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The Marion County Superior Court’s recently developed juvenile intervention program is now open 24/7.
The Family Youth and Intervention Center, or FYI Center, first opened last fall, but it could only operate at select times pending state approval.
But after receiving the Indiana Department of Child Services emergency shelter care license earlier this month, the FYI Center has now been able to host juveniles past overnight, keeping them off the streets and out of the juvenile justice system.
“One of our key things that we’re prioritizing is prevention, and this offers an immediate, early opportunity for intervention and connection to resources,” said Tanya Terry, chief of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, at a press conference at the center on Wednesday. “It gives kids a chance to know that there are people who care about them, that their voice is going to be heard and that they’re loved.”
The FYI Center, which the court and DCS had been working to create for several years, is located at 25th Street and Keystone Avenue on the city’s east side, at the site of the old Court House Annex Building.
Eligible youth, those aged 12 to 17 who reside in Marion County, may find themselves at the center through a variety of pathways, such as referrals from local law enforcement agencies, including IMPD, and community service groups or by self-referral.
The FYI Center’s staff emphasizes that the center is outside the juvenile justice system and is rather intended to serve as an intervention meant to redirect youth away from detention.
“Here, they have freedom,” FYI Center Director Lety Martinez said at the Wednesday press conference.
According to the Sentencing Project, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for sentencing reform, youth who experience detention and the criminal justice system early are more likely to be incarcerated later in life.
A 2015 study of youths in Seattle, according to the Sentencing Project, found that those incarcerated during adolescence were nearly four times more likely to be incarcerated as an adult, compared with those who weren’t incarcerated as juveniles.
“That’s why it’s so important to steer kids away from the system in the first place and connect them to resources and supports so that that doesn’t happen,” Terry said of research more generally.
At the Center, youth are given space to learn, relax and engage in extracurricular activities, including basketball.
Several community partners have also provided books for the youth to read and hygiene and clothing items.
“I think for them [the youth], it’s a valuable time for them to see that someone cares about them, even if we’re not their family,” Martinez said.
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