Youth Centers and Shelters Programs
In the past 12 years, the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation, Division of Juvenile Justice (CDCR, DJJ) has received 2 different budget augmentations for the purpose of providing grant funds to local youth centers and shelters. The first augmentation was provided through the County Correctional Facility Capital Expenditure and Youth Facility Bond Act of 1988. This bond act provided $25 million for acquisition, construction, renovation, and equipping of youth centers and shelters. Youth centers bring together children ages 6 to 17 for programs and activities including recreation, counseling, youth leadership, and employment training. Shelters provide a variety of services to runaway or homeless minors, and abused/neglected children to assist them with their immediate survival needs and help reunite them with their families or find another suitable home. Through four allocations, 41 youth centers and 28 youth shelters were funded. Because these are grants of public funds, the law requires continuous monitoring of these programs for up to 20 years, depending on the amount of the grant award and the nature of the project. Thus, the Department continues to be involved with many of these programs even though the initial funding was provided 12 years ago.
The Juvenile and Gang Violence Prevention, Detention, and Public Protection Act of 1998 made available $25 million for allocation by the Department to nonprofit agencies to acquire, renovate and construct youth centers. These youth centers bring together 6 to 21 year olds for services and activities including recreation, health and fitness, citizenship and leadership development, job training, anti-gang programs, teen pregnancy prevention programs, and counseling for problems such as drug and alcohol abuse. In August 1999, $24.4 million was awarded to 21 youth centers in 16 counties.
When youth are involved in structured, interesting activities during non-school hours, they are less likely to start drinking and doing drugs, less likely to become involved with gangs, less likely to skip school, and far more likely to graduate from high school and go on to college. Youth centers offer youth an excellent opportunity to get engaged in positive activities after school. In addition to the "standard" program elements mentioned above, youth centers may also offer mentoring, tutoring, culinary arts, gardening, computer skills training, music, arts and a wide variety of other activities.
Similarly, youth shelters provide an essential service by getting runaway, homeless, abused and neglected youth off the streets and into meaningful programs designed to help them overcome obstacles to completing their education, obtaining employment and becoming productive citizens. Many shelters are operated in conjunction with youth centers, allowing sheltered youth to take advantage of the full range of youth center programs and services when they are not in school or otherwise involved in activities related to attaining family reunification or independent living.
It is easy to see from the above that youth centers and shelters serve complementary purposes. Moreover, they each play a critical role in a comprehensive youth development approach to prevention by strengthening the protective factors that will keep our youth safe and crime-free. DJJ staff work with all grant-funded programs to provide technical support and assistance. They also perform on-going monitoring to ensure that publicly funded projects continue to be utilized for the intended purpose.
Youth centers and shelters have proven very successful at providing youth positive after school activities, discouraging negative behaviors and developing essential protective factors. Our latest survey asking DJJ-funded youth centers and shelters to self-report numbers of youth served, revealed that, amongst the 28 programs reporting, a total of 3,519 youth were served at shelters and an average of 2,856 were served daily at centers during 2000. Unfortunately, there is tremendous unmet need for these types of programs. In response to the Department's latest request for proposals (for the Juvenile and Gang Violence Prevention, Detention, and Public Protection Act of 1998) we received a total of 264 applications, requesting almost $359 million. The limited funding available, $25 million, allowed only a small percentage of applicants to be funded. Clearly, there continues to be a large number of youth in California who do not have access to these valuable programs but who could surely benefit from them.
For additional information please contact the Corrections Standards Authority (formerly Board of Corrections) at (916) 322-1427 or visit their web site: www.cdcr.ca.gov/Divisions_Boards/CSA/index.html