The Overview
• Since 2002, FAP has served status offenders or PINS (Person In Need of Supervision) youth up to age18 who are charged with offenses unique to their status as juveniles, including truancy, ungovernability and running away from home.
• FAP provides diversion services to families seeking to file PINS petitions in Family Court. FAP is completely voluntary and families are not required to participate. However, a family must participate in FAP before a PINS petition can be filed.
• The FAP staff consists of licensed MSW Social Workers, who conduct the assessments of parent/caregivers and youth. In addition, FAP has court-based staff to work with youth who return on warrants to connect them to diversion services.
• FAP offices are located in each of the five boroughs of New York City either in or near the Family Court in the respective borough. FAP serves between 6,000-7,000 families annually.
What Is the Family Assessment
Program
• The Family Assessment Program is New York City’s lead provider of assessment and diversion services for status offenders (referred to in New York State as Persons In Need of Supervision – P.I.N.S.).
• Status offenders are defined as young people, usually between the ages of 11 and 18 years old, charged with offenses unique to their status as juveniles, such as truancy, ungovernability or running away.
• FAP offices are located in each of the five boroughs of NYC either in or near the Family Court in the respective borough.
• FAP serves between 6,000-7,000 families annually.
FAP Mission Provide immediate support to families in crisis.
Through screening and assessment, individualized
intervention, and referral to a range of community-
based or contracted services and supports, FAP aims to
strengthen families and help them stay together.
Fulfilling the Mission
• Engaging with families in crisis immediately, using a strength-based approach
• Screening every youth and family to determine the most appropriate level of intervention
• Offering tailored counseling at the FAP office and/or referrals to a range of services and supports in the client’s community. Services referral also includes linking youth to prosocial activities within their community.
• Avoid out-of-home placements and remands for FAP clients
• Facilitate the filing of PINS petitions in family court only as a last resort
What is a PINS?
• PINS petitions can only be filed in Family Court if the lead agency (ACS / Family Assessment Program) makes a determination that “there is no substantial likelihood that the youth and his or her family will benefit from further [diversion] attempts.” FCA Section 735.
• If a PINS petition is filed, a PINS respondent cannot be securely detained in a secure facility. A judge can only place the child in an ACS foster care setting.
FAP Continuum of Services
• In October 2010, we launched a new continuum of
service interventions targeted and prioritized for
families that access services from FAP.
• These services range in intensity, and are intended to
respond to a wide array of needs and concerns.
Family Stabilization
FS
Functional Family Therapy FFT
Multi-dimensional Family Therapy
MDFT
MultisystemicTherapy
MST
MultisystemicTherapy -Psych
MST
Juvenile Justice
Respite
An intensive crisis team will make a visit to the family’s home. After assessing the situation, the worker will help identify community-based supportive services and next steps. Over a period of no longer than 60 days, the worker will support family members as they execute a collaborative service plan.
FFT consists of a small team of highly trained therapists, with a maximum caseload of ten families, which provides therapy in the home. Therapy takes place over an intensive four-month period including 30 one-hour therapeutic sessions.
MDFT is a family-based treatment approach for adolescents with substance abuse and associated mental health and behavioral problems. A small team of trained therapists delivers MDFT. Treatment takes place in a combination of in-home, in-school, and in-clinic sessions over the course of two to five months.
MST is a therapeutic intervention, offered by a small team of highly trained therapists, with a maximum caseload of six families. The team provides therapy to an entire family in the home over a period of four months. Therapists visit the home multiple times per week, and available by phone 24 hours
MST Psych is
High-Intensity
therapeutic
intervention.
Youth must be at
risk of out-of-
home placement;
and has
significant
psychiatric
service needs.
Respite Care is an adaptation of the evidence based model, Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC). This program is for youth who are most at risk of placement or detention. Respite is a 21-Day non-mandated program.
Annual Stats
2016 SummaryFAP engaged 5, 552 youth/families citywide. The following is the
breakdown per Borough• Queens 1,080• Brooklyn 1,430• Bronx 1,944
• Staten Island 418• Manhattan 680
Racial Disparity 2016
Asian 128Black 2,729Latino 2,225
White 276Other 254
Total 5,552
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
Asian Black Latino White Other
Ages of Youth 2016 Data
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
Under 9 Age 9 Age 10 Age 11 Age 12 Age 13 Age 14 Age 15 Age 16 Age 17 18 & Older
22 11 2362
168
400
996
1456
1547
788
59
Under 9 Age 9 Age 10 Age 11 Age 12 Age 13 Age 14 Age 15 Age 16 Age 17 18 & Older
Gender/Sexual Orientation
Male54%
Male LGBTQ5%
Female45%
Female LGBTQ2%
Intersex 1%
Male 2972
Male LGBTQ 15
Female 2482
Female LGBTQ 81
Intersex 2
Total 5552
Family Support CenterFAP has a Family Support Center located in the South Bronx which launched in Spring of 2017. Instead of focusing only on the youth and what services the youth needs, DYFJ is looking at the family holistically and bring in programming that could address the needs of the parent as well. We would like to create a multi-service, one-stop space for youth and their families. Services and workshops could be brought in to address specific needs of the youth and families to include:
The space has been designed to be welcoming for the families and create a “stress-free” environment, where families could get the help they need. By creating a space in the communities where these families live and where families can get many of their needs met without having to go to several different offices, we anticipate that the families will experience working with ACS in a completely different way and be more receptive to the services that we offer.
Vocational/educational
Services
Mentoring for youth and
parents
Housing Assistance
Employment Services
FAP on the Move
ROSES (Resilience, Opportunity, Safety, Education, Strength) is a youth based, voluntary, community based advocacy program for female youth between the ages of 12 and 17 who are at any level of involvement in the juvenile justice system. Youth will be randomly assigned to Advocates who will work with the youth for 12 weeks twice a week.
Collaboration with ROSES
Expanding MST Psych
Advocacy / Coaching Program This will be an intensive wraparound advocacy services model for youth, and their families, who have come in contact with, or are at risk of coming into contact with the juvenile justice system.
The program will provide intensive services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to youth residing in each of the five (5) boroughs of New York City. The advocates/life coaches recruited to work in the program will come from the same communities (or close proximity) where the youth and family reside.
The target population to be served is youth between the ages of 10 and 17, who are at risk of a PINS petition/remand, at risk of being placed on a juvenile delinquency petition, scheduled to be released and transitioning from a Non-
Secure Placement (NSP) or Limited Secure Placement (LSP) facility to
home on aftercare, or at risk of further involvement into the
juvenile justice system.
As mental health is a great challenge within our community, FAP is looking to expand MST Psych services citywide. This program provides a vast array of therapeutic services for youth and family that fit the criteria.
Contact Information
For more information about FAP, please contact:
Associate Commissioner:
Sara Hemmeter at [email protected]
212-442-6326
Assistant Commissioner:
Patricia H. Williams-Reeder at [email protected] 212-341-2650
Program Director
Jamall Jenkins at [email protected]
212-676-6758
Question & Answer