Healthy Boundaries Healthy Families: Supporting Effective Interventions for Youth with Sexual Behavior Problems

This program aligns with the Department’s priorities to combat victimization and enhance public safety. The Supporting Effective Interventions for Children With Sexual Behavior Problems and Adolescent Sex Offenders program supports communities in developing comprehensive, multidisciplinary approaches to provide a continuum of intervention and supervision services for youth with problematic and illegal sexual behavior as well as treatment services for their victims and families/caregivers. This program is authorized by Pub. L. No. 116-93, 133 Stat. 2317, 2410.

The Healthy Boundaries Healthy Families Project seeks to promote the safety and well-being of children and families, specifically the needs of children age 12 and younger who engage in problematic sexual behavior (PSB), as well as those of child victims and their families in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The goals and objectives will be achieved through the provision of targeted evidence-based treatment, collaborative multidisciplinary response, and specialized family support to ensure that offending youth, their victims, and families receive needed and effective treatment, coordinated care, and systems collaboration. The project has four components: (1) a comprehensive treatment program to address the needs of youth who engage in PSB through the provision of targeted evidence-based treatment (PSB cognitive behavioral therapy); (2) coordinated evidence-based treatment services for child victims and their families (trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy); (3) a dedicated multidisciplinary team composed of a full spectrum of professionals and child-serving systems that meets regularly to ensure communication and coordination of services and response, accountability, and public safety; and (4) enhanced case management and family advocacy to foster greater connection, support and engagement, and successful treatment completion. The project will serve 40 children and their families in year 1 (20 victim children, 20 acting children), and 60 children and their families in years 2 and 3 (30 victim children, 30 acting children per year). Treatment engagement and completion are expected to result in improved child and family functioning, reduced recidivism/re-offense and re-victimization, placement stability, and safe family reunification. CA/NCF