Alternative Approaches to Rehabilitation within the Community (AARC)

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2011

The San Bernardino County Public Defender’s Office AARC program utilizes a team of social service practitioners (SSP’s) to enhance the County’s representation to its juvenile delinquency clients and their families and provides preventative programs for at-risk youth in its community. The AARC program addresses social order issues the juvenile clients encounter in their daily lives that hinder their ability to comply with the rehabilitative process. AARC serves as the Public Defender’s primary method of representing young clients throughout the post-dispositional phase of their cases by working with the client and their families in ways its attorneys are not trained to do. Attorneys refer the appropriate clients to the SSP’s who then conduct assessments of the clients and their families and make referrals within the community to address their needs. By linking the clients and their families with appropriate community support services, AARC has decreased recidivism and promoted a safer community. Such a “holistic” approach to servicing its clients, while also developing preventative programs, represents a non-traditional approach to the role of the Public Defender, but one that illustrates the dedication the office has to impacting the community in a positive way.