Bernalillo County: Juvenile Justice Diversion Services for Youth with Battery on a Household Member Misdemeanor Offense

Bernalillo County is seeking to support Offerors to provide Diversion Services for Youth with Battery on a Household Member Misdemeanor Offense. A diversion program is used to divert youth with misdemeanor charges from formal juvenile justice system involvement. Diversion services will be provided to youth who are first, second, or third time misdemeanor offenders with battery on a household member charges, which includes parents, guardians, brothers, sisters or someone else living in the home in such as grandparents, cousins, boyfriends, or girlfriends. Other battery charges, such as those involving a boyfriend or girlfriend not living in the home may be referred at the discretion of Juvenile Probation.

Diversion programs work most effectively when they have strong intake criteria for the target population their program serves, are culturally responsive and they connect youth and families to community based resources for sustained support. This diversion program will be required to identify family challenges and provide referrals to parents/guardians as necessary for other resources in the community that could lessen familial tension in the future. Diversion services need to be available within 2-3 weeks of referral from Juvenile Probation and it is suggested that the services for battery (domestic violence) on a household member be a rolling or open circle/class enrollment.

Objectives are to:

• Provide diversion services to youth who have been referred for a misdemeanor battery on a household member offense and who are screened by CYFD Juvenile Probation
• Identify family challenges and provide referrals
• Support personal accountability and interpersonal skill-building
• Explore skills to help manage the strong emotions that can influence youth behavior
• Introduce at-risk youth and their families to positive pathways and resources in the community so that they can overcome future challenges without having to resort to involvement in the Juvenile Justice System
• Eliminate referrals to Children’s Court Attorney for three or fewer misdemeanors and provide gender specific, culturally responsive informal diversion

This Diversion program will be funded through a fee for service schedule. The schedule includes a restorative justice type billing format which includes payment for a pre-circle, circles/classes and a post circle for every youth served. Classes will be considered Circles and will include a Group Preliminary Inquiry, conducted by a representative from the Juvenile Probation office, for youth involved in the program. The Offerer will work with Juvenile Probation to develop a referral process and a time for the Preliminary Inquiry to take place.

The Scope of Work is as follows:

1. Identified target population: Offeror is responsible for serving target population of youth who are charged with a misdemeanor battery on a household member (includes parents, guardians, grandparents, siblings, or others living in the home with the offender and can include boyfriend or girlfriend not living in the home).
2. Best, promising, evidence based practice: Programs funded must adhere to state statute which requires state funding to be used only for promising, best, or evidence based practice approach for programming.
3. Experience/Staffing/Logistics capacity: This is a fee for service proposal. The fees are intended to fund all the service delivery aspects of the program and the required data and invoice submittal. The agency is required to accomplish the data submittal and invoicing as well as the rest of the Diversion services as outlined in the Offerer’s proposal.
4. Circle group/programming or class requirements: The Offerer will conduct “continuous” Group Diversion classes for youth with a Misdemeanor Battery (Domestic violence) on a household member. Youth must be served within 2-3 weeks of their referral to the agency.
5. A policy, forms and procedures manual is a required deliverable. At minimum the items below are required to be addressed and included in the policies, forms and procedures manual. These items will be audited as part of an annual audit.

Note: See solicitation for a more detailed description of the scope of services.

Amount: The program will be funded through a fee for service schedule. A limited amount of additional funding, not included in this RFP, is available on a case by case basis for purchasing curricula, conducting staff training and obtaining other materials pertaining to the program and services.

Eligibility: An Offeror is defined as any person, corporation, or partnership who chooses to submit a proposal.

Link: http://www.bernco.gov/general-services/request-for-proposals.aspx

Note: A non-mandatory pre-proposal Skype meeting will be held on April 24, 2020 at 10:00 am.

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