Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Judge Naomi Doyle has some specific thoughts on the topic of village mentality.

“If we develop more of a village mentality of the community, we will see our kids are more respectful. We’ll see that we see a change in how they respond to authority,” Doyle, Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, said.

 Doyle was ushered in as the first African American female judge elected in Jefferson County and was honored as Woman of the Year in 2024 at the Martin Luther King Jr. brunch and celebration in Port Arthur. 

“When I looked around the room at that brunch, it was so diverse, and it reminds me of Dr. King’s vision,” she said. “It was for us to all come together, be brothers and sisters, in the diversity that was represented at that brunch. I think it’s a testament to what his dream was and how we need to continue to move as a society.”

Doyle was honored for her community service, including creating the Judicial Academy, an internship and mentorship program for high school students in Southeast Texas, and organizing the Precinct One Day of Service and the annual Resilience Summit.

“Since taking office in December of 2020, we’ve created The Judicial Academy,” she said. “Which is an internship and mentorship program for 10th through 12th graders that’s open to anyone in any of our students that qualify in Southeast Texas. We’ve graduated over 30 kids from that program, and it is an opportunity for students to come observe court, to connect to other judges, DA attorneys, to get them real life, first-hand experience with the criminal justice system, the court system, and have a network of mentors. The students leave with recommendation letters that have resulted in getting into colleges of their choice off their experience and time in our academy.

Doyle created the Precinct One Day of Service, an annual community service event, where precinct members give back through service.

“Whether it’s a trash pickup serving at the Community Bank,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for myself and my constituents to work together to give back through service. And then we have our annual resilience Summit, which is a is a summit where we bring together the resources needed with our community. This is free to the community that connects them with mental health resources, job force opportunities, anything that is of a pressing need in my precinct. We try to make sure that we make that available to the constituents in my precinct. So those are just some of the things that we’ve been doing since and have been federally maintaining since being in office.”

Doyle emphasized the importance of a village mentality in guiding youth and maintaining respect for authority.

“We really have to get back to a village mentality,” she said. “Right now, the young people, they like to call people who are older than them, aunties, uncles. And while I don’t know if their intention is to be honorable, I think that there is honor in being a mentor to the younger generation.”

Doyle said adults need to really speak and listen to the kids and not “preach” or “talk” at them.

“I think that if we develop more of a village mentality of the community, we will see our kids are more respectful,” she said. “We’ll see a change in how they respond to authority. And so, it obviously begins at home, but we’re seeing that there’s some breakdown in a lot of the homes.

The Justice of the Peace said “as a village” we must step in and with true intentions and true hearts and be those aunts and uncles for the children.

 “We need to be the people that these kids need to see to be better,” she said. “I think that all of us together can do that, and we can do that without giving up on them and say, “Oh, well, those kids are lost.” Well, have you talked to those kids? Because oftentimes, when I have youth in my court, when you speak to them, you start to see they’re not acting out just because. There’s a reason behind it, and we can get to the reason as a community with our youth, and we can see some change.”

Doyle’s goals for this year include expanding the Judicial Academy and continuing community service projects.

“This year, we have expanded our Judicial Academy, where we have made it to where we able to actually do more court observation of other courts,” she said. “We have more students that are being able to graduate through the program or come and accept it through the program as well. I want to continue the projects that we have started, all our community service projects. I want to continue to advance the courts. Not only do I have the highest producing civil justice court, but I have one of the most progressive Justice Courts in Jefferson County.”

“It’s important to me that we continue that through making our services more efficient and being able to process and hear the community in an efficient rate. I want to continue those things so that we can continue to make our courts better for all the community.”