Our Mission

We dedicate ourselves to working with juvenile offenders, their families, victims, and the community by utilizing evidence-based practices and balanced and restorative justice principles in an effort to protect the community, restore the victims, reduce the juvenile’s risk to re-offend and build competencies to promote long-tern behavior change. 

With the passage of Act 33 in 1995, Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Act was amended and the mission of Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system was redefined to include the goals of Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ). 

The BARJ Model outlines a new mission that requires the juvenile justice system to:

• Enable juvenile offenders to make amends to victim(s) and community
• Increase juvenile offenders’ competencies
• Protect the public through processes where victims, the community, and offenders are all active participants.

The Juvenile Justice System Enhancement Strategy initiative was launched in 2011 to enhance the capacity of Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system to achieve the goals of the BARJ model.  Juvenile justice stakeholders are called upon to employ evidence-based practices at every stage of the juvenile justice process, to make a commitment to data collection, analysis, and research, and to demonstrate a commitment to continuous quality improvements.