By Guy Chapman
Outside the Navarro County Juvenile Probation Office at 315 W. Third Ave. in Corsicana, there sits a wooden box. It’s not fancy. But it didn’t need to be.
A 15-year-old in the juvenile probation program built it and welded it himself. Then he and his dad installed it together, right next to the office. He came up with the design himself.
The idea was simple: give people a place to leave canned goods and non-perishable items for anyone who needs them.
Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Jana Miller has spent 25 years in this line of work. She knows that getting a young person back on the right track sometimes means meeting them where they are.
“We were talking and he was wanting to do something with his hands, so I suggested he do a blessing box,” Miller said.
The young man had been having a hard time in a traditional school setting and made the move to homeschooling, a change that can give some kids the space they need to find their footing. Building the box gave him something to work toward. Something he could see from idea to finished product. And when it came time to put it in the ground, his dad was there beside him.
At 15, some of the more common community service placements just aren’t available to him, with more options opening up at 16.
So Miller and her small staff work to find other ways to make the hours count.
Given the size of the office, Miller carries some of the casework herself.
“We’re trying to find something for everybody to do, and sometimes we have to definitely think outside of the box,” Miller said.
That’s true in more ways than one. Counseling sessions, for example, are one of the options that count toward community service hours. The goal is to keep young people moving forward, whatever that looks like for each of them.
The blessing box accepts canned goods and non-perishable items and is open to the whole community with the simple premise of: Leave something if you can, or take something if you need it. No questions asked.
The box sits just outside the probation office at 315 W. Third Ave.
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