Crossroads
Crossroads Delinquency Intervention
Crossroads is an intervention program for juvenile offenders that provides youth with the opportunity to choose a new direction while holding them accountable for their actions. Crossroads improves community safety, increases victim services, empowers families, reduces juvenile recidivism and teaches responsibility.
Focus
- Juvenile offender accountability
- Safer teen drivers
- Restitution to the victim and the community
- Community protection through supervision
- Family strengthening
- Reduction of repeat juvenile offenders
Benefits
- Youth are given a second chance and are helped to develop as responsible community members.
- Families are assisted with their troubled youth.
- The Court and District Attorney's Office are provided with diversionary programs to which they can refer juvenile offenders.
- Approximately 90% of the youth completing the program do not re-enter the juvenile system within a year and over 80% do not re-enter the system over the course of three years.
- Community savings...$350 per youth in Crossroads per year vs. $40,000 per youth in detention annually.
- Approximately $40,000 returned to victims of juvenile crime in St. Tammany over the last 5 years.
- Law Education Classes.
- Approximately 6,000 hours of community service performed by youth annually.
- Access to affordable counseling services and educational groups and classes.
Referrals
Most referrals are made through the District Attorney's Office or local judges. Some services may be available through self-referral. Please call for more information.
CASA Frequently Asked Questions
A Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer is a trained citizen who is assigned by a judge to represent the best interests in court of a child who has been abused or neglected. Children helped by CASA volunteers include those who are in the legal custody of the state (foster care).
A CASA volunteer provides a judge with carefully researched background details about the child to help the court make a sound decision about that child’s future. Each foster care case is as unique as the child involved. The CASA volunteer makes recommendations in the best interest of the child – whether it is to return to their parents, to be placed with other family members, to be freed for adoption, or sometimes to remain in foster care a while longer. The CASA volunteer attends Court approximately once every 6 months to make recommendations and follows through on the case until it is permanently resolved.
A CASA volunteer is an individual who is at least 21 years of age, has successfully passed the application and screening process, is trained by the program, sworn-in as a CASA by the Judge, and appointed by the court to advocate for children who come into the court system as a result of abuse or neglect. The CASA volunteer respects a child’s inherent right to grow up with dignity in a safe environment that meets the child’s best interest, and advocates for the child’s best interest in the court at every stage of the case once appointed by the court. CASA volunteers are recruited without regard to race, gender, handicap, or age. The sole qualification for volunteer recruitment is the individual’s suitability to perform the CASA role.
Making a Difference
The Youth Service Bureau (YSB) Endowment is an investment in the future of St. Tammany and Washington Parish communities. Your donation to the Endowment will remain intact while generating returns that support YSB programs and services for generations to come. Your investment helps ensure the long-term sustainability of the Youth Service Bureau as a beacon of hope in our community, helping at-risk youth and families reach their full potential.
Your support of Youth Service Programs is an investment in the future of the children we serve.
Contribute and Help
This is how your contribution helps children & families
$25 per month...
provides case management for a young student at risk of academic failure.
$50 per month...
provides background screening for CASA Volunteers for 24 children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect.
$100 per month...
supports substance abuse counseling for a youth & their family for a year.
A donation of $500...
provides 6 weeks of group counseling by a certified Anger Management Facilitator for up to 15 youth.
A donation of $1,000...
means that a sibling group of up to 5 children has the powerful voice of a trained and supervised CASA Volunteer for 6 months.