Diane Dwyer loves her job.

The 55-year-old Billings native is the victim impact program coordinator for the Center for Restorative Youth Justice, a private, nonprofit group in Kalispell that partners with young criminal offenders and community members to foster dialogue and reduce recidivism.

"I feel like I'm making a difference in the lives of youths in our community," Dwyer said. "In Montana, we're the only organization that's structured this way. There might be some types of different victim impacts that are gathered, but not to this extent."

The way the center works is by connecting the youth's community service to their crime and creating a link between the offender and the victim.

Dwyer gave one example of their system, citing a boy who had broken a large display window on the front of a business. Although he initially saw it as mostly harmless other than the cost of the window, by sitting down with center staff and the business owner, he learned the broken window led to thefts, the new window had to be brought in from 10 miles away and the family had a newborn baby at the time.

Along with the meetings, the youth are connected with community service that has something to do with the crime they committed. For example, a person who was arrested for spray painting graffiti on a building may have to go around town and clean up graffiti.

There are also other opportunities for constructive service, such as the community gardens at Flathead Valley Community College.

"That's a popular youth connections program," Dwyer said. "A lot of the kids haven't ever even worked in a garden before and the positive part of being up there is they loved it so much that even after their community service hours were completed, they continued to work in the garden."

Another benefit of the garden she highlighted was that the time they spend around the college makes higher education seem more like a reality for them.

Dwyer said the process as a whole is delivering serious results.

"We've just seen such a drop in the repeat offense rates since our probation department and Youth Court Services decided to start doing this program," she said. "You start telling them all the stories about the trickle effect of their crime and it really means something to them. But when you used to just say ‘OK, go and pick up trash along the highway,' that didn't mean anything to them."

PRIOR TO working with the center, Dwyer held a variety of positions in the fields of social work and education.

Dwyer moved to the suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., during her high school and college years, taking her first post-school job as assistant to the coordinator of a resource center in St. Paul. She was also an interim senior citizen program coordinator and a Meals on Wheels manager.

In 1978, when her grandmother died, Dwyer moved back to Kalispell. She had wanted to move back to Montana for some time and also wanted to help her grandfather. Between then and 1982 she held several positions with the Northwest Montana Human Resource Council.

Among her accomplishments during that period was assisting in writing a $600,000 Farmers Home Grant with Section 8 rental assistance for senior citizen apartments in Troy.

Over the next several years, Dwyer worked on a fire lookout, as a teacher's aide, as a manager with the American Automobile Association, as leader of an after-school and summer-care program and as a preschool teacher and daycare provider.

Dwyer's next stint found her as a program manager and case worker for Big Brothers Big Sisters for five years, followed by 10 years as a fifth- and sixth-grade tutor at Evergreen Jr. High School.

After a brief time with Flathead Care and two years as the children's program coordinator with the Violence Free Crisis Line, she finally found her current home with the Center for Restorative Youth Justice.

Dwyer came into the position at the very beginning of the grant-funded program. That grant was received around the end of 2009, and the program began in early 2010. Another woman briefly held the position before her, but she passed away and Dwyer was hired in March 2010.

NOW SETTLED into her role at the center, Dwyer is happy.

She said her favorite part of her job is seeing the youths who come in move full circle.

"It's doing victim impacts for a youth offense and then seeing them come into our office and go through our accountability programming and witnessing their growth indirectly," she said.

Along with her work at the center, Dwyer also volunteers doing elder care for eight hours each week.

But her favorite job of all?

"Being a mom," Dwyer said. "I have a wonderful, supportive husband and family."

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.