Youth Diversion & Development

Home Services Youth Diversion & Development

The Youth Diversion and Development (YDD) Division provides services and supervision to justice-involved young people in the community, rather than placement out of the home. Community supervision and rehabilitative services for young people and their families are provided by Community Unit Probation Services (CUPS) located throughout Harris County. In addition, there are numerous satellite offices utilized to provide more convenient locations for families.

Youth Diversion and Development Division also seeks to divert young people from further involvement in the juvenile justice system by providing informal alternatives to formal court proceedings and diversion programs to young people and their families.

Services for Adjudicated Youth

Mentoring

reVision – Houston Mentoring

The reVision Mentoring Program connects youth paired with mentors to positive peers and constructive activities. reVision also offers life skills programs, academic assistance, and career planning to include possible job placement.

Prevention

Council on Alcohol and Drugs – Houston

Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselors from the Council on Alcohol and Drugs – Houston, screen all young people entering Field Services supervision from Court to identify, educate and intervene with those who have substance abuse problems.

My Brothers Keeper (MBK)

Redirect is MBKs Diversion Program providing high-risk young people with close supervision and rehabilitation. Together with many local partners, Redirect utilizes evidence-based practices and community resources to redirect young people from the criminal justice system and direct them towards college and career development.

Academic Support

Disability Rights Texas

Provides tiered legal and educational advocacy services including legal advocacy training, educational advocacy training, post-residential transition services, and other supportive services to families utilizing a self-advocacy approach.

Therapeutic Services

Therapeutic Counseling

Professional, licensed therapists provide counseling to youth and their families at the CUPS offices and in the home. Services are provided in both English and Spanish.

The Harris Center for Mental Health & IDD

The Harris Center works with HCJPD to provide mental health services for young people and their families. Services include psychiatric evaluation and treatment, skills training, psychotherapy, intensive case management, and resource referral/linkage.

Drug & Alchohol Use / Abuse Counseling

Through a partnership with The Turning Point, Inc., licensed Chemical Dependency Counselors are available at various CUPS offices. Probationers receive intensive outpatient therapy including individual, family, and group sessions.

Specialized Supervision Programs

Youth Empowerment Services & Supervision (YESS)

The Youth Empowerment Services and Supervision Program works with juveniles placed on probation for known gang-related behavior or involvement. Juvenile Probation Officers administer gang assessments to determine the specific needs of the young person and work collaboratively with the Mayor's Anti-Gang Office.

Renew Inspire Support Empower (RISE)

The RISE Program is a county-wide community probation program for TJJD eligible young people who are assessed as high-risk. It is designed as an alternative to TJJD commitment or placement in a private, residential, or HCJPD post adjudicated facility.

This program provides intensive services and intensive supervision, utilizing effective treatment models and rehabilitative services to reduce dynamic criminogenic need factors while identifying and strengthening protective factors.

Therapeutic Connections Unit (TCU)

The Therapeutic Connections Unit offers specialized supervision and intense case management services through the provision of a collaborative model to young people with significant mental health impairments, intellectual developmental disabilities, (IDD) and sex offenders.

The primary goal of the TCU is rehabilitation and prevention of further penetration in the juvenile justice system.

TCU is composed of the Special Needs Diversionary Program (SNDP) and the Sex Offender Program. 

Sex Offender Program

The Sex Offender Supervision Program serves youth with charges that meet the state registration eligibility requirement for sexual related offenses. The Sex Offender Supervision Program works closely with Licensed Sex Offender Treatment Providers to provide intense case management, sex offender treatment and linkage to community based services. 

Program Goals

  • To promote treatment for prevention of future sexual deviant behavior.
  • Provide education to the family on understanding sexual offender behavior, traits and cycles of a sex offender.
  • Collaboration with treatment providers and stakeholders in the community to promote accountability and victim safety.
  • Coordination of referrals to sex offender treatment, multi-family counseling groups, mentoring programs and linkage to community-based services.
  

Special Needs Diversionary Program (SNDP) 

The Special Needs Diversionary Program (SNDP) is a grant-funded program that provides mental health treatment and specialized supervision to youth with significant mental health needs. The program is administered in a collaborative model by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) and the Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical and Mental Impairments (TCOOMMI). The goal of the SNDP grant is to reduce delinquency, increase accountability and rehabilitate youth through a comprehensive, coordinated community-based juvenile probation system. 

Target Population 

  • SNDP shall serve youth that received a disposition of deferred adjudication, juvenile court-ordered probation, or have been released under court ordered conditions of release and are being supervised in the community by the juvenile probation department.
  • SNDP shall serve youth that meet the priority population definition (youth who have a DSM-V diagnosis other than or in addition to substance abuse, intellectual developmental disorder, and/or autism spectrum disorder as determined by a licensed mental health professional (LMHP) as a result of the completion of a standardized mental health assessment).
Community-Based Advocacy Services

Harris County Advocate Program (H-CAP)

H-CAP serves adjudicated youth whose behavior and social circumstances put them at risk of placement in residential treatment facilities. H-CAP offers a wide range of individualized, non-traditional, wrap-around, and advocacy services for the young person and their family.

