City and County of San FranciscoJuvenile Probation Department

March 13, 2012

Programs Committee - March 13, 2012

CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO
JUVENILE PROBATION COMMISSION

PROGRAMS COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

Tuesday, March 13, 2012
1:30 p.m.
Juvenile Probation Department
375 Woodside Avenue, Main Conference Room 247
San Francisco, CA 94127

Programs Committee
Dirk Beijen, Chair
Suzy Jones
Rebecca Woodson

Meeting Minutes

1. Roll call
• The Commission Chair called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. Commissioners Beijen, Jones and Woodson were present.

2. Public Comment
• No public comments.

3. Review and Approval of the Programs Committee Meeting Minutes of September 12, 2011 (ACTION ITEM)
• Motion to approve the Programs Committee Minutes of September 12, 2011 by Commissioner Woodson, second by Commissioner Jones and approved by the rest of the Committee. Minutes approved.
• No public comments.

4. Presentation on Huckleberry Community Assessment and Referral Center (CARC) by Denise Coleman, Director (DISCUSSION ONLY)
• CARC was started in 1998 for at-risk youths. It was started to address the needs of youths who are initially arrested, or rearrested, to prevent them from going deeper into the system. The SFPD have received a department general order, as well as department bulletins, that instruct them to call the PO at CARC for any juveniles that have been arrested. The onsite PO instructs the police officer what to do with the youth, e.g., bring to CARC or JJC. CARC has wide-range of cultural and language capacities. Once inside the facility, the youth is brought into an intake/assessment room. The focus is on the interests, needs and strengths of the youth to see why these alleged crimes were committed. The on-site PO handles the criminal aspect. Kids are only released to their parents or guardians. An in-depth discussion is had with the families to get a better assessment on the youth. Case management is also provided to families; a full-time therapist is now on-site; in-depth case management and mentoring are provided.
COMM Jones asked about the 21% of youths that came through CARC and wanted to know if the numbers were dictated by eligibility or criteria. Ms. Coleman said eligibility; the numbers had gone down and are going back up. Bruce Fisher, Executive Director at Huckleberry Youth Programs, distributed CARC’s most recent annual report.
COMM Beijen stated that he has seen CARC grow from its inception and the best thing about the program is that they do not criminalize kids. He also asked about the Advisory Board. Ms. Coleman stated that they have a new board, which includes the District Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, SFPD, JPD, Sheriff’s Department and DCYF. The primary responsibilities will be to see where their program can grow, improve policies and implement MOU’s with various departments. Ms. Coleman said the Commissioner Beijen was one of the first police officers involved when CARC was established and was very instrumental in establishing the relationships between law enforcement and the community. Ms. Coleman is also working with JPD regarding kids under 14 years who commit crimes because research shows that it is not good for these kids to be exposed to detention.
• No public comments.

5. Presentation on Truancy Assessment and Resource Center (TARC) by Tacing Parker, Program Director (DISCUSSION ONLY)
• TARC started 2010 and is now a citywide truancy intervention program and directly provides case management. It has programs similar to CARC: mental health services and mentoring programs; programs at the Beacon Center at OMI, as well as a number of afterschool programs (elementary to high school). TARC was started to give youths a place to go to instead of receiving citations when they were picked up for truancy. In addition, TARC provides information for families; receives referrals (over 300 came from the school district); are part of educational advocacy; attend parent-teacher conferences; assist with school transfers; assist families with safety transfers; works closely with the school district to build the program, the school district counseling center is in the same building as TARC and CARC; and parent workshops at TARC or CBO’s. TARC is a drop-off center, by way of CARC, and light assessment is conducted. The goal is to find out why the youth is not going to school and then develop case management. In addition, TARC provides support to kids in truancy court. Posters are distributed to SF merchants to alert TARC or SFPD when they see kids out of school in an effort to get these kids back into school. Additional funding was provided by DCYF for the Western Addition case management program for youths who reside in that district. Due to budget constraints, TARC focuses their efforts on middle school, high school and transitional age groups. Due to technology, today’s kids seem to experience higher stress levels than kids in the past. Ms. Coleman added that they have to be very creative to keep these kids engaged because they are in trouble. Ms. Parker would like the commission to help them establish and maintain better communications with the PO’s at Juvenile Hall to ensure that PO’s know about the services offered by TARC, CARC, and other CBO’s that can assist.
• No public comments.

6. Adjournment (ACTION ITEM)
• The meeting adjourned at 2:42 p.m.