SANTA CRUZ >> The Santa Cruz County Office of Education has teamed up with a network of local law enforcement and community-based organizations to launch a new countywide program that diverts justice-involved youth away from detention facilities and into the care of those providing rehabilitation and prevention services.

Project Achieving Success through Community, Education, and Nurturing Development, or ASCEND, was announced last week by education officials and seeks to change the paradigm around youth justice by deemphasizing incarceration and instead promoting diversion, tailored interventions and rehabilitation services.

“Project ASCEND reflects our collective—and data-driven—belief that every young person deserves the opportunity to grow, heal, and thrive,” county Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah said in a release. “By shifting from punishment to restoration and rehabilitation, we are building a system that recognizes the potential in our youth and invests in their futures through compassion, accountability, and community support.”

The project, guided by its priorities of accountability, competency building and community safety, has set four overarching goals:

• Improve school attendance and academic achievement.

• Reduce juvenile recidivism by 50% by 2028 using trauma-informed, restorative justice approaches.

• Divert 80% of eligible youth from the justice system into supportive services instead of detention or probation.

• Foster belonging and resilience among youth and families.

“Too often, young people become entangled in the justice system when what they really need is support, structure, and guidance,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff Chris Clark added in the release. “Project ASCEND allows us to step in early, connect youth with meaningful services, and build long-term public safety through compassion and accountability. This partnership marks a significant step forward in how we serve and support youth in our community.”

The program is designed for youth of ages 12 to 17 who have been charged with nonviolent misdemeanor offenses and are referred by law enforcement. After being contacted and accepted into the program, a youth specialist will be assigned to the entrant who will receive a comprehensive risk and needs assessment. In order to promote youth voice, family engagement, culturally responsive and trauma-informed practices, the youth will then participate in community service and restorative justice while being given access to counseling services such as mental health and substance use treatments.

After completing the program, participating youth will have no further legal action taken against them, according to the release.

Project ASCEND takes a page from Caminos Hacia El Éxito, another diversion program launched in 2012 from a partnership between the city of Watsonville, the Watsonville Police Department and neighboring nonprofit Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance. According to the release, 716 youth were referred to the Caminos program from June 2012 to June of last year. Of that total, 583 accepted services and 487 completed the program. The vast majority of the program’s graduates have not reoffended, with 445 of the 487 youth, or 91%, avoiding subsequent encounters with the law.

“PVPSA is proud to partner in this important work and expand our longstanding commitment to diversion services in the City of Watsonville to reach more youth and families across the county,” said CEO of Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance Jasmine Nájera. “ASCEND is about second chances and building a system that invests in the potential of every young person.”

County leaders now hope the new program will finally offer a reliable diversion program that is capable of producing similar trends when it comes to the many hundreds of youth that get involved in the local justice system every year. According to the release, 642 youth in Santa Cruz County were referred to the probation office due to arrests or citations from January 2023 to May 2024, with 311 of that total booked into Juvenile Hall.

But even without the ASCEND program, the county has reported significant progress in terms of limiting overall totals of incarcerated youth. Juvenile Hall officials told the Sentinel in May that the facility in Felton currently serves an average daily population of about eight or nine youth. That’s a 79% usage drop compared to 1997 numbers when the population was about 47.

The new countywide program is funded by a Proposition 47 Board of State and Community Corrections grant. In addition to the agencies already named, other collaborators that are supporting the program include police departments from Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Scotts Valley and Capitola, the county District Attorney, Santa Cruz County Office of the Public Defender, the Conflict Resolution Center of Santa Cruz County and Encompass Community Services.