(Washington, DC) Today, the District of Columbia’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS), the District’s juvenile justice agency, released the DC YouthLink Quarterly Performance Report for the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2012. DC YouthLink, a non-profit coalition of organizations, has partnered with DYRS to reintegrate juvenile offenders into their communities by providing a host of services and supports to the youth and their families. DYRS is now reporting data on re-conviction rates, workforce development and educational outcomes for the DC YouthLink initiative.

“Our partnership involves a significant amount of oversight and monitoring of the services our youth receive in the community,” said Neil Stanley, DYRS Director. “Transparency is important to our investment. By consistently reporting our data and adding new areas to monitor, we can strengthen our outcomes.”

An explanation of the new program areas being monitored include:

• Re-Conviction Rates: In the three Quarters, since DYRS began tracking arrests in April of 2011, 83 percent of DC YouthLink enrollees have been in community-based placements without being found guilty of a new offense.
• Workforce Development Outcomes: youth attaining employment, youth maintaining employment, youth earning professional certifications and youth participating in internships. In the first Quarter of FY 2012, 15 youth earned new, unsubsidized employment.
• Educational Outcomes: youth achieving a high school credential and youth enrolling in post-secondary education. During the reporting period, seven youth earned a high school credential.

Other highlights in the report include a continued downward trajectory in abscondence rates and an almost two fold increase in the number of youth receiving mental health and substance abuse services.

ABOUT DYRS: The District of Columbia’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) is the District’s juvenile justice agency. DYRS improves public safety by giving court-involved youth the opportunity to become more productive citizens by building on the youths’ and families’ strengths in the least restrictive most homelike environment consistent with public safety. DYRS seeks to incorporate best practices and promising approaches to create the nation's best strength-based, data-driven juvenile justice agency.