By Daniel Lapham
Published on August 2, 2008

Jeanne Hobson is retiring after 20 years of working to help children and families have a better life through the Canadian County juvenile justice system.

Hobson, 63, has been involved in the Canadian County Juvenile Office since it began in 1988 under the leadership of Judge Reta Strubhar.

“If it weren’t for her, I’d probably still be working as a florist,” Hobson said with a grin. “She created the juvenile office, now the Juvenile Bureau.”

At that time there was no official office set up to handle the paperwork or the transfer of juveniles within the system, Hobson said. Knowing both Hobson and her husband, Fred, the judge asked her if she would be interested in serving as the administrative director for the office.

“Both of my sons were in college at Oklahoma City University, so I figured if I were going to start a career, I’d better get on it,” Hobson said. “Our office at that time served as a sort of liaison between the court system and the schools, DHS, law enforcement and other institutions dealing with juveniles.”

Two years after beginning her work with the children’s justice system, Hobson saw another need and started a nonprofit program in her spare time.

The Child Abuse Response Team, commonly known as CART, was formed “as a result of what I witnessed in the justice system,” Hobson said. “I watched children who had been abused and how the system handled them.”

She said she remembers clearly the moment she knew she had to do something to help young abused children have an easier transition through the interview process.

“I had this 4-year-old little girl who made a comment to her day-care teacher. Her teacher questioned her, then she called DHS and they questioned her. Then they had to take her to the doctor who examined her and questioned her. Then the police questioned her. This was all within two days and by the end of all of the examinations and questioning, the little girl just threw her hands up and gave up.”

After that, Hobson said she started wondering what kind of trauma these children were going through after already experiencing abuse. She formed a board of directors, received a donated house and started gutting the house to create a place where abused children could be interviewed, tested and cared for in a comfortable environment.

The doors to the CART house opened in 1991, and today it is a fully funded program with doctors on call and forensic counselors who are highly trained in the area of child abuse.

“We were the second child advocacy center in the state,” Hobson said. “I will remain active with CART for a while, but I plan to move toward a volunteer status. I’ll come over and work in the flower beds.”

The time has come to “just retire and not worry about schedules,” she said. “I know the only way I can relax is to remove myself from the system. After suffering two heart attacks in 2004, my doctor told me I should retire then. I wasn’t ready yet so I went to part time. Now I am ready.”