CASSOPOLIS — When you change lives, like Judge Susan Dobrich and her Cass County Family Treatment Court team do, it’s hard to know what to expect each Wednesday morning.

Aug. 3 brought a parade and tears to the surprised jurist’s eyes.

Alumni of Family Treatment Court back to the second graduate in 2004 returned to say thanks and to present a leather-bound journal to the judge  in which they hand-wrote their gratitude for turning their lives around.

“I know at times your job is frustrating,” graduate 47, Essence Romans, said, “but you are changing lives. Not only my life, but my daughter’s life and all these people and their families” who filled Dobrich’s courtroom.

An impressed state Sen. John Proos, R-St. Joseph, spent the morning watching the proceedings on his way to the Cass County Fair.

Jamie “went from being in abusive relationships and having absolutely nothing to two gorgeous children, a boy, 4, and a girl, 6. I have a full-time job with LADD and am still going to school for nursing on top of being a fulltime mom and a full-time employee.”

Did she have a high school diploma when she started? “Oh, God, no!” she laughs. “It took me six weeks to do all five tests and get my GED. I took one a week except for math, which took me two weeks. When I got my GED, I also got a four-year lifelong learning scholarship” to Southwestern Michigan College. “Even fun classes. I took rock climbing, which I’m not sure how that fits with nursing.”

Jennifer, No. 44, “just graduated this year. I have three children. I’m getting ready to get my oldest off to college. I know where I need to be and what I need to do. If I didn’t have people behind me, hounding me…”

She beams at Essence, “a strong girl.”

Jennifer, recounting “her day in court that’s not pleasant,” was “sanctioned” for lying while in the program. “I sat in Judge Dodge’s courtroom for 50 hours at an average of two hours a week,” she recalled. “After each session, I had to write a paper on what I heard. I sat and listened to people talk about what they did and didn’t do, watched their body language and pretty much tried to lie their way out of everything. It made me realize, boy, did I look like a fool that day I sat here and read this paper that made absolutely no sense, whatsoever, and had nothing to do with the paper I was actually ordered to write.”

Another Jamie, No. 15, said, “I have dreams and goals now. Before, I was stuck in such a rut and there was no light at the end of my tunnel. They showed me a way out. I drank alcohol one day and Barb (House, the program coordinator) called me on the phone and told me if I didn’t straighten up, my son would be forced to call someone else ‘Mom.’ From there on, I was on the straight and narrow, focused and goal-oriented.” She works two jobs and wants to become a social worker.

No. 33 admitted she was “a little stubborn at first, but I’ve got my babies back and I’m happy about that. I work for Woodlands — how crazy is that? I’m going to SMC for social work. Everything’s good. Judge Dobrich taught me how to love myself so I can love my kids and be a better mom. I’m still here, moving and shakin’.”

The only couple, Nos. 31 and 32, accompanied by their children, have been clean for three years. “Their prodding and praise showed me I had what it took,” he said.

“It was a rough road,” she said. “We didn’t appreciate what we had, but we do now.” It feels “awesome” to be sober.

House teased Deb about her reservation to write in the journal because “she did writing assignments in court that we weren’t always pleased with, so she was really nervous. I told her there would be no grading on this.”

The program’s second graduate, sober since March 17, 2004, when her older daughter was 3, said she has “gone through a lot.”

House tells graduates like Carrie she will be “on-call forever. I was at a low point recently because we had a graduate who struggled and didn’t make it. It was a hard, emotional day because we all care and we all cry. And then I got a call from Carrie with a parenting question. Thank you, God, I needed that.”

Not only was House present for the birth of her daughter, she cut the cord.

“We’re looking to have alumni start mentoring some of our current active participants and our new grads,” said House, who did school social work for 10 years before joining Family Treatment Court in 2004, when what has become a pilot program for Michigan was one of just 23 in the nation. “I’m never leaving,” she said.

Dobrich modestly shifted attention away from herself.

“Lawyers participate at a very reduced rate,” she said. “They give a lot of their time. The Prosecutor’s Office assists in criminal case so we can have parents here. Barb and the case managers from Woodlands, the counselors and therapists, it’s the group process that creates this atmosphere. When a case is driven by DHS (Department of Human Services), a judge or the defense attorneys, it doesn’t work because it becomes unbalanced. The system works because we work together as a team. Tim (Rosenboom) and I have worked together for a long time. Because of good working relationships, we spin off programs. This kind of started with Wraparound. The other thing that makes this thing work — and participants don’t get to see this — but these guys fight and bang heads and argue out issues for the best interests of the children. Cases are named for the child because we know children do better if their parents are healthy and sober. This team has been pretty intact since the beginning. I can accept the award because I got elected to accept it, but it’s nothing more than the team itself.”

“That’s very humble,” House said, “but you put together the team. And when you did, I can remember hearing from so many people, ‘Are you nuts?! You don’t have time. You’re already overextended. You’re doing too much work.’ It continues because of you. The words you’re searching for are thank you.”

“This is pretty exciting,” Dobrich said. “You never know what Wednesday will bring. The traditional system doesn’t work as well. We went to training in 2000 and saw all of these revolving-door failures. When you see that, it can become awfully depressing if you don’t have any successes. Even we like to win every once in a while, and you guys make it possible for us to win. It’s like golf. I had a couple good shots last night, so I’ll go back again.”

“Winning!” several chime in with Charlie Sheen’s catchphrase.

House said Family Treatment Court has been completely grant-funded, from initial federal grants for $450,000 and $466,000 to state financial support through DHS and the State Court Administrator’s office.

With 56 graduates, House notes an interesting statistic that if you divide that group in half, “one through 28, only four of them, their drug of choice was meth(amphetamine). Number 29 through 56, only four of them had a drug of choice that wasn’t meth. That shows how meth has become such an epidemic. However, our success rate with meth is 89 percent. Our success rate overall, 67 percent. It’s renewed my faith in the system. We’re non-adversarial and we meet as a team before each hearing.”