CHEYENNE COUNTY -- Officials from the Nebraska Supreme Court to Panhandle resource services met at the Lazy S Ranch to discuss how to better serve children and families in the court system.

The program, UPSTREAM, was introduced with an illustration credited to Desmond Tutu: "There comes a point where we need to stop pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in."

The November 19-20 workshop addresses the causes of people ending up in the court system, be proactive more than reactive. Cheyenne County Judge Randin Roland is one of the officials who attended the meeting. At the close of today's session, Judge Roland commented on the first day.

"I've heard everybody say they couldn't have enjoyed it more. We're making some good progress and looking forward to tomorrow," he said.

The first day of the workshop involved "mapping," discussing the system in place, it's effectiveness and its challenges. Discussions included how well agencies work together, what kind of intervention programs are in place, what is needed to keep youth and their families out of the court system.

Deb VanDyke-Ries, director of the Nebraska Court Improvement Project, said the first day explored the programs in place.

"What we did today is look at resources that are already available in Cheyenne County, and then also opportunities for improvements," VanDkye-Ries said.

The day was spent "mapping" services in the county and how they work.

"What the team that was here today just did is we all voted on what will be the three priorities that we will do action planning on tomorrow," said VanDyke-Ries.

The November 20 session will focus on designing an action plan from the priorities decided today.

Teri Deal, with the National Center for State Courts, was one of the facilitators for today's session.

"We are here today in our Upstream mapping event. Upstream is a process that NCSC developed to help communities map their resources, and opportunities they have to strengthen resources," Deal said.

The November 20 session concludes with discussion of building an action plan.