Boston Public Health Commission 's Building Local Continuums of Care to Support Youth Success

This project focuses on youth at risk of involvement in violence in the city of Boston. Led by the Boston Public Health Commission (the city’s health department), Boston Building Local Continuums of Care to Support Youth Success will bring together an outstanding team of criminal justice and community-based agencies, along with youth themselves, for an 18-month local planning and assessment project to inform the development of an expanded, effective and sustainable diversion system for low and middle-level youth offenders in Boston. Partners include municipal, state and community-based organizations.

Diversion programs across the nation and in Massachusetts can play a critical role in the response to youth violence and youth at risk for violence. For example, a pilot diversion program run by the Suffolk County (Massachusetts) District Attorney’s Office (a key project partner) showed strong positive results—with 75 percent of youth offenders diverted having no reported contact with the justice system a year after completing the intensive program.

The project will address an identified gap in diversion services in Boston for low- and middle-level offenders. Key activities will include the hiring of a program manager (continuum coordinator), convening of a multi-sector planning group, asset mapping that engages system-involved youth themselves, gap analysis, cost analysis and the development of a comprehensive community plan with implementation milestones.