FSA In The Community - October 2017.

Family Service Association (FSA) is an active member of the Kane County Juvenile Justice Council (JJC). The council was established pursuant to the Juvenile Court Act of 1987 and the purpose is to have ongoing collaboration between agencies and programs to better address juvenile delinquency. Members of the council include agencies that provide substance abuse treatment, juvenile mentoring, pregnancy support, school districts, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), the State’s Attorney Office, Chief Judge’s Office, Juvenile Delinquency Court Judge, Public Defender, County Board, Sherriff’s Department, Court Services, Regional Office of Education, Kane County Chief of Police, Juvenile Officer’s Association and Kane County Bar Association. FSA contributes by providing information on adolescent mental health and linkage to our Mental Health Juvenile Justice Program.

FSA participates in the quarterly council meetings, the Information Sharing sub-committee, and the Juvenile Record Expungement sub-committee. The purposed of the Information Sharing sub-committee is to develop a needs assessment that is directly linked to a resource directory that will improve the linkage of juveniles to services. FSA was approved to start the pilot of this program through the Mental Health Juvenile Justice program. The Expungement Sub-committee is focused on developing a universal expungement package for the entire county. The goal is for all police departments to have the same expungement package to increase the access of information and remove some of the barriers to expunging juvenile records. This initiative came out of a study from the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission that found that less than one percent of cases eligible for expungement were expunged in the state of Illinois. FSA looks forward to our continued work with the Kane County Juvenile Justice Council and working towards improving the access of services for juveniles in our county.