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Since 1962, the Jacksonville Youth Sanctuary (JYS) has reached more than 5,000 children who were on the street, in detention centers, and without hope.  Many of these children were involved in the child welfare system, having been removed from their homes due to suffering abuse or neglect from their primary caretakers.  These young people in Jacksonville have been provided successful programming to keep them safe, stable, and healthy, and to enhance their ability to grow into mature, responsible and independent adults.

     JYS is dedicated to providing a safe, nurturing environment where youth live, learn, trust, and thrive.  The organization’s objectives include creating permanency for abused or neglected youth; providing case management services to ensure needs are met while in care; providing residential group home care that are as homelike as possible for youths with no other placement options; providing mental health counseling to assist youth to process emotional and behavioral issues arising from abuse, neglect, and separation from their primary caretakers.

     Youth in the care of the Jacksonville Youth Sanctuary are provided case management, legal services, and mental health counseling as they move through the child welfare system.  Most of the children (70-80%) are able to return home once their primary caretaker completes their court-ordered case plans.  Case plans normally involve caretakers learning new parenting techniques, receiving drug and alcohol counseling, and taking steps to rid their homes of the risks of abuse or neglect. 

   Some results that JYS has seen through the use of this comprehensive services milieu includes  

      the following:

Ø      75% of children identified as chronic runaways are in stable placements due to the innovation of JYS’ Runaway Pilot Project.

Ø      100% of children on Jacksonville Youth Sanctuary’s child welfare caseload were recorded and accounted for as of March 2006.

Ø      JYS children have spent an average of 344 days in the community, in appropriate settings and least restrictive environments possible due to the benefits of receiving mental health counseling and psychiatric care when necessary.

Ø      65% of children receiving JYS’ services milieu show an improvement in emotional, behavioral, and social functioning

     JYS is committed to changing our youths’ lives in a positive and effective way and wants to make its successful program available to an additional 500 to 600 young people and their parents each year in Northeast Florida. This strategic direction requires major program investments with much greater private donor support and significantly reduced government funding. An increase in private funding support to 75% (of the total annual budget) from 25%, with a reduction of government funding from 75% to 25%, will insure that JYS is able to achieve its strategic objectives of serving many more teens and their parents in our communities and at the national level. In order to generate these needed financial revenues on an ongoing, yearly basis and to become financially self-sufficient, effective fund-raising and product marketing programs need to be implemented.