Launched in 2010, DHS’ Youth Services Division (YSD) offers free services and support for youth to strengthen families, mitigate risks related to housing instability, improve school attendance, stabilize youth in crisis, and decrease court involvement. YSD includes several flagship programs and engages youth, their families, community-based providers, and District agencies to address challenging behaviors and circumstances.
Partnership with other District agencies and community-based organizations is a key component of YSD’s work. District agencies such as the Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA), the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), the Department of Behavioral Health (DBH), Court Social Services (CSS), the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) often work collaboratively with YSD. In addition, YSD partners with a network of community-based service providers for housing, mentoring, behavioral health services, restorative justice programming, and other services that are part of and complement the YSD case management process.
The Youth Services Division includes five distinct programs:
- Alternatives to the Court Experience (ACE) Diversion Program*
- Parent and Adolescent Support Services (PASS) Program
- Strengthening Teens Enriching Parents (STEP) Program*
- Truancy Reduction Pilot Program**
- Youth Homeless Services
*Note: Referrals are NOT accepted to ACE and STEP
**Note: Referrals for the Truancy Reduction Program are only accepted from Anacostia HS and KIPP Legacy HS
YSD also includes five specialty services:
- Rise Individual Therapy Program
- Teen Parent Assessment Program (TPAP)
- PASS Intensive Case Management (ICM)
- PASS Functional Family Therapy (FFT)
- PASS Crisis and Stabilization Team (PCAST)
Youth Tenets
The following core beliefs drive YSD’s work. We do everything in our power to uphold these tenets in all our interactions with youth and their families.
Every youth is an individual.
We recognize the support and celebrate their unique needs, values, and strengths in order to respectfully and effectively serve them.
Youth deserves to be part of a family, traditional or non-traditional.
We seek to understand, engage, and support those closest to them.
Youth deserve the opportunity to tell their story without being judged.
We listen to them with an open mind and heart.
Youth are growing and changing and the circumstances that brought them to my attention do not define them.
We strive to empower youth to define and live their own emotionally, educationally, and physically healthy lives.
Youth develop more positively when not involved in the juvenile justice system.
We recognize that testing boundaries, rules, and laws are a normal part of adolescent development. Furthermore, we have an obligation and commitment to do everything we can to keep youth from becoming justice-involved.
Positive childhood experiences have a tremendous impact on youths’ long-term emotional, psychological, and physical health.
We work to identify and address past trauma experienced by youth as well as minimize potential future trauma.
Each moment in a youth’s life is vitally important.
A sense of urgency, understanding, and care drives all that we do.
Office Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:15 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Phone: (202) 698-4334
Fax: (202) 478-5747
Contact TTY: 711