Youth Services Bureaus
A locally based solution for youth diversion from the
juvenile justice system
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Maryland’s 20 Youth Services Bureaus provide a
proven alternative to institutionalization of delinquent youth
by providing effective juvenile delinquency diversion treatment
and family disruption services.
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Each Youth Services Bureau is an integral part of
the community services network
- Youth Services Bureaus work
daily with youth facing many serious issues, such as school
violence, truancy, family violence, substance abuse; issues that
can inhibit their ability to succeed in life.
- Youth Services Bureaus are
family-focused working to strengthen families and enhance their
functioning.
- Youth Services Bureaus keep
targeted youth out of the Department of Juvenile Services (DJS)
system and help them become education ready, competent young
adults who can become responsible and productive members of
society.
- Youth Services Bureaus are
outcome based and therefore provide services on a continuum to
maximize the achievement of positive outcomes for youth.
- Youth Services Bureaus are
effective: Youth Services Bureaus have also developed an
evaluation program with Dr. Elizabeth Timberlake, Professor
Emerita, The Catholic University of America. Dr. Timberlake
wrote, “The findings of the…evaluation confirm that the formal
counseling services provided by Youth Services Bureaus in
Maryland are effective in reducing the number and intensity of
problems in psychosocial functioning experienced by the children
and families served.” Dr. Elizabeth M. Timberlake, et al.,
The Catholic University of America National Research Center for
Child and Family Services, December 2004
www.cua.edu
- DJS agency follow-up of Youth
Services Bureau’s showed that 93% of formal counseling youths
were not adjudicated delinquent two years following the end of
counseling and 83% of the DJS referred youths to formal
counseling were not adjudicated delinquent two years later.
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Youth Services Bureaus offer a financial and
social return in the form of diversion from more costly State
Departmental interventions and a future increase of dollars as a
result of productive youth. The $2.1 million State
appropriation leveraged $7.4 million in non-State revenue for
operations of Youth Services Bureaus in FY 2006. The investment
of each $1.00 of State funds awarded to Youth Services Bureaus
currently returns $3.00 from non-State resources to fund
services for Maryland’s youth and families.
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