Partnership for Child Health, Kids Hope Alliance takes over Duval County juvenile diversion
Four years after the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee convened on the order of State Attorney Melissa Nelson, the Duval County Diversion System of Care has fully transferred under the direction of the Kids Hope Alliance and Partnership for Child Health.
The transition of Diversion to KHA and the PCH is beneficial to youth because we are working as a collaborative to provide individualized services to youth in an effort to prevent them from going deeper into the juvenile justice system,” said Katoia Wilkins, director of the Juvenile Justice Programs at Kids Hope Alliance
Kids Hope Alliance and the Partnership for Child Health officially started receiving referrals in February of 2021. The group is anticipating serving well over 400 youths yearly in the diversion system.
The transfer took significant preparation. The final Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee report, released in June 2019, included eight recommendations to improve Jacksonville’s juvenile justice diversion practices. The first recommendation to transfer juvenile justice programming led to Kids Hope Alliance forming a Diversion Transition Committee that met for more than a year to build out a plan.
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By: Katherine Lewin, Florida Times-Union