Four years after the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee convened on the order of State Attorney Melissa Nelson, the Duval County Diversion System of Care has fully transferred under the direction of the Kids Hope Alliance and Partnership for Child Health.
“The transition of Diversion to KHA and the PCH is beneficial to youth because we are working as a collaborative to provide individualized services to youth in an effort to prevent them from going deeper into the juvenile justice system,” said Katoia Wilkins, director of the Juvenile Justice Programs at Kids Hope Alliance.
Since the State Attorney’s Office is not a social service agency, the idea behind the transfer was to create a system, not just a program, to find evidence-based services for juveniles. The State Attorney’s Office is the legal arm, Kids Hope Alliance is the funding portion and the Partnership for Child Health is the social services provider and organizer, according to Wilkins.