WASHINGTON TIMES | Disarray at D.C. youth agency is endemic, records say

Most Ward 8 residents wouldn't find this report the least bit surprising. The lack of oversight is the primary reasons why many Ward 8 residents object to relocating more of these DYRS programs into residential neighborhoods already oversaturated with such poorly managed facilities. Those charged with managing these facilities are either ill equipped at best or negligent at worst.  I have never understood the practice of returning troubled youth -- with no new coping skills --  to the same challenging environment that caused them to get off track in the first place. What is that saying about insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? Really.

Go HERE to read the full Washington Times article by Jeffery Anderson.

Excerpt:

In relying on a practice of releasing youth into the community — by the hundreds, either before or after they have been sent to RTCs — DYRS has turned its monitoring and rehabilitation responsibilities over to a network of nonprofit providers that has proven inadequate in delivering behavioral-health services and drug-abuse treatment, according to Mr. Graham. 

This system was spotlighted in a WJLA-TV News series earlier this year that looked closely at the network of providers, known as D.C. Youthlink. The series showed that, despite millions of dollars distributed to grass-roots providers by the D.C. Children and Youth Investment Corp., a nonprofit agency that works closely with D.C. agencies to develop partnerships that expand and improve technical assistance, job training and educational opportunities, DYRS failed to protect against possible fraud and ensure that quality services were being offered. 

Without identifying any youth in particular, Mr. Williams pointed to DYRS efforts to obscure its shortcomings, such as placing a child with a third-grade reading potential into a workforce-development program, a service provider’s report on a youth’s activities that conflicted with the GPS data retrieved from the youth’s ankle bracelet, and the placement of an at-risk youth into the home of the youth’s mother who dealt drugs out of her house.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/6/disarray-at-dyrs-endemic-records-say/?page=2#ixzz2EfIzvAdv Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

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