Calcasieu Parish Office of Juvenile Justice Services
Added Apr 29, 2009
1015 Pithone Street
Lake Charles, LA 70601
The Calcasieu Parish Office of Juvenile Justice Services serves as an umbrella for local probation, detention and diversion services for justice-involved youth. The Juvenile Detention Center was built in 1969. OJJS is funded through a tax millage and grants.
In 2004, the legislature passed Act 555 mandating the creation of Children and Youth Planning Boards to assist in the assessment, alignment, coordination and prioritization of all available services and programs that address the needs of children and youth. In an effort to establish itself as a model planning board, grant activities focused on Evidence Driven Strategic Planning for the Calcasieu Children and Youth Planning Board.
Progress to Date
To further these initiatives, the Calcasieu Parish Office of Juvenile Justice Services has completed a strategic planning process with the Children and Youth Planning Board that coordinated efforts of community stakeholders to assess community needs, address gaps in resources and services, identify effective programs and practices and measure effectiveness of interventions by:
- Identifying the needs of justice-involved youth and their families
- Establishing a comprehensive plan that assures a continuum of services for justice-involved youth and youth at risk of entering the justice system
- Facilitating the development of interagency coordination and effective programming to meet the identified needs
The planning board has conducted a community needs assessment and a completed a provider survey. As a follow-up, a retreat was held to prioritize the needs based on these processes.
Building on the work of the Planning Board, Calcasieu Parish was recently awarded a Louisiana Models for Change grant for the development of a Community Assessment and Resource Center that can be replicated and modeled in other jurisdictions. Among other things, the center will fill the gaps in services; improve communication among agencies and leverage resources to improve mental health and substance abuse services.
Site Leadership
For more information about Models for Change in Calcasieu Parish, contact Dane Bolin at 337-721-3900 or dbolin@cppj.net.
- States
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Louisiana
- Created
- Apr 29, 2009