Esperanza
Esperanza/Hope’s mission is to explore ways to safely reduce reliance on out-of-home placement for youth who are adjudicated delinquent in the family court system.
What Esperanza does
- Structural change to NYC’s methodology for juvenile sentencing. Working closely with New York City’s Department of Probation, which makes recommendations about detaining and placing delinquent youth, Esperanza is changing the process of investigating and reporting on youth who are involved in delinquency cases, reports that judges depend on to make decisions about placement. The changes will make those reports more uniform and objective and able to identify youth who can be served and supervised in the community.
- Community-based, family-centered alternative to incarceration program. Esperanza works for 4-6 months directly with youth who would otherwise be confined in a state facility. The program supervises and serves youth where they live and engages the whole family in addressing problems that underlie the teenager’s delinquent behavior. Research suggests that such an intensive, home-based program involving the whole family is an affordable way to change behavior and reduce re-offending.
Why Blue Ridge Supports Esperanza
By reforming New York City’s youth sentencing process and offering a new model alternative-to-placement program, Esperanza has the possibility:
- To engage young offenders in ways which are more cost effective and more likely to reduce future crime than current incarceration practices;
- To rationalize NYC’s juvenile sentencing decisions, making them more likely to result in a change in youth behavior;
- To help young people and their families build on their strengths and address areas they want to change.
Funding
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| Cash Grants from Blue Ridge |
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*Expected
** Plus in-kind support associated with being housed within Blue Ridge offices |
