Dallas County Youth with Sexual Behavior Problems Program

The Youth with Sexual Behavior Problems (YSBP) Program provides funding to support the development of effective treatment programs for youth with sexual behavior problems and their child victims and provide intervention and supervision services for the offending youth. The models to be developed include a multidisciplinary approach and provide intervention and supervision services for youth (ages 10-14) with sexual behavior problems, their child victims and their families.

The Dallas County Juvenile Department (DCJD) and the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center (DCAC) are partners in a collaboration recognizing the benefits of a coordinated and holistic approach to treating youthful offenders with sexual behavior problems (SBP), their victim and their families. For over 25 years, both organizations have provided evidence-based treatments and services to youth in Dallas County. DCJD is the first agency to offer direct services for most juvenile offenders and their families, while DCAC is the first point of contact for children who have been sexually abused. Many youth within this population lack the necessary services that promote healing, recovery and rehabilitation. The Dallas County Juvenile Department, in conjunction with the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center, seeks to provide a continuum of care for young juveniles with SBP by utilizing a multidisciplinary, holistic approach that treats youth with SBP, the survivor and their families in an effort to promote victim restoration, recovery and rehabilitation. To accomplish this, the Dallas County Juvenile Department, in conjunction with the Dallas Children's Advocacy Center, seeks to enhance the YSBP multidisciplinary team by adding DCAC agencies and providing advanced, professional training, in evidence-based solutions (PSB-CBT and Reunification) specifically for the treatment of youth with SBP, and their families. Both agencies seek therapists to address youth with SBP, their victims, and their families. One therapist, under DCJD, will be responsible solely for providing psychological services (TF-CBT) and advocating for the inter-familial victim and their family, who are not able to access DCAC services due to various circumstances, such as a lack of accessible transportation. Finally, the second therapist, who will be designated as a specialist in problematic sexual behavior and managed by DCAC, will provide psychological services to juvenile offenders between 10-14 years old who are either never charged or whose charges are dropped. In addition, psychological services will be provided to young children under the age of 10 who have been identified as having problematic sexualized behavior or have clinical elevation in sexual concerns. The Dallas County YSBP program aims to serve approximately 140 youth per year and their families over the course of the grant period. CA/NCF