Life Skills | Character Development | Leadership

Service Learning

Service-Learning is a teaching strategy that integrates meaningful service with academic study and reflective practice to enrich learning, build civic engagement, and strengthen communities. It engages young people in global and community problem-solving through youth-led service projects designed to strengthen their character and teach them they have an important role to play in their community.

Presenting Opportunities While Embracing Resiliency + Ongoing Needs (POWER+ON)

The Power+On Program is offered to all our young people in the community. The program offers psycho-educational and skill-building workshops, learning and increasing skills such as emotional intelligence, boundary, and goal setting, self-awareness, and individual and family commitment. Including individual and group mentoring.

National Association for Shoplifting Prevention

The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention provides a unique program for juveniles who have been involved in shoplifting. The program is designed to help change thinking, feelings, and attitudes towards shoplifting while developing pro-social law-abiding behavior.

Diversion & Intervention Unit

The mission of the Diversion & Intervention Unit (DIU) is to divert young people from court action and further involvement in the juvenile justice system by providing informal alternatives to formal court proceedings.

Services are targeted, strength-based, and individualized to meet the identified need of the young person and their family to equip them with sustainability beyond our involvement.

Family Intervention & Restorative Services of Texas (FIRST)

FIRST Program

The Family Intervention and Restorative Services of Texas (FIRST) program is designed to divert young people who are referred for domestic violence/assault or criminal mischief against the family from further involvement in the Juvenile Justice System.

The families are provided crisis intervention, therapeutic services and intensive case management through The Harris Center Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT). The goal of the program is to provide services which are designed to aid in restoring the family unit. Program duration is up to six months. 

Second Chance

Second Chance

The Second Chance program is designed to divert youth who are experiencing their initial misdemeanor referral out of the Juvenile Justice System to be served by the Harris County Resources for Children and Adults. Youth and families are connected to services to address any identified needs. Program duration is up to 90 days.

Marijuana Diversion Program

Marijuana Diversion Program

The Marijuana Diversion Program is designed to provide Drug Education to those referred for Possession of Marijuana. Upon completion of a Drug Education Course offered by The Council on Recovery, a request is made for all records to be destroyed.

Diversion 180 Program

Diversion 180 Program

Diversion 180 is a pre-petitioned program designed to divert youth from the Juvenile Justice System while still providing needed services and supervision. Upon successful completion of the program, the case is closed. Program duration is 3-6 months.

Diversion 180 Third and Fifth Ward Programs

Diversion 180 Third and Fifth Ward Programs

The Third and Fifth Ward Diversion Programs offer youth residing in 3rd and 5th Ward zip codes with eligible offenses an informal alternative to formal court proceedings. Diversion Program duration is six months. Youth/families can choose to continue participation in program services beyond their Diversion term.  

Third Ward Program

Hope for Families Program utilizes restorative justice practices, parent engagement, and a multi-disciplinary approach. Hope for Families partners with youth and families, Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church, schools, and other local organizations to address social and emotional needs, academic performance, personal and family goals, and other areas identified.

Fifth Ward Program

Center for Urban Transformation (CUT) utilizes a restorative justice approach, providing holistic services which include; case management, community service, mentorship, educational advocacy, and service referrals.

Diversion 180 Residential Treatment Center (RTC)

Diversion 180 Residential Center (RTC)

Diversion 180 Residential Treatment Center (RTC) is a pre-petitioned program designed to divert youth in the custody of the Texas Department for Protective and Family Services (DFPS) from the Juvenile Justice System while still providing needed services and supervision. Upon successful completion of the program, the case is closed. Program duration is six months. 

Deferred Adjudication

Deferred Adjudication

The courts offer Deferred Adjudication to youth who are generally low-level offenders. This program guides the youth through up to six months of supervision and services. Upon successful completion of the Deferred Adjudication contract, the case is non-suited.

Juvenile Consequences Workshop

Juvenile Consequences Workshop

 

The Juvenile Consequences Workshop is a partnership of the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department, the Houston Bar Association, the Harris County District Attorney's Office, the Harris County Public Defender's Office, and the Houston Police Department. It is a one-time requirement, held once a month, to educate young people about the juvenile justice system in our Diversion Program (Second Chance or Diversion 180).

Each partner organization presents information on the potential impact of becoming further involved in the Juvenile Justice System and offers suggestions on lessening opportunities to do so. We invite a guest with lived experience who can connect and motivate the youth and families. The program's goal is to give youth a second chance and keep them out of the system through an increased understanding of the juvenile justice system and its consequences.
Youth Service Center

Youth Service Center

The Youth Service Center serves as a 24-hour intake center for youth ages 10 to 17 who are referred for status offenses such as runaway, truancy, curfew violations, or Class C Misdemeanors, and those who are in need of crisis intervention. 

Harris County Juvenile Probation Department (HCJPD), Harris County Protective Services for Children and Adults, (HCPS) and The Harris Center (THC) are partners in the TRIAD Prevention Program. 

Services include program referrals, follow-up, and emergency shelter.