Involving stakeholders and the community is integral to Fulton County Juvenile Court’s mission: first, to protect children and the community in matters brought before the court, to rehabilitate children and restore families; and second, to create opportunities for the community, partners, and stakeholders to actively engage in this mission. In addition, Juvenile Court provides youth a menu of pro-social evidence based diversionary programming as alternatives to the traditional adjudicatory process, and as alternatives to probation/detention. Most of these programs are revenue neutral, and therefore rely on volunteers to serve as mentors, tutors, and active participants. For example, The Leaning Club is a Saturday diversion program that utilizes Atlanta University Center volunteers to tutor youth in core subjects. Likewise, the Citizen Review Panel is composed of trained citizen volunteers who review the status of children in DFCS custody to ensure reasonable efforts are being made to either reunite the child with their family or otherwise find a permanent home/placement.
