Advocate welcomes honors, but reward for her is helping the kids

Chanel Parker says that for many at-risk youths, having a steady, meaningful adult presence in their lives can be as important as whatever message those adults might offer. (The Indiana Lawyer photo/Chad Williams)

Chanel Parker has spent nearly 20 years at the Marion Superior Court Youth Services Center, but she still refers to the young people who arrive there as “my kids.”

Parker, the center’s longtime quality-of-life coordinator, came to the facility in 2005 with a criminology degree, little practical experience in juvenile justice, and not the foggiest notion that her efforts there would become the defining work of her life. Two decades later, she oversees its programs, including recruiting volunteers to work with the kids and greenlighting the myriad enrichment opportunities that shape daily life for detained youth.

She was recognized recently by the Indianapolis Colts as the team’s 2025 Inspire Change Changemaker Award recipient. The honor both surprised her and briefly thrust her into the public eye. But inside the Youth Services Center, where she spends many holidays, evenings and countless unscheduled hours, the recognition feels secondary to the quiet, repetitive work she sees as her calling.

“I’m still going to be the same little Chanel,” she said. “I’m still going to continue to be me and do the things that I’ve always done.”

A gatekeeper

Parker’s path to the Youth Services Center was long and winding. After graduating from Indiana State University in 2001, she moved to Indianapolis and initially took a job in the mortgage industry. When the company she worked for closed, she decided to look for work related to her degree. She interviewed at the Juvenile Detention Center and also at the former Indiana Girls School, and to her surprise was accepted by both.

“Juvenile called me and hired me first,” she said.

Her first role, youth manager, was direct-care work on the living units that was mostly frontline supervision and interaction with young people in custody. Over time, she shifted into program support and then began taking on responsibility for coordinating outside volunteers who visit the center to provide mentorship, faith-based gatherings, arts activities and life-skills programming.

“I started with the program staff, then started supervising the program department,” she said. “From there I moved to volunteer coordinator. My role became getting in the volunteers, doing the orientation process, being their liaison and dictating and determining who could actually come in.”

She approaches that gatekeeping role carefully.

“I’m very strategic with it,” Parker said. “I don’t put just anybody in front of the kids. I have to make sure that people are able to present and articulate properly, and I take a close look at the information are they trying to give out to the kids. I use my gut for a lot of this.”

Today she supervises both program staff and the volunteers, shaping an environment where programming is as much about stability as content. The offerings range from mentorship groups and discussions to health education, music and physical activities. She strives to maintain a balance between faith-based and secular programs.

She’s also cognizant of the fact that, for many at-risk youths, simply having a steady, meaningful adult presence in their lives can be as important as whatever message the volunteers and staff might offer.

“The kids really let me know what’s good and what’s not, but they really don’t offer a lot of negative thoughts about the volunteers” she said. “Even when people are first starting out, the kids give everybody a shot. Because if nothing else, at least it gives them a chance to be able to see somebody else besides our staff.”

That volunteer presence is something Fred Dorsey, pastor at True Vine Missionary Baptist Church, has both witnessed and helped to bolster. He’s worked as a volunteer at the Youth Services Center for more than 15 years, first through the YMCA and later independently, providing life skills, character development and mentoring programs.

“Ms. Parker definitely has a love for the children,” Dorsey said. “The staff isn’t there to treat them as criminals or people who are incarcerated. She embraces the youth with the knowledge that they are still children.”

Burst of energy

Dorsey said Parker goes out of her way to make holidays feel normal inside the facility, often coordinating special meals, music and donated gifts so residents experience something beyond routine.

“Every Christmas, she has a meal catered for them, specifically for the youth that’s in there, to be able to enjoy the same meals they would get if they were at home,” he said. “Thanksgiving is the same way.”

What resonates most with residents, Dorsey believes, is Parker’s devotion to their cause.

“Anytime she comes into the room, there’s this burst of energy and smiles and laughter because they realize how special she makes them feel,” he said. “They realize that she is definitely an advocate for them.”

Parker’s business hours, in theory, run from roughly 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. But her after-hours contributions are prodigious. As Dorsey pointed out, she spends most major holidays at the center, providing small comforts to keep the big moment from being just another day for the kids, who for obvious reasons are cut off from their families.

“Every Christmas I try to feed the kids a catered meal,” she said. “And once again, this year we were fortunate enough to get a country kitchen soul food restaurant to donate the meals to the kids.”

Another chance

Not that life at the center, in spite of Parker’s efforts, could ever be seen as sunbeams and lollypops. The volunteer programs she oversees are designed to show kids who might be veering away from the straight and narrow that there are other avenues to pursue. But in spite of those efforts, some kids who cycle through the center wind up incarcerated there again.

Instead of being depressed by such developments, Parker and the staff try to take it in stride. When familiar faces return, she frames it not as a failure but another chance to turn them around.

“It’s a constant reset,” she said. “Even if someone does come back, it’s just another chance to try it again.”

The hardest part of the job, Parker acknowledges, is never knowing exactly who got the message and who didn’t.

“You don’t always know exactly who you are helping,” she said. “So what we do is just continue to plant seeds, and everybody waters them and we just hope something grows from it.”

Feedback, when it comes, is rare and usually accidental. Perhaps a chance encounter with a former inmate (or their family) at a grocery store or mall. Parker remains stoic about individual outcomes and focused on providing consistent care.

“You never really know who you are helping,” she said. “You just continue to try no matter what.”

The Youth Services Center operates from a new building on Prospect Street near the Community Justice Campus, a relocation that spurred Parker to think visually about the space. She’s amid commissioning murals and art installations to brighten common areas and eventually hopes to involve residents in the work.

“I’m into art right now because we just got to a new building,” she said. “The more artists, the better.”

The building’s first mural, by Indianapolis artist Jamichael Pollard, is being installed in the activity room.

Paige Bova, the center’s chief operating officer, has witnessed Parker’s progression from youth manager to senior staff member during her own long tenure.

“I’ve been here 25 years, and I have watched her grow,” Bova said. “I’m incredibly proud of her.”

She describes Parker’s contributions as both personal and programmatic.

“She has a very different impact with the kids because she interacts with them on a very different level,” Bova said. “They know that she has their best interests at heart, that the programming is incredibly thoughtful, and that she listens to them. Because the children in our custody want to be heard.”

That presence, Bova added, extends to the toughest times.

“They see it on days when it is very difficult to be in the center, such as the holidays,” she said. “On those days she’s there, trying to make it special for them.”

It’s hard to say exactly how many kids Parker has interacted with over the years, but it’s definitely a lot.

“It’s been thousands,” she said. “I look at it like I’ve helped raise them. I always call the kids ‘my’ kids. I’ve raised thousands of kids. I definitely know that this job has been a big part of my life. This has been 20 years of my life. March will be 21.”

The high-profile recognition from the Colts, complete with a moment on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium in December, left her stunned.

“It felt great,” she said. “It was amazing. A moment that I would never forget.”

But as the attention fades, she returns to the same rhythm that has governed her center work for years: programs to schedule, volunteers to screen, murals to plan, children to greet.

“I’m just doing what I do,” Parker said. “But I’m just really grateful, though, and I’m very appreciative. And it’s really hard to put into words what I actually feel on the inside with it all, but I’m definitely thankful.”•