In addition to diversion, intake, investigations, probation, and parole services, the 18th District CSU administers the following programs/services:
Mental Health Services -- Locally funded therapists provide biopsychosocial evaluations and individual and family counseling to court-involved clients, as well as home study custody investigations.
FOCUS -- Serves parents involved in custody and visitation cases. Mandated by the Virginia Supreme Court, the program is designed to educate parents to help their children cope with issues connected to divorce and separation. FOCUS helps parents to reach their own parenting agreements and reduces the number of cases returning to court with further custody disputes.
The Prevention DJJ Program -- funded by a Virginia Juvenile Community Crime Control Act grant, supports Intake Officers in diverting youth from the juvenile justice system. Utilizing evidence-based curricula and restorative practices, social workers provide one-on-one individualized and group lessons, and address issues that include the following: Anger Management, Truancy, Drug & Alcohol, general life skills, and shoplifting. To view the City of Alexandria-produced Shoplifting Prevention Video, click here. The goal of the Prevention DJJ Program is to prevent future delinquency and help youth reach their potential.
Attendance Review Panel -- Works with representatives from the Department of Community and Human Services, Police, and Alexandria Public School system to inform parents and children of actions available under the law for truancy. The Panel identifies family assistance needed to improve attendance and provides follow-up with monitoring services from school/community resources and VJCCCA-funded Prevention DJJ social workers.
Gang Prevention and Intervention -- Alexandria’s Gang Prevention and Intervention Coordinator oversees local and regional prevention and intervention initiatives, staffs local and regional gang task forces, conducts community outreach and educational presentations, serves on the bully prevention task force and partners with prevention leadership and Northern Virginia Family Services to provide an intervention and prevention programming for youth at risk for becoming involved with gangs (www.alexandriava.gov/gangprevention or www.preventgangsnova.org).
Alexandria Mentoring Partnership (AMP) -- Staffed by the CSU, AMP is a consortium of nearly a dozen mentoring programs working in partnership with MENTOR Virginia to enhance and increase mentoring in the City by using best-practices and collective recruitment (www.alexandriava.gov/mentoring).
Space of Her Own Inc. (SOHO) -- SOHO provides one-to-one mentoring—coupled with opportunities for identifying strengths, thinking creatively, and mastering social and academic skills—empowing girls to soar to bright futures. SOHO thrives thanks to the investment that the Alexandria community makes in our kids. Through hands-on learning opportunities, they develop practical visual arts, carpentry, and design skills. SOHO’s engaging life skills lessons have been developed to build developmental assets in girls, helping them to feel emotionally secure and socially connected, to make constructive use of free time, and to build social competencies and positive identities. For more information, please visit www.spaceofherown.org.
Decoded Mentoring Program -- Operated by the Capital Youth Empowerment Program, the Decoded Mentoring Program provides mentors/role-models for minority and immigrant preteen males, exposes students to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) careers, promotes pro-social skill development, and cultivates 21st century workforce skill development.
For youth on probation and parole, court service unit staff have access to a variety of contracted services including assessments and evaluations, individual therapy, family therapy, substance abuse treatment, therapy for youth with sexualized behaviors, and life skills coaching. CSUs access these services through DJJ's contracted regional service coordinators. A directory of services available through DJJ's RSC Model is available at Evidence-Based Associates.
