Volunteers for Youth Justice

Volunteers for Youth Justice is a volunteer-based 501(c)(3) non-profit serving families in the Northwest Louisiana region. Volunteers for Youth Justice was established in 1981 with the goal of providing intervention services to children involved in the juvenile justice system. Volunteers for Youth Justice currently operates 8 program divisions: Youth Programs (Diversion), FINS (Families in Need of Services), TASC (Truancy Assessment Service Center) K-5 Truancy, TBRI® (Trust-Based Relational Intervention), CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), FRC (Family Resource Center, School-Based Resource Center (SRC) and the YEC (Youth Empowerment Center).  We are community supported, relying on individual and corporate private donors, grant opportunities, and fundraising events to secure support to carry out our mission. 

During 2024, volunteers assisted Volunteers for Youth Justice in providing services to over 10,000 children and served children of all ages, racial and socio-economic backgrounds throughout Northwest Louisiana. We are happy to share these outcomes from our 2024 annual report below:

• CASA volunteers devoted 4,571 hours and traveled 26,096 miles to support children, ensuring their voices were heard and their needs addressed.  

• Of 2,014 referrals received by the TASC program, only 3% of the elementary-aged children served required court intervention..

• 1,1357 students across four Caddo Parish schools were served by our School-Based Resource Center. Additionally, 

• 99 biological parents, foster parents, fictive kin, staff, community members, and TBRI® volunteers took part in Caregiver Training. 

• Teen Court received a total of 700 volunteer hours, with teen volunteers contributing 508 hours and adult volunteers providing 192 hours.

 • The Harbor received 155 cases referred from the community and and assisted 137 individual clients with resources and services. 

This is only a small snapshot of the many ways our programs and volunteers are working to change the landscape for at risk youth and their families in NWLA.