Transition Aged Services
YJI has developed programming and services to meet the needs of youths currently involved in the juvenile justice system, as well as those aged age 18-24 that are transitioning into adulthood. These programs have ranged from internships to mental health services, and we have found that many of these youth need extensive help with housing, education, parenting, family reunification, and other stabilizing forces. The young people served by this program have typically spent a significant amount of their adolescence and young adulthood in the dependency, delinquency, and even adult justice system. Due to this long-term system involvement, they have not developed the skills and competencies they need to transition to an independent life without support. Additionally, many are on parole or probation and have requirements of employment, sobriety, education, and reporting that are difficult for them to meet. To further complicate the issues, approximately 30% of them are also pregnant or parenting and their failure to meet conditions of parole or probation puts them in jeopardy and their children at risk for the dependency system.
Since 2004, YJI has been working with women in Ventura, CA, that have been sent from Bay Area counties. Monthly groups at the facility let the girls remain connected to the Bay Area, while also allowing us to know what sort of services they will need to be successful when they return home.
Confinement in a secure facility all but precludes healthy psychological and social development, and is the best indicator of future adult system involvement. Without enough freedom to exercise autonomy, the gradual process of maturation — learning self-direction, social perspective and responsibility — is effectively cut off. Re-entry programs need to begin while a youth is still confined so they can build on their skills and then help youth better access community services after release. These youth also have substantial histories of trauma, exploitation, substance abuse, mental health issues, and long-term system involvement that many times began with a dependency on system involvement.
Our Programs
Our work with transition-aged youth begins in a number of different places, based on their individual needs. The youths themselves require different individualized approaches to best support them. Some enter the program through their involvement with the Inside Mentoring Program (IMP) and then they continue their relationship with their mentor as they stabilize. Others participate in our Bay Area group at the California Youth Authority facility and will access services through us when they return to the Bay Area. Finally, some of the participants are already working with a YJI youth advocate and continue the relationship as they age out of the juvenile justice system.
Over the past few years, we’ve tried several strategies for working with young women ages 18-24. We’ve found that providing them with timely mental health services and a healthy adult mentor whose sole purpose is to guide, support and teach them how to advocate for the services and resources they need to be successful, have proven to be very effective. The women and their mentors meet weekly to identify their needs, set goals, and take steps to achieve those goals. These services are being duplicated and adapted to meet the needs of young men who are also exiting the system. The youth receive a stipend for their time in the program to help them learn how to earn, save and spend money. So many of these youth have been victimized by those who are supposed to love and care for them, and have spent significant amounts of their formative years in systems that deny them opportunities to learn how to become an independent adult. They learn to have little faith in their abilities. Through this process, youth find their voice, strengths and power to take the lead in determining their future.
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