Juvenile Crime Prevention Council

The overall purpose of the Community Service and Restitution (CSR) program is to facilitate juveniles completing their court-ordered and/or court-diverted obligations successfully and in a timely manner while teaching, modeling, and encouraging civic, community, and social responsibility to the youth we serve. Under the guidance of federal, state, and local policies/procedures and child labor laws, youth can complete the following examples of tasks to benefit the community while earning community service hours:

• Constructing and disassembling simple projects
• Raking, weeding, digging, planting, watering
• Sanding and painting of walls
• Sweeping, mopping, vacuuming and disinfecting

Worksite Requirements

• NC DJJDP, Juvenile Crime Prevention Council (JCPC) Worksite Agreement
• New Hanover County background check and driving record check forms
• JCPC personal application (for worksite supervisor) - four references required
• JCPC Safety Inspection form - on-site inspection conducted
• Orientation forms: job description, child labor laws and confidentiality issues

Community Service Worksites

• Arboretum
• Brigade Boys and Girls Club
• Britthaven Nursing Home
• Carolina Beach Recreation Center
• Carolina Beach Senior Center
• Champions Assisted Living
• Coastal Therapeutic Riding
• Greyhound Bus Station
• Historical Wilmington Foundation
• Kids Making It
• Local Churches
• NHC Main Library
• NHC Youth Empowerment Services

Juvenile Psychological Services (JPS) provides professional mental/behavioral health services to at-risk, delinquent, and adjudicated youth ages 6-17 and their families via our assessment and treatment programs. JPS is housed on-site at the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (DJJDP). The convenience of the co-location with the youth's court counselors is consistently reported to staff as immeasurable given our youth's families' transportation difficulties as well as scheduling demands. Presently, the vast majority of the program's referrals for the youth we serve come from the DJJDP court counselors.

Psychological Assessment Component

The psychological assessment program provides Comprehensive Clinical Assessments, Psychological Evaluations, Psychosexual Risk Assessments, and Sex Offender Specific Evaluations to at-risk, delinquent, and adjudicated youth that results in mental health diagnoses and treatment/placement recommendations to facilitate an appropriate level of care and services for the youth and their families to ultimately reduce delinquent behavior and prevent adult criminality.

Treatment Component

The treatment program provides individual, family, and group psychotherapy to at-risk, delinquent, and adjudicated youth and their families to address a myriad of mental health diagnoses, delinquent behaviors, and family dysfunction. The purpose of treatment is to ameliorate symptomology, strengthen skill development, as well as increase overall adaptive functioning in an effort to reduce delinquent behavior and prevent adult criminality.

Home Base Family Counseling Component

The Home Base Family Counseling program provides individual and family counseling services to youth who are at risk of being placed in secure custody or are transitioning back into the community after being released from a Youth Development Center. Services are designed to be implemented within the youth's natural environment with at least 50% of services provided within the home. A strong emphasis is placed on services being highly coordinated with the Department of Juvenile Justice and other relevant service agencies to meet individual and family needs.

Prosocial Development Services Division (PDS) provides an array of programs and services for youth and families including prevention services for siblings of youth currently involved in the legal system, interactive parent / family skill-building groups, and the Changing Lives through Literature program in collaboration with the New Hanover County Library. The new programs and services are directly aimed at decreasing the recidivism rate of delinquent youth and preventing youth from entering the Juvenile Justice System.

• Prevention Services are directed at the siblings of current court-involved youth to deter future development of criminal behavior. By teaching, modeling, and reinforcing positive social behaviors with an emphasis on providing youth opportunities to belong, while building supportive family and community relationships, our aim is to develop and foster meaningful connections to instill prosocial values and norms in the youth we serve.
• Interactive Parent/Family Skill Building groups focus on the development and fostering of healthy interpersonal relationships, promoting positive social norms, and learning appropriate structure and boundaries to increase the youth/families' overall level of adaptive functioning. A strengths-based, solution-focused psychoeducational model incorporating the individual and families' protective and risk factors is utilized to promote and enhance overall skill development and family functioning.
• The Changing Lives through Literature program utilizes literature to "aid in the development of self-esteem, mindfulness, and emotional well-being. The topics of discussion promote core values, compassion, hope, respect, integrity, and responsibility for self and community." The program brings together a juvenile offender, a group facilitator, and a court official that meet for 10 to 12 weeks for two hours at the NHC Public Library in a structured format to develop, practice and master prosocial skill development including interpersonal and problem-solving skills through reading, writing and developing one's imagination.

Teen and Youth Court are alternative systems of justice for New Hanover County High School and Middle school students. This diversionary court keeps first-time juvenile offenders out of the court system. Offenders who are willing to admit guilt are held accountable for their actions. They plead guilty and are sentenced by their peers for their misdemeanor offenses and certain school violations. Student volunteers take the various roles of clerks, bailiffs, and jurors.

Teen Court Forms

• Student Volunteer Application (Teen Court) (PDF)
• Student Volunteer Application (Youth Court) (PDF)
• Case Referral Form (PDF)

Fax all completed Forms to 910-362-8008

For additional information on JCPCs go to the Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention website.