Through its Community Program Section, The North Carolina Department of Public Safety/Division of Juvenile Justice works to provide the State of North Carolina with a comprehensive strategy that helps prevent and reduce juvenile crime and delinquency. This strategy focuses to strengthen families, promote delinquency prevention, support core social institutions, intervene immediately and effectively when delinquent behavior occurs, and to identify and control the small group of serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders in the local communities.

The Community Programs Section of the Department consists of the following core components:

Juvenile Crime Prevention Council (JCPC) Programs:

• JCPC Programs are funded through a State and local partnership in all 100 counties.  These partnerships produce almost 600 programs which create a local continuum of needed sanctions and services to address the issues of delinquent juveniles, those juveniles most likely to become delinquent, and their families. 
• JCPC-Endorsed Level II Projects were established in 2011 to address the localized needs of communities in working with youth who are deep in the juvenile justice system and are at high risk for reoffending.   
• Alternative to Commitment Projects were created at the direction of the General Assembly in 2004. This funding source allowed Juvenile Crime Prevention Councils (JCPCs) to establish community programs for youth who otherwise would be placed in a youth development center.

Statewide Residential Contractual Services:  

• Eckerd serves on average 48 youth a day who have received Level II dispositions at two short-term juvenile justice residential facilities where youth receive a complete rehabilitative experience delivered in an average of 90 days.  
• WestCare serves on average 16 females a day who have received Level II dispositions at a short-term residential facility.  The program provides a gender-responsive therapeutic environment which focuses on trauma-informed care.     
• Methodist Home for Children operates five multipurpose juvenile group homes across the State.  The homes address antisocial behaviors through implementing a social and life skills curriculum that is individualized for each youth.  MHC also operates a transitional home for youth exiting youth development centers who cannot return to their home communities due to gang violence or family disorder.  The transitional home provides youth with independent living skills to assist them when they leave the home and begin living on their own. 

Non-Residential Contractual Services:

• AMIKids provides Functional Family Therapy (FFT), an evidence-based intervention for working with adjudicated youth and their families as a home-based dispositional alternative.    
• Eckerd provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), wraparound services and re-entry/aftercare services for youth returning from a residential placement.  All three of these interventions are evidence-based strategies that serve youth in their homes or assist youth transitioning back to their homes. 

The combination of community-based services, evidence-based contractual services, and effective case management has been proven to be a winning strategy in keeping communities safe while being cost effective in comparison to keeping youth in our youth development center