part of their own journeys.
(image: Spring Creek Youth Services Center, Colorado)