Announcing the 2015 Therapeutic Health Services Investigative Summary and Juvenile Justice Directory!
Therapeutic Health Services (THS) is one of the oldest alcohol and substance abuse multi-service nonprofit organizations in the Pacific Northwest. It has assisted residents of both King and Snohomish Counties, and offered one of the first mental health and youth service bureaus for Black youth. For over forty years, THS has provided a comprehensive mental health, alcohol and substance abuse service-approach to meeting the challenges affecting Black youth, their parents and extended families.
Over the course of nearly three years, research was conducted into what drives this over-representation of Black youth in the criminal justice pipeline. The question that we focused on throughout the research process was “what’s missing in terms of reducing this travesty?” Fifty-five individuals representing eleven sectors were randomly selected and interviewed. These included: law enforcement, court officials, youth advocates, nonprofit service providers, faith-based community leaders and educators, juvenile justice administration, and businesses. We also included local public high school student voices.
The participants were interviewed over a period of two years by a local researcher behalf of Therapeutic Health Services. This cumulative project is a question to the community; “What’s Your Responsibility for reducing the Incarceration of Black Youth?” It examines what was learned from that inquiry, and aims to move us forward with resolve to make a difference in the world around us.
The Juvenile Justice Resource Directory is a companion piece to the Investigative Summary and was inspired by interviewees who insisted our city and communities cross this state can do more. Both are public service publications highlighting the completion of our juvenile justice project.
