Research regarding residential treatment demonstrates adverse effects from levels-systems and a need for trauma-sensitive milieu models. To add urgency for needed changes, clients' voices must be heard. To address that need, this study uses qualitative research techniques combining portraiture with poetic transcription to illuminate the…

Background: Several studies have shown that substance use levels among adolescents living in residential youth care are high. However, it is not clear to what extent adolescents initiate (heavy) substance during their stay and to what extent these rates are higher than would be expected based on their risk profile. Objective: The aim of the…

We report the results of an evaluation study of a diversion program, operated by the Miami-Dade County Juvenile Assessment Center in Florida. The Post-Arrest Diversion (PAD) program represents an innovative approach to treatment and intervention within the juvenile justice system that utilizes standardized psychosocial risks and needs assessment…

Recidivism of first-time offenders sentenced to a "boot camp" program is compared to traditional prison sentences and probation; Variables such as age, race, and type of offense are included in cross-tabulations and multivariate analysis. A survey of 83 participants studied attitudes toward the experience. Discussion of findings points…

Describes Project Choices, a residential treatment program for drug-abusing adjudicated adolescents that employs the adventure-based counseling model to instill change. Describes Project Choices goals as being the reduction of conduct-disordered behavior associated with delinquency and drug use. Presents program evaluation results which suggest…

The Youth Center Research Project studied the effectiveness of two different treatment programs with 983 adjudicated delinquents assigned by random procedures to two institutions, one of whose programs was based on transactional analysis and the other on the principles of behavior modification. (Author)

Evaluation of the impact on several self-perception, behavioral, and family functioning variables of an Outward Bound school program with a family training component for adolescent status offenders indicated that treatment group subjects had significantly higher scores on all variables compared to controls at four weeks, though many differences…

In March 2002 an evaluation report was produced on the details of the work undertaken by Barnardo's Young People's Therapeutic Project (YPTP)during its initial 3-year pilot phase. One of the aims of the report was to demonstrate the effectiveness of intervention in this sensitive area of work with young people and to evaluate activity levels. The…

As part of a larger study examining the impact of the "get tough" policy on juvenile crime, we studied the effects of efforts to "get tough" on juvenile participation in diversion programs in Hillsborough County, Florida. Florida legislature budget cuts in 2000 eliminated a primary community service program (JASP), replacing it…

Camping or other outdoor experience is seen as an alternative to incarceration for youth-at-risk, matching the excitement of the street-gang society or peer group, while simultaneously giving youth-at-risk a sense of the reason for teamwork, adherence to a group-respected value system, regard for skills and abilities of others, plus a…

This report provides descriptions and statistics on Georgia's ten Youth Development Centers designed for the care of delinquent children. Title I courses include business education, cultural enrichment, small appliance, furniture repair, and basic skills, with an emphasis on the latter. Results of the enrichment courses fall in the cognitive,…

This program serves a population of disaffected, underachieving inner-city youth of junior high and high school age who are known to the Family and/or Criminal courts and are at least two years retarded in reading. In most cases, the first efforts of the center are said to be directed to the provision of remedial reading services, and toward…

Published evaluation reports about educational intervention programs sponsored by Israel's Project Renewal are summarized and analyzed in this report. The programs reported on fall into the following categories: (1) intervention programs aimed at the family; (2) curriculum-based intervention programs; (3) school-related enrichment programs; (4)…

This Congressional report contains testimony pertaining to amending the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to strengthen the Job Corps Program. The primary focus of the hearing was on the current adequacy and future potential of the Job Corps' vocational and basic education programs, facilities and equipment, residential living and enrichment…