Douglas County Evening Reporting Center

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

Douglas County Juvenile Court implemented an Evening Reporting Center (ERC) in August 2013 after receiving a grant from the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. As an alternative to secure detention, youth report afterschool daily to our partner agency, The DANNY Center. They receive programming to reduce risk factors and improve protective factors. All programming is evidence based. Programs include Strengthening Families, Thinking for a Change, Botvin Life Skills, and Aggression Replacement Training. Our purpose is to shift funding from confinement to evidence based community services for youth and their families. By implementing the ERC, we reduced the number of youth in secure detention, reduced commitments into state custody, and reduced detention into Short Term Programs (STP) which decreases disruption in continuity of care with counseling/mental health & education. In 2014, we served 29 youth; 51% of those being high risk. Our goal was to reduce STP (Short-term Program) admissions and Felony Commitments to the Department of Juvenile Justice by 15%. This program has exceeded this goal by reducing this number by 61%. The program provided a comprehensive system of intervention options designed to help our at-risk youth